What a fantastic effort everyone made during the Run Around Australia Challenge. Students ran for ten minutes four times each week for six weeks with the aim of being the quickest to run right around Australia. Wet weather made it tricky during the first few weeks but as the weather and fitness improved classes were up and racing.
There is a Junior School Race and a Year 3 – 6 race so little legs were not racing against the long legs of Year 6 students. However, sometimes a few Prep and Year 1 students ran more laps in ten minutes than some of the Year 6 students did!
The winning classes enjoy an all-day outing with Mrs Stott and Mr Bennett towards the end of the year when the weather warms up. Students also compete for the title of most laps in their class and over the sub-schools. Zander Carlson put in an awesome effort every day running the most laps run in our school. He ran 166 laps which is 42 kilometres over the 22 days his class ran. Hadley Smith ran the highest laps by a girl running 141 laps or 35km in 23 days of running. The individual class results can be seen below. In Junior School Cooper Brown ran an amazing 120 laps or 30km and Aiesha Briggs ran 103 laps which is 26km to be the Junior boy and girl running the most laps.
After a very close battle between neighbouring classes and when all the scores were tallied Mrs Van Eck and her 3G class won the Year 3 – 6 race. They were determined right from the beginning and every class member gave their best effort every day. This class ran 3311 laps of our oval which is a huge number! In second place was 3M not far behind 3G with 3187 laps and 5G finished in third with 3097 laps! The total laps are scaled and converted into kilometres giving 3G a total of 13489km! It is 11,574 actual kilometres around Australia and we had just these three classes complete the distance. 6M, 5M, 4M, 6G and 6W all finished between Canberra and Coffs Harbour which was a great effort.
In the Prep – Year 2 competition two classes raced out into the front gaining an early lead and remained there for the duration of the race. Mrs Hay’s 1G class and Mrs Doyle’s 1M classes pushed each other all the way with Mrs Hay’s 1G class winning the Run Around Australia Challenge for the first time ever! Consistency of running each day earned these classes the win as well as the enthusiasm and effort of the students. Mrs Hay’s class was the only Junior class to make it right around Australia this year with a 12326 km run. They ran a total of 2333 laps with 1M running 2154 laps but still 1500km in distance behind 1G finishing at Tamworth. The three Prep classes ran together each day and encouraged each other. They finished with PM in third place, Prep G in fourth and Prep W in fifth place.
All this running was aimed at improving the fitness of our students in preparation for the Cross Country Carnivals. They certainly did improve and every student ran so well in our Glasshouse Cross Country races. Our team went on to win the Glasshouse District Cross Country Championship and our teachers noticed a great improvement in students’ general fitness.
Top Three Class Placings
| Prep – Year 2 | Year 3 – 6 | |
| 1st | 1G – 12326 | 3G – 13489 |
| 2nd | 1M – 10793 | 3M – 12983 |
| 3rd | PM – 9461 | 5G – 11836 |
Individual Class Winners
| Class | Boys Winner | Laps run | Girls Winner | Laps Run |
| PG | Harvey Graham | 88 | Alexis Smith | 85 |
| PM | Ziyah Truscott | 90 | Asha Whelan | 82 |
| PW | Nathan Shepherd | 87 | Harlow Wolfe | 72 |
| 1G | Cooper Brown | 120 | Charlotte Kennedy | 99 |
| 1M | Kaelan Kaara | 110 | Aiesha Briggs | 103 |
| 1W | Jaxon Young | 71 | Peytence Formby | 78 |
| 2G | Ethan Doyle | 95 | Sion Kim | 80 |
| 2M | James Townsend | 81 | Hallie McCaughey | 71 |
| 2W | Lincoln Graham | 84 | Christine Bedwell | 82 |
| 3G | Jackson Greig | 159 | Hadley Smith | 141 |
| 3M | Mason Graham | 168 | Hannah Rae | 131 |
| 3W | Jett Smith | 93 | Anika Taylor | 84 |
| 4G | Bailey James | 123 | Charlotte Dellaway | 101 |
| 4M | Hudson O’Brien | 139 | Sophie Doyle | 126 |
| 4W | Kai carter | 121 | Estelle Collins | 99 |
| 5G | Eli Smith | 147 | Georgie Cobb | 132 |
| 5M | Max Thornton | 138 | Zali Fullerton | 133 |
| 5W | Izaac KwarcianyiLachlan Brewster | 111 | Indigo Hetherington | 99 |
| 6G | Cooper Stevens | 138 | Kirra Heaton | 105 |
| 6M | Zander Carlson | 166 | Mahlia Shiel | 118 |
| 6W | Bailey Whitmey | 145 | Lily Short | 120 |
Wendy Stott