Sport

In addition to weekly PE lessons with Mr Hemus, all students take part in school sports. This is organised in the Junior, Middle and Senior class team with the emphasis being on participation and fair play.

There are some additional sporting opportunities made available to Year 5 & 6 students which involve competing against other schools. These include:

• Two Inter-school sports exchanges in term 1 with teams selected to play from the following sports; cricket, T-Ball, touch rugby and tennis. All Year 5 & 6 students were given the opportunity to sign up for team trials at the beginning of the year. Teams are reviewed for each exchange however, while we endeavour to take as many teams as possible to sports exchanges this is dependent on how many teams other schools put forward.

• Summer and Winter Field Days 

Houses at Victoria Avenue School

On enrolment, pupils are placed in one of four school houses – Kowhai, Pohutukawa, Karaka or Koromiko. The house system encourages interaction between senior, middle and junior pupils and provides a platform for leadership skills to develop in our senior pupils as they take up “house captain” roles. Families are grouped in the same houses.

House System

The House system helps foster a sense of community as it enables children to work together and make friends at all year levels. A feature of the house system is the competition between houses. The traditional school sports day is usually an inter-house competition. Spelling competitions and charity events are also often organised along inter-house lines. House points for behaviour and academic achievement are also totalled up for comparison between houses. One notable feature of the house system is the election of house captains from the senior school. It is their job to run the entire house, with staff assigned to the house serving as advisors and mentors. Thet are expectd to lead by example and to display qualities necessary for a position of responsibility: efficiency, initiative, reliability and a cheerful willingness to work hard.

Here are links for Codes of Conduct for participants, coaches, managers and supporters:

Codes of Conduct

VAS has codes of conduct for players, coaches, managers and spectators to which all participants in the sport are expected to adhere, see above

Netball and Water Polo

Victoria Avenue School students represent our school in Flippaball and Netball - see below for more information.

Queries

Queries can be directed to:

Cam Hemus – c.hemus@va.school.nz 

Netball Information

The netball season starts in term 2, information is sent out late in term 1 regarding registration for netball teams.

All players are welcome – no previous netball experience is required.  Please take the time to read the following outline so that you understand the format that Auckland Netball operates and how we manage netball at our school.

Game Times

All games are played at the AMI Auckland Netball Centre, St Johns.  Year 3-6 teams play on Thursday afternoons, starting mid May 

Game Format

• Year 3 and 4 teams play a modified five-a-side game on 2/3 of a netball court and players play all positions

• Year 5 & 6 teams play a modified six-a-side format on the full court with players playing all positions

Further information can be found on the Auckland Netball website 

Coaching

We rely on parent volunteers to coach and manage our teams.  Please indicate on the registration form whether you or someone you know would be able to provide assistance in either role throughout the season.  If we are unable to locate coaches, some teams may not be able to compete and registration fees may have to be refunded.

We have some coaching courses coming up in April and May run by NNZ. If you’d like to go to these, please email us and we can sign you up electronically. These will be free of charge or the fees covered for our wonderful coaches.

Practices

Coaches arrange one weekly practice before or after school in consultation with the netball co-ordinators to achieve a workable timetable for all teams.  Regular lunchtime practices cannot be accommodated due to space constraints.  Coaches who wish to practice more than once per week will consult with parents of their players before making a decision.

Winter Exchange

Year 5 and 6 players will be committed to playing netball for Tuesday Winter Exchanges and will not be eligible for other Winter Exchange teams.

Waterwolves (Flippaball & Minipolo) Information

Water Wolves is a fun water polo experience for kids aged 7-11 years old.

In addition to weekly games, players get time in the pool learning and practicing their Water Polo Skills.

Water Wolves is run by the Sea Wolf Water Polo Club out of St Cuthbert’s Aquatic Centre. It is run on a Sunday afternoon during the school term between 12:30pm – 3:30pm in one hour time slots. Please note Waterwolves runs year round i.e. every term, however you can choose whether you play 1, 2, 3 or 4 terms a year at the beginning of each term.

Each week teams have half an hour of water polo training and fundamentals (skills and drills) coached by a water polo coach who is in the water with the kids and a game against another school (some weeks trainings are run before games and some weeks  they are after) 

We have four teams playing Water Wolves currently in term 4. Two teams (Year 6 and Year 5) are playing minipolo (2m deep) and two teams (year 3 and year 4) playing flippaball (1.2m deep)

All players are welcome, no previous water polo experience is required however for year 5 and 6 students there is a prerequisite of being a strong and confident swimmer as they need to be able to swim for 20 minutes in a 2m deep pool.

Game Times

All games are played at the St Cuthbert's School Aquatic Centre on Sunday afternoons between 12:30pm and 3:30pm during term time Note: No games are played during long weekends and sometimes during waterpolo tournaments that require the use of St Cuthbert's pool)

Game Format

§    Year 3 and 4 teams play a modified Six -a-side game of flippaball with a size 1 ball in a smaller area (1/2 the width of the St Cuthbert's Pool) in a 1.2m deep pool which means they can touch the bottom. There are 5 field players and a goalie. Only the goalie is allowed to touch the ball with two hands, all other players are only allowed to touch the ball with one hand.

§    Year 5 & 6 teams play a modified six-a-side format of waterpolo in 2m deep pool across 3/4 the width of the St Cuthbert's pool with players playing all positions. There are 5 field players and a goalie. Only the goalie is allowed to touch the ball with two hands, all other players are only allowed to touch the ball with one hand.

Further information can be found on the Seawolf Website

Coaching / Managing

We rely on parent volunteers to coach and manage our teams although the skills / training sessions are taken by Seawolf waterpolo coaches who coach in the pool with the students.