Swimming Carnival and Pool Party

Aiden had a big day today. To celebrate how well everyone did with swimming lessons, the school held a swimming carnival (a swim meet). For the past two weeks Halls Gap Primary, along with neighbouring Pomonal Primary School, have been taking swimming lessons everyday.

The students braved a number of cool days in the pool (Aiden’s wetsuit was put to good use) but the weather was fine today. Pomonal and Halls Gap school do a number of activities together through out the year and the students are divided into 2 houses: Zumstein (yellow) and McKenzie (blue). A number of parents were on hand to cheer on the houses. When the students were not in the pool for their races, they were busy cheering on their team-mates, encouraging them to do their best to earn points for their houses. I was very impressed by the great school spirit and enthusiasm all the students showed. Notice Aiden is showing his school spirit by wearing his team colour, hence the shorts over the wetsuit.

The whole swimming carnival and swimming laps was a new thing for Aiden. Even though Aiden was more than a little concerned when he was told he needed to swim across the pool, racing against the others in his grade and having never swam across the pool before and having just learnt how to dog paddle, he was all for giving it a go. Aiden’s concerns were soon put to rest when it was decided that the three beginners could use a noodle with older students in the water to help them. In spite of all his apprehensions, Aiden tried his best for all three races and we were proud to see him try something he finds so challenging. (He still whinges when he gets his hair washed).
After two hours of various races and competitions, the two houses ended up in a draw. The teachers swear there was no fudging of the results.

The local police sponsored a Pool Party and BBQ for the town afterwards. The kick off to the pool party was a race between the houses to see which house could pass a block of ice from the deep end to the shallow end having each team member touch it. Parents were asked to join in and I was amazed at how many of us did. All the kids and parents had a great time.

I reckon that there were 60 or so kids in the Halls Gap area who were knackered by the end of it.