As we have had several enquiries about Gala Days and students’ ability to participate in these days, I would like to clarify which days are considered to be Belconnen Regional Gala Days.

Trials for selection of Belconnen Gala Day teams will be run by St Matthew’s. Students will be selected on skill level and the focus of the day is on competing. Students selected for these teams represent St Matthew’s at the Gala Day. These competitions are made up of catholic schools and public schools from the Belconnen Region. These events are run by School Sport in consultation with individual schools. Only days that are run and organised by School Sport are considered to be Gala Days.

St Matthew’s will consider entering teams in Gala Days, based on student interest and the availability of coaches, managers and teachers to attend these events. However, the focus must always be on what is best for the learning needs of the students at our school. Where we feel that sporting commitments, such as these gala days impact on the ability of teachers to teach and students to learn, we will make a decision to pull back. At St Matthew’s, our primary objective is to educate the children who attend this school. Whilst sport is part of what we do, too many days like this take away from learning in other curriculum areas.

If your child would like to participate in a Gala Day, please email me directly and a decision will be made about running trials. If trials are to be run, you will be notified through the school. In the sporting section of the newsletter each fortnight there will be information about upcoming Gala Days. Another good way to keep an eye on this is to follow the School Sport ACT Facebook page. Your child will have the opportunity to participate in 1 gala day per year.

Selection for ACT representative sport is run by School Sport ACT. They run their own trials and students are selected from those trials to be part of the ACT Team. These days are also NOT considered to be Belconnen Gala Days and will not impact student’s ability to participate in Gala Days.

News from School Sport ACT

 School Sport Australia Announcement

'It is with regret that School Sport Australia is cancelling all 2021 School Sport Australia National Championships. The Board considered that running Championships in 2021 was not viable because of the ongoing volatility caused by COVID-19 outbreaks, hot spot declarations and border closures. School Sport Australia’s priority is on the wellbeing of students, teachers and other officials.'

For the full announcement please head to the SSA website

http://www.schoolsportaustralia.edu.au/

SSACT is investigating other options for School Sport state teams in the hope of students competing and representing the ACT in 2021, we will keep you posted.