By JESSE GRAHAM
LAUNCHING Place students will take off to Queensland this week to take on students from around the country, as part of the Schoolaerobics National competition.
Two teams from the primary school will leave for the competition on Thursday 7 and Friday 8 August, to compete on Saturday 9 August against teams from around Australia.
Teacher and aerobics coach Candice Nyman said the teams were looking forward to the nationals, and were training hard to perfect their moves before they left.
“They’ve been practising a lot, especially before school,” Ms Nyman said.
“I’m very proud of them – they’ve done a lot of training to get this far. They’ve worked hard.”
The two teams – the Dark Knights (Grade 5 boys) and the Popstars (Grade 3 girls) – were invited to the nationals after a strong performance in the state finals on Saturday 21 June.
Ms Nyman said the students, who were training right up until the last minute, were excited about the new experience, with none of them competing in nationals previously.
“For these kids, it’s their first turn – some haven’t even been on planes before,” she said.
She said there would be representatives from around five other states and territories competing against the Launching Place team over the weekend.
Ms Nyman said the school was the only school in the Yarra Valley attending the nationals, and that the school had been invited to compete for the sixth year running.
Last year, the Grade 5/6 girls team, Dynamic, won a silver medal at the competition.
