St Joseph’s School, in the Tasmanian west coast town of Queenstown, finished off Term 2 with an NRL Sporting Schools program – a sport most kids at the school had never been introduced to before!
Even the seasonably cold and rainy weather couldn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the 96 students from Prep to Year 6.
The students all had a fantastic time, picking up the basic skills quickly, scoring lots of tries, showing off some post try celebrations and playing games with small teams. Some previous touch football clinics at the school were evident with students easily picking up passing techniques and attack/defence skills. The younger students also had a ball, running around as busy bees and dodging Farmer Des to score tries.
PE Teacher, Jessica Randall selected an NRL package through Sporting Schools as she was keen for the students at her school to try a new sport, saying, “As a PE Teacher working in a rural school, it is great to have something like Rugby League visit to allow our kids the chance to learn some new skills from a sport they are interested in. We were lucky enough to have Jodie and Des come to our school and help deliver a session with our students here in Queenstown. Both the students and I had a great time and it was fantastic to see so many students having a go.”
The students will continue the program with their teacher and are armed with lots of resources to help them along the way. It was so rewarding to see so many smiles from students learning new skills and who clearly couldn’t wait to learn and participate in more!
Following the program, Asher from year 5 /6 commented “I really, really, really liked it! The coaches were both really nice and I really hope that they can come back any time this year or the next. If the program went on forever, I would do it everyday!”
Find out how you can run a Rugby League program at your school.
