Northern Park Primary School Extracurricular Activities
SPORTING ACTIVITIES
The following sporting codes are offered during the course of the year.
Cricket for the boys – mini, u9, u10, u11, and u13.
Swimming for both Boys and Girls from Grade RR to Grade 7.
Boys’ Soccer, u9-u13
Girls: Netball u9-u13
Girls Hockey u9-u13
Cross Country for both Boys and Girls - all ages.
The school is in the process of re-introducing Rugby as a boys’ sport.
Athletics for both Boys and Girls - all ages.
Boys Hockey u11 and u13.
Girls soccer u13.
Cricket for the boys – mini, u9, u10, u11, and u13
Swimming for both Boys and Girls from Grade RR to Grade 7.
NON-SPORTING ACTIVITIES
ART IN THE PARK
Every year, usually on the second Saturday of May, the school hosts its very own “Art in the Park”. School’s from in and around Pietermaritzburg are invited to exhibit their children’s art work under our magnificent avenue of Plane Trees. A most enjoyable Saturday morning is spent viewing art whilst strolling through a veritable carpet of fallen leaves. A tea garden is also available where friends, both old and new, are able to relax and enjoy one another’s company while absorbing the atmosphere of this autumn event. This is an event not to be missed as it whets the appetite for the Pietermaritzburg’s Art in the Park exhibition.
ART CLUB
The school supports the artistic talents of its learners by affording them the opportunity to freely express themselves in The Art Club. This is offered as an after-school activity under the guidance of a specialist Art Teacher.
The school is indeed proud of its choir with a number of learners participating and contributing to the angelic sounds that are part of our heritage. The choir has been privileged to showcase its talents at a number of choir events around the city. Some of our past and present learners are also members of the Pietermaritzburg Children’s Choir.
Drama is offered as an extracurricular activity which offers learners an opportunity to explore their talents in this field. In addition, it assists learners to develop their self confidence in public speaking and presentations to an audience.
GENERAL
Fixtures are played on a regular basis against local schools, as well as some in the country such as Eston, Greytown, Ixopo and Richmond. During the swimming season, an annual inter-house gala is hosted together with some mini inter-school galas.
The second term is by far the busiest in terms of sporting fixtures and the organizing of tournaments. Amongst all the sport played during this term, an u11 Girls’ Hockey tournament is held on the first Saturday in May which coincides with an annual “Art in the Park” activity where art produced by learners from a number of schools is displayed amongst the avenue of enormous Plane Trees bordering the sports field. An annual Soccer Tournament a few weeks later, is always a morning of great fun with participating schools getting to play between 4 and 5 mini games of soccer.
During the third term, the entire school, from Grade 3 to 7 is strongly encouraged to become involved in the school’s Athletics programme. A very lively and highly competitive inter-house athletics meeting concludes the athletics season for the school’s learners, however the school’s Athletics team goes on to participate in an annual inter-school meeting held early in September to welcome in the season of Spring. Five schools usually compete in this friendly but highly competitive meeting.
During the different “sporting seasons”, teams from the school’s three sports-houses compete in internal, inter-house matches. These games are invariably the highlight of the season and one can imagine the competition that they are played in. Each winning team causes points to be accumulated towards a final shield presented at the end of each year.