St Brigid’s Coogee gold medal winners to compete against nation’s best at AeroSchools championships

THIS time two years ago, AeroSchools was a new fun lunch time activity for the kids at St Brigid’s Catholic primary school Coogee. Now they’re off to contest the National Championships.

Elise Babbage, Noah Sullivan, Jade Landing, Iyla Maguire, Nicola Richards, Jemma Gillis, Angus Devlin and Amelie Bald from St Brigid's Catholic Primary School Coogee will contest the AeroSchools National Championships. Picture: John Appleyard

THIS time two years ago, AeroSchools was a new fun lunch time activity for the kids at St Brigid’s Catholic primary school Coogee.

Flash forward to the present, and a team of eight students are off to Bendigo, Victoria this week, representing their school at the national championships.

Following a long history of involvement with aerobics and gymnastics, dance and physical education teacher Joelle Bailey decided to explore the latest programs on offer from Gymnastics Australia.

What she found was AeroSchools — a program for boys and girls of all abilities which aims to increase strength, flexibility and co-ordination using aerobic moves, all in time to music.

Each session starts off with fun warm-up skills and games, and goes on to a routine combining compulsory moves like jumping jacks, push up and high kicks with other choreography.

“The kids love it and the numbers keep getting bigger and bigger, we’ve got students from Year 3 right through to Year 6 all involved, all off the back of our involvement at the state championships last year,” Mrs Bailey said.

The entire St Brigid's Catholic Primary School Coogee AeroSchools team. 8 of them will contest the National Championships, an aerobics performance competition. Picture: John Appleyard

“We have three students on the spectrum and to see how they’ve come along is amazing — one wouldn’t join in for a whole term ... he’s now performing with the class up on the stage which is a huge achievement for him.

“The key to getting children active is providing positive and challenging experiences in a safe environment where they can develop friendships, and most importantly have fun.”

St Brigid’s qualified for this week’s nationals after taking gold in the Level 1 Junior Group category state-level competition in July.

The team of eight Year 5 and Year 6 students has spent weeks training hard twice a week, as well as fundraising for their costumes and trip to Bendigo, where they’ll be among 3,000 competitors from different gymnastic disciplines.

St Brigid's Catholic Primary School Coogee AeroSchools team perform for their classmates. Picture: John Appleyard

“We’ve been really well-supported by other families in our community — the students made 15 scrunchies each and sold them, they made a lot of money out of that, and we’ve also had bingo days and guessing competitions,” Mrs Bailey said.

“We also went over to Our Lady of the Annunciation Catholic Primary at Pagewood to have a dress rehearsal and perform to a new audience to get their jitters out.

“It was a good experience, they started AeroSchools this year, so we were able to show them what they could aspire to.

“The children are really excited — it's a unique opportunity for them to travel interstate and develop those values of team work and spirit.”