On Thursday, 6^th March, Riverside High School held its annual Swimming Carnival at the Launceston Aquatic Centre.

Once again, the main emphasis of our school swimming carnival is students participating in a range of races, events, and novelty activities while having lots of fun and building strong connections with their friends and teachers. To support and encourage more students to participate and get involved in aquatic activities, the waterslide was once again operating for our students to enjoy. Novelty events such as water basketball, gladiator challenge, and an array of races and competitions were organised and led by the Health and Wellbeing Prefects. These activities were very popular with all grades and ensured our students had a variety of opportunities to participate, regardless of their swimming ability or confidence in the water.

House spirit was sprinkled throughout the students, with many students decked out in their House colours, leading loud house chants, and displaying positive support for their peers and teammates. This community spirit and support for others is an important aspect of our school carnivals as it aligns to the school value of Connection. We aim to continue to foster and encourage our students to display this type of behaviour.

There were many students who participated in multiple events, displaying outstanding Courage and Growth that produced some fantastic individual swimming performances across all four grades. It was wonderful to witness many students stepping outside their comfort zone to participate in swimming races, whether it was division 1 races over 50m or division 2 races over 25m. Students showed great aspirational qualities to give their absolute best in their events.

Congratulations to the following students who are the Riverside High School swimming champions for 2025:

Congratulations also goes to the below students who have been awarded Runners-up to the swimming champions 2025:

All students are to be congratulated for the outstanding way that they participated and supported each other throughout the day. Respect was always shown towards fellow competitors, officials, and the facility, which made for a hugely successful swimming carnival.

After our whole-school House Assembly the week prior, where barbs were fired at each other, there was as usual a friendly, but fierce, rivalry between the four Houses of Forrest, Kingsford-Smith, Lawson, and Monash. After compiling the House points from both the competitive races and student participation in the novelty events, it was Lawson House who were able to back up their win from 2024 with another first place in 2025. Monash managed to come from fourth place in 2024 to finish a close second place this year.

The final House placings for 2025 were:

We would like to thank Catherine Mulder and the lifeguards at the Launceston Aquatic Centre for hosting us and the support they provided regarding the set-up of the event.

We would also like to thank the families who were able to make it along to support their children. A special thank you to a couple of parents who volunteered their time on the day to fulfil roles.

The Riverside High School Inter-High Swimming Team will compete at the NHSSA Swimming Carnival on Thursday, 3^rd April at the Launceston Aquatic Centre. This team will be announced in Week 7. To prepare students for this event, we will be holding two training sessions prior to the carnival. Dates and times to be advised.

Adam Sanders
AST