On Monday 22 February, Years 7-12 students participated in our annual school 7-12 Swimming Carnival. We were blessed with an absolutely amazing day at Ripples Penrith with students competing in a range of events throughout the day.

There were a number of students who achieved personal bests on the day in their chosen events and we would like to give a special mention to Lily Jackson who set a new School Record in the 12-Year Girls 50m Butterfly and Adelaide Telfer who set a new School Record in the 18-Year Girls 50m Breaststroke.

We have 39 students successful in qualifying to attend the CSS Nepean Zone Secondary Swimming Carnival which will take place on Wednesday 3 March 2021 at Mt. Druitt Pool. All information will be sent to those students’ parents and caregivers shortly.

A huge congratulations to Year 5 student Coco Purcell. Last year she trialled and successfully made the CSSA Tennis Team, and on Monday competed at the CIS Tennis Trials. Coco represented CSSA (and PCS) excellently, winning THREE of her matches! We are extremely proud of Coco and her efforts.

Joshua De Martin Year 6 Teacher

On Monday 8 February 2021, students participated in our annual Years 3-6 Swimming Carnival. We were blessed with an absolutely amazing day at Ripples Penrith, with students competing in a range of events throughout the day.

There were a number of students who achieved personal bests on the day in their chosen events. We would like to give a special mention to Olivia Galea, who set an astonishing five school records which included: 11 Year Girls 50m Freestyle, 50m Breaststroke, 50m Backstroke, 50m Butterfly and 100m Freestyle.

Twenty nine students have also been successful in qualifying to attend CSSA Nepean Zone Primary Swimming Carnival which will take place on Thursday 18 February 2021 at Glenbrook Swimming Pool. All notes and information will be sent to those students and their parents shortly.

On Wednesday, some students from Years 5 and 6 competed in a CSSA Primary Sport Cricket Gala day. With limited training, the boys were nervous yet ready for the competition.

Congratulations to the boys for being runners up in the competition! We are very proud of their efforts. A big thank you to staff member Mr Whale, as well as parents, Mrs Wild and Mr Prince, who assisted on the day.

Joshua De Martin Year 6 Teacher

Coco Purcell is a young tennis champion, winning many matches and competitions, in and around Sydney. During January this year, she travelled to Ballina and Tweed Heads to compete in a Junior Tennis Tournament in both Doubles and Singles tennis matches.

She won many of her games, competing against some older students to place 9th overall. Coco trains six to seven times per week and absolutely loves playing tennis.

We are so proud of her achievements.

The School’s Uniform Shop has received new stock of our PCS branded swimwear and caps. These items are not compulsory, however we encourage students who are likely to compete at Triathlon/Biathlon, Zone and State events to consider purchasing the swimwear. All students are welcome to wear the PCS swimwear for PCS swimming carnivals and extra-curricular events.

Our students look amazing in the swimwear and I’m pleased to advise there has been no price increase since 2019.

If you have any questions regarding the PCS swimwear please contact Sharon Tuft on 4737 4306 or via sharon.tuft@pcs.nsw.edu.au

Coco Purcell in Year 4 recently competed at the 2020 CSSA Primary Tennis Gala Day, an event that was originally cancelled and then put back on after restrictions were lifted.

Coco had a great day at this event where she played eight matches in her Year 3/4 Girls draw, which she won all matches very comfortably.

Coco won against a student from Oran Park Anglican College winning 6-2, and in the finals, she played against a student from Mamre Anglican School and won 6-0. 

The CSSA Primary State Swimming Championships were held at Blacktown Aquatic Centre on Monday 16 March. PCS sent a team of 20 students along on the day after a successful Zone Carnival for many of our students.

Throughout the day, PCS students gave their best and some students came very close to coming in the top three and qualifying for the CIS Primary Swimming Championships. Many of these students also swam some great times, improving on their times from the Zone Carnival.

A magnificent effort from our students, especially for Lily Jackson - Year 6, Tyler Brown - Year 5, Adam Marczak - Year 6, Ellyse Currall - Year 4, and Jake Kennedy - Year 5,  who had very full programs after qualifying for state in five to six events. Tyler came 4th overall in the 11 Year Boys 50m Backstroke

The year has started off with a splash with four swimming carnivals over the past five weeks of Term 1. We have seen some great school spirit, awesome results, and a number of new records across these carnivals.

YEARS 3 TO 6 SWIMMING CARNIVAL

The 2020 Years 3-6 (and a few Year 2s) had their swimming carnival in Week 3 at Ripples St Marys. The forecast for the day was overcast with the chance of a storm. However, we started the day with clear weather and the students all turned up enthusiastic and ready for a great day. Despite a slightly later start, we got underway and it was great to see so many students having a crack at the early events. We saw some records go throughout the day, and it was awesome to see so many kids cheering each other on.

Recently, PCS Middle School students, Isaac Cavanagh (Year 8), David Quinn (Year 7), and Xavier Cavanagh (Year 6), played in the Ice Hockey NSW State Grand Final for under 14s. The three boys have been playing for the Flyers Ice Hockey Under 14s PeeWee Team during the 2019 season, and after a long season of training and battling hard every week, they played in the State Grand Final claiming the Silver Medal. 

The Flyers team was coached this year by PCS teacher Mr Cavanagh. Despite losing 2-1 in the Grand Final, all three boys played hard and met new personal goals. This has led to Isaac, David and Xavier being selected to the NSA Selects Team to compete in an International Ice Hockey Tournament held in Melbourne in November 2019. 

Congratulations to Isaac, David and Xavier and best of luck in Melbourne!!

If your child has outgrown last season’s swimwear, or you would like to purchase PCS branded swimwear for the first time, we have a few items in stock available for purchase as follows:

Female Sports Back One Piece

Girls 10 x 1

Ladies 10 x 3

David Quinn in Year 7 has won, with his NSW Ice Hockey Team, the Australian Nationals U/13 Championship.

David was the top defenceman point scorer at the championships with four goals and more importantly, seven assists and no goals scored against the team on his shift.

Well done David!!

Over the past four years I’ve had the pleasure of coaching and mentoring the PCS PSSA Netball Teams.

One of my favourite parts of coaching is watching the girls become brilliant little netballers and young ladies. We finished off the last game of PSSA with two wins and a draw! The girls have been training on Mondays and Wednesdays every week and they have worked hard all season to improve their skills. I am so proud of each and every one of the girls and I will definitely miss them all next year!

The best of luck for the future girls.  It’s been my absolute pleasure being a small part of your netball journey.

Year 9 student, Elise Ginger, recently trialled at the AFL All Schools day, and was selected in the NSW All Schools U15 AFL Team to compete at the School Sport Australia AFL Championships. Elise will be competing in Tasmania for a week-long carnival (Friday 27 July to Friday 3 August) against other Australian states.

Elise loves her AFL and has been playing for four years, progressing each year as her skills get better and better. Elise played her best game yet at the AFL All Schools day, and she is tipped by her coaches to have the ability to play in the AFL womens competition in the future. This is an amazing opportunity for Elise to be recognised and maybe even be given a signed contract to progress to a National level.

Congratulations on an amazing achievement Elise! 

Last week, Year 9 and Year 10 Physical Activity and Sports Studies classes had a visit from the Wheelchair Roadshow, an interactive session involving Wheelchair Basketball and some education about various sports for people with disabilities.

It was a great session with the students all participating in some games of Wheelchair Basketball, and Ava Edwards from Year 5 also joining the group to show her moves in her own chair. Students learnt of the various challenges facing people in wheelchairs as well as the increasing opportunities that are being developed for people to be involved in a wide range of sporting activities.

Some of the games were hard fought between the Year 9 and Year 10 teams and the games got faster and faster as they became used to moving in the wheelchairs.

Last week, PCS had four students representing NSW at the National Christian Schools Games. The Games are held every two years (for Under 16 teams), and this year they were held on the Gold Coast. The students competing from PCS were:

Basketball - Jessica Harrison and Ella Edwards

Netball - Isabella Hall

Tennis - Thomas Nelson.

The Penrith Valley Sports Foundation has awarded Isaac Cavanagh the Junior Sportsperson Award for the month of February for his development and skill in Ice Hockey. Isaac, in Year 8, plays for the Flyers Ice Hockey Club in Penrith and has been playing for five years now as a goal tender for his team. 

Earlier this year, he travelled with the Australian team as the goal tender for the International Peewee Ice Hockey Tournament in Quebec Canada.

Congratulations on your achievements Isaac.

PCS sent 25 students along to the CSSA Secondary State Swimming Carnival which was held at the Sydney International Aquatic Centre in Homebush. Our students all had a great crack in their races and many students swam some personal best times. They interacted well with each other and with students from other schools within Nepean Zone. Many students jumped into relay teams to fill spaces left by students who were not there, which was awesome.

Matthew Galea (Year 12) performed exceptionally well, winning all his races – 50m Freestyle, 50m Butterfly, 50m Breaststroke, 50m Backstroke, 100m Freestyle, 200m Freestyle and 200m Individual Medley and was named 18 Year Boys Age Champion.

Matthew also broke two Records – well done Matt!

Congratulations to all our students who represented PCS at the recent Nepean Zone Swimming Carnivals. Everyone competed with sportsmanship and determination to put in their best efforts. It was fantastic to see so many personal best performances, in addition to many places achieved and records broken. We have two large teams heading to CSSA State Carnivals, with many students achieving 1st, 2nd or 3rd places.

PRIMARY ZONE (Years 3 to 6)

The 2019 Nepean Zone Primary Swimming Carnival was held at Glenbrook Swimming Pool in Week 3 this term. PCS sent a strong team of around 20 swimmers. The day was a bit wet to start and the ground was quite boggy but that did not dent the enthusiasm of the PCS swimmers. Our students all performed outstandingly well on the day, dominating in most events, including winning three out of four relays and 2nd in the other relay. We had a number of new records set by Olivia Galea in Year 3 and several age champions named on the day as well as PCS winning the overall Zone Champion School for the day.

PCS Middle School students Isaac Cavanagh (Year 8) and David Quinn (Year 7) recently returned from representing Australia as part of the Australian Ice Crocs Ice Hockey team at the 60th Anniversary International Peewee tournament in Quebec, Canada. This tournament attracts ice hockey teams and players from all around the world. 

The Australian Ice Crocs, consisting of players from all over Australia, didn't train together until they reached their pre-training camp in Troy, New York. Although they had been training, they had not played competition games since September. This was in stark contrast to the majority of the other teams who are still in their competition season and are used to playing together.

Despite this, the Ice Crocs did extremely well, and became the first Ice Crocs team in over five years to win a tournament game in the knockout round, and became the first Ice Crocs team ever to make it to the semi-finals (teams in previous years had won exhibition games but not a tournament game). Despite not advancing past the semi-finals they took consolation that the two teams they lost games to were the eventual gold and silver medallists in their Division.