Please click on the link to read the School Sport Policy for teachers and coaches.
School Sport
Sport has an important place in the curriculum at St Martins School as we believe it contributes significantly to the physical, social and personal development of students.
The school has a variety of facilities including basketball and netball courts, a marked football field, an indoor hall and well grassed playing fields.
Students are encouraged to enter into our three main school events.
The first event of the year is always the school swimming sports which is strongly contested at Wharenui Pool – with the top two students in each event qualifying for entry into the South Zone Swimming Sports. Once students reach this level, competition increases for a place in the South Zone team to compete at the Canterbury Primary Schools event.
The second major event of the year is the school duathlon which is held at Hansen Park. The top four students progress directly through to the Canterbury level as there is no zone event.
Leading into the colder months we have the school cross country. This event has a history of tradition at St Martins School. Each class competes with others in their syndicate to win the Darra Pin Trophy. The pin is from a ship named Darra. In 1951, the boat was beached at Quail Island, in Lyttelton Harbour. In April 1953, an attempt was made to destroy the vessel by the New Zealand Army. The only damage sustained was a blown out portion of one side. The vessel is still there. The school was given two sheer pins from the vessel and these were mounted onto trophies for St Martins School. Over the years, each syndicate has developed their own version of the trophy with the Year 4s having the Rolling Pin and the Year 3’s have a Split Pin. The trophy is awarded to the class in each syndicate who has the lowest amount of total points from their six best placed students. For example, 1st place earns 1pt and 7th place earns 7pts. The aim is to have the lowest amount.
The last event of the year sees our students compete in the school athletics day. The events are long jump, high jump, shot put, discus, sprints and the 1200 metre race. Students who place highly are able to pick three specialist areas to compete in at the South Zone Athletic Sports in the hope of qualifying through to the Canterbury event which is currently held in Ashburton.
Students also have the opportunity to represent our school in the Canterbury Triathlon.
The school also has some teams who play in the Friday night water polo competition at Jellie Park.
All of the above events are run for students from Year 5-8. The junior school has modified versions of these events, such as the Huff and Puff, which is the junior school equivalent of the cross country.
Team Sports – Thursday afternoon – Year 5/6 and 7/8
St Martins School also participates in the inter schools winter weekly sport competition that is run by Primary Sport Canterbury. Students can play either netball, rugby, hockey, football or basketball. The Year 7/8s and Year 5/6s play Thursday afternoons during winter. Below is the link for the Primary Sport Canterbury website, which has all the information (draws and maps) – http://www.primarysportscanterbury.org.nz/
For the link to the weekly draws only – http://drawsresults.sportsrunner.net/?org=PSC
We are also fortunate to receive specialist Sport Canterbury Programmes. This involves specialist sports coaches coming to our school and running coaching clinics for blocks of 4-6 weeks. These range from Touch Canterbury, Tennis in Schools programme, Golf in Schools, lawn bowls, softball and many others.
In the summer season students have the opportunity to play touch football for the school at the local Waltham Park schools competition.
Koru Games
This is a multi-day, multi-sport tournament for Year 7 & 8 students from South Island schools.
The sports usually included are Basketball, Football (soccer), Lawn Bowls, Netball, Swimming, Table Tennis, Touch and Volleyball. All sports will be hosted at Selwyn District venues.
Awards
Students are awarded certificates for placing in the top three at school events. Age Champion for each school event is awarded on a points based system.
At the end of the year, we present a number of Sports Awards. These are presented to students in Years 5/6 and 7/8 and is the school’s way of recognising excellence in that particular area.
Senior Swimming Champion
Female Cross Country Champion
Male Cross Country Champion
Male Athletics Champion
Female Athletics Champion
Best All Round Year 5/6 Sports Person
Best and Fairest Sports Award
The Bill Burgess Memorial Award (Best all round sports person)
