swim carnival

December marks the end of the school year in Australia. There are so many fun activities during this month when you combine Christmas parties along with end of the year celebrations! One of the end of the year activities is the Swim Carnival. I compared it to Field Day back home.

Before I tell the details of the carnival, let me share a little background information. For PE in Term 4, the children participated in swimming. Now, before we moved to Bulimba, my children’s idea of swimming was playing Marco/Polo in their grandparent’s pool.  They were thrown for a bit of a loop when they actually had to swim in a lane, doing a particular stroke.  

Another tidbit is that the children were placed into “houses” when they arrived at the school in August.  There are three houses: Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury.  These “houses” compete throughout the year in different activities. For the swim carnival, the children were separated into their particular houses to swim and watch the races. The children made signs, painted their faces, and cheered loudly for their team members. It sounds like it could get nasty, but while the students are all very competitive, they also show great sportsmanship!

At the carnival, the students competed in different races (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle). When they weren’t competing, they were cheering on their teammates. Towards the end of the day, the staff competed against some of the Year 7 students. I loved watching my children compete, but the staff/student race was very entertaining! One of the staff members dressed in complete Darth Vader mode. Watching him attempt to swim with that mask and the suit weighing him down was a hoot! I also noticed two “staff” members that seemed to be extremely fit. Ends up they were two members of the Australian Olympic team that participated in the London Olympics. I thought that was very cool!  With an unfair advantage, the staff won that race. At the end of the swim carnival, Team Jupiter (Hannah Grace’s team) ended up taking the trophy home. I was impressed when the team captain gave the speech after receiving the trophy. She congratulated her team members, but also congratulated the members of the two other teams by having the entire school shout “hip hip hooray” for each team. At the days end, my two little marco/polo swimmers brought home: 2 gold ribbons, 2 silver ribbons, and 2 bronze ribbons.   HIP HIP HOORAY!