St Mary MacKillop offers a wide range of sporting opportunities to our students. Whilst we certainly support, encourage and are proud of those students who achieve higher representative honours we see our main role as providing sporting opportunities for all students, allowing them to compete in safe, supportive environments. We look to build the game awareness, skill levels and confidence of all our students.
School Based Carnivals.
At St Mary MacKillop we hold our own carnivals for athletics, cross country and swimming. All year levels compete at athletics and cross country. Swimming is restricted to our 8-12 years students. These days are lots of fun and parents are always welcome. Trophies and age champion medals are awarded but there is also a strong emphasis on participation with everyone contributing points towards their team's success.
Year 5 & 6 Carnival Days
Our Year 5 and 6 students are also involved in interschool carnival days. Four carnival days are held each year, roughly one per term. We are currently in the Tuesday cluster with 10 other Bayside state and Catholic schools and compete in the following sports; touch football, netball, soccer, team handball, volleyball and Oztag. All students are selected in a team to play the sport of their choice. Again, we aim to give the students an opportunity to play a competitive team sport within a supportive environment. Rules are often modified, especially for juniors, and coaching will occur throughout games if required.
District Sports Association
Our school is a member of the Bayside District School Sports Association and as such our students have the same access to district representative sport and representative pathways to Metropolitan East and State carnivals as the state schools in our area. Students become eligible to compete in these carnivals in the year that they turn 10. Our school sends teams to the District athletics, cross country and swimming carnivals.
As a member of the Bayside District our students also have the opportunity to make district representative sporting teams in an ever-growing number of sports (23 at last count). Selection in these teams provides pathways for the more gifted athletes to compete at an elite level. Several of our students have competed at both a state and national level.
Bayside Catholic Schools Sports Association
In an effort to forge greater links with the Catholic Schools in our area, our school is also a member of the Bayside Catholic Sports Association. This is a group of seven schools from the Bayside and Wynnum areas. We currently compete in swimming, cross country and athletics carnivals. Whilst competitive in nature, there is a strong focus on participation at these carnivals with teams often being greater than 70 students. The swimming and athletics carnivals include students from 9-12 years. The cross country carnival even includes an under 8 division.