Second in the state for boccia

consisting of John (Kindergarten), Braxton (Year 3) and Hudson (Year 5) pushed through and after all the games stepped out as the winners of the Ballina division competition.

We were shocked, ecstatic and overwhelmed.

We were one of the 24 NSW schools that made it through to the state fnals to be held in Sydney on the 13th of August 2024 at Quay centre, Sydney Olympic Park.

At this stage we did not think we were going to make it to Sydney.

We have wonderful and determined parents and staff and after commitment from the parents, we started reaching out to our community organisations for support to help make our dream to go to state fnals come true.

We received amazing support from the Old Boys raffes, Club Evans RSL, Rotary club, Woodburn Public P&C and the NSW sports unit, who also host the event.

Without these time around.”

Mr Kingsley said there were some big issues facing the new council.

“Affordable housing and cost of living are the two massive issues at the moment,” he said.

“Really with affordable housing that is not core business for a council.

“Council can work with developers and can play a part in having policies that ensure a reasonable supply of affordable housing blocks.”

He said the council could also help alleviate housing shortages by lobbying state and federal governments to advocate for more funding in those areas.

He said rates and rate rises were a perennial problem between the council and the community.

“Is there going to be an SRV? Is there not going to be SRV?” he said.

“Who’s going to commit to that? That will be one of the questions. Are you going to commit to an SRV? Or you’re not?

“The 2016 election, many said no during the campaign but later backfipped.”

The Clarence Valley’s massive road network was another issue.

“Everyone wants, they want their roads fxed,” he said. “And we’ve got one of the biggest road networks in regional, NSW.” wonderful organisations we would not have been able to travel to Sydney.

We practiced daily at school and even pulled in some students from other classes to play against them to get more competitive practice in.

We few out to Sydney on Monday 12th of August and on Tuesday we fnally competed in our very frst Boccia state fnal games at Sydney Olympic Park Quay centre.

Our team of four students: Hudson, Arlia, Braxton and John, along with Mrs. Smith (coach) and Tania (teamassistant) and some great supportive parents, took on the day not knowing what was lying ahead of us.

We won our frst fve games and made it into the semi-fnals, which we also won.

We fnally played our fnal game of the day. It was head-to head throughout the games and fnally, in the last round, the opposition scored three points and we lost the game by two points.

We came second.

This meant that we are second in the state out of 517 schools and 30 Boccia rounds.

We couldn’t be prouder of our team and our school.

Our students showed perseverance, determination and great sportsmanship throughout the entire event. Well done!