School Sport SA runs a series of Statewide Competitions, State Carnivals and State Championships, in which the school nominates individuals and teams for competition. In some sports, competition is run in district championships. Students must demonstrate the ability to follow rules, be organised and adhere to the Sporting Codes of Conduct. Student behaviour should reflect school values – failure to do so will lead to non-selection. Students should attend all scheduled training sessions where possible, leading up to a game or carnival. This can lead to state and interstate representation for successful students. Other School Sport SA sporting competitions are run with the support of the relevant sporting bodies in Adelaide.

Highgate enters a school team for each of the following events: Swimming, Athletics, Cross Country and Basketball.

There are sixteen schools in our district (Adelaide South East): 1. Annesley, 2. Black Forest, 3. Burnside, 4. Glen Osmond, 5. Goodwood, 6. Highgate, 7. Linden Park, 8. Parkside, 9. Seymour, 10. St John’s Lutheran (Year 4-6), Concordia (Year 7), 11. St Raphael’s Parish Parkside, 12. St Spyridon, 13. St Thomas – Goodwood, 14. Sunrise Christian – Fullarton, 15. Unley PS and 16. Walford.

Carnivals are whole or part day events, with Basketball following a round-robin format and individual events for Cross Country, Swimming and Athletics.

If your child is selected for a district team for a particular event, the district team competes in a state carnival, which usually occurs in the few weeks following the district carnival. All carnivals whether for school or district are played in school hours.

In Statewide School competitions, if a team wins, they progress to the next round of the competition on another day. If they lose, they are eliminated from the competition. For example, in a competition of 64 teams, 32 schools would progress to round 2 and 16 to round 3 and so on. The Statewide competitions are spread out across terms and match dates are agreed upon between the School Sport SA coordinators of all schools involved, with matches played during school hours. The time between playing in one round to the next could be anywhere from a couple of days up to 6 weeks. The timing of matches is dependent on each school’s calendar, cut-off dates for each round and player/staff availability.

Sports include Cricket; Soccer; Hockey; AFL; Netball; Softball and Tennis and are played as either all boy teams or all girl teams.

Teams for all sports will be selected on school grounds at lunch time, before or after school or in Physical Education lessons. The Sports Coordinator and PE Teacher run trials if need be to select students to form teams to represent Highgate School.

Equal participation once selected is not guaranteed although preferred where possible. Selection will be based on ability with priority going to Year 6’s ahead of Year 5’s. It should be noted that Year 5 students could and should be selected before Year 6 students if in the opinion of the Coach /selectors they have more ability.

Age requirements:

• Students in years 4-6 are eligible to trial for Highgate’s District Carnival teams for Athletics, Swimming and Cross Country. Please note that year 4 students must be turning 10 during the year of the competition to be eligible, i.e. for the 2020 carnival, students must be born in 2010. Younger students are not eligible.
• Students in years 5 and 6 are eligible to trial for Highgate’s Basketball, Cricket, Soccer, Hockey, AFL, Netball, Softball and Tennis teams.

District Competition is an extension of School Sport SA competitions and is not run by Highgate. The School nominates students to attend trials for District selection and generally 3-4 students per sport are nominated to attend these trials. The Sports Coordinator, PE teacher and team coaches will nominate students to attend Adelaide South East District trials during the year. Where Highgate teams for Statewide School Competition trials are conducted, they will be used to assist with the selection of students for nomination.

All the Statewide and Carnival sports listed have District team representation and so your child has an opportunity to represent the Adelaide South East District in a week-long state carnival.

All School Sport SA State nominations are completed online on the School Sport SA website by the individual participant. We encourage participants to check the School Sport SA website at the start of each year for nomination eligibility and closing dates for individual sports.

Ben Beazley & Emily Saint Bowman
Sports.Highgate906@schools.sa.edu.au