St Patrick's Kaiapoi

Tamariki at St Patrick's Kaiapoi experience a range of sporting events across the school whilst enjoying success at representative level with our swimming, cross country and athletics programmes. A special thanks must go to all parents who help out with these different events - their constant support for supervising, coaching and transporting to these different sports means that we can continue to offer these different opportunities for our tamariki. Miss Jessie Conlan is our amazing Director of Sport and does a wonderful job at organisng many amazing sporting opportunities.

Swimming

Swimming lessons are done each year in a 2 week block. It is great to see our students practising and becoming more water confident before competing in the school Swimming Sports at Kaiapoi Aquatic Centre. Some of our students then represent at the Pegasus Zone Swimming Champs and then on to the North Canterbury and Canterbury Primary Schools Swim meets.

Cross Country

Again another important event on the sporting calendar. In term 2 it is incorporated with a shared school Mass with St Joseph's Rangiora in Rangiora. Rangiora Showgrounds is the venue for the course and it is great to collaborate and organise together with our fellow North Canterbury Catholic Primary School. Staff, students and parents from both schools enjoy this race. Some students then go on to to represent at Pegasus zones and sometimes at the Canterbury Champs.

Athletics

Hosted at Kaiapoi High School in term 4, Athletics Day is the final big event on the sporting calendar. Another great sporting event in which all the tamariki show great determination and a positive attitude to run, jump and throw to their best ability. We have many students qualify to compete at the Pegasus Zones and all give it their best at this competition and represent our school with great pride.

Winter Sport

In years 5-8 all students compete in winter sport in Hockey, Soccer, Rugby or Netball. This is another highlight for the students in these year groups and they enjoy competing against other North Canterbury schools on a Friday afternoon throughout Term 2 and 3. These teams also compete in the North Canterbury one day tournament as well.

Sport Coaches

A highlight for all the students here at St Patrick's School are the North Canterbury Sport coaches. We are very lucky to have these enthusiastic, engaging coaches who really know how to teach to all levels within the school, exposing students to many different games. They have helped them learn many new games such as tennis, team building games, invasion games, Gaga Dodgeball and Ki O Rahi. Many new skills such as correct kicking, throwing and catching of balls in different types of sports are taught, whilst helping us teachers prepare students for different athletic events. The sport Coaches come and runa 30 min lesson per class once a fortnight.

Other Sporting Events

Sports and events such as Cricket carnival day, North Canterbury Sport spectacular, Junior Cricket from year 0-3, Miniball, Korfball and tennis lessons are all a part of the sporting fabric here at St Patrick's Kaiapoi. It is a great way to bring our community and whānau together and it is great to see our tamariki involved in a variety of sporting events.

Many of our students benefit from the input of Sport Canterbury. With the Top Team event being run on St Patrick’s Day, which all the tamariki enjoy and is a great tuakana teina approach to being active. Year 4-8 getting involved in the Tough Kids event is always awesome to see. It is great to see our kids out there giving it a good go.