Close to 60 eager young primary school boys participated in the second annual Clontarf Primary Schools Football Carnival in Alice Springs, NT in June.
The carnival provided a great opportunity for Clontarf’s Remote Programme participants from Yuendumu and Ntaria (Hermannsburg), as well as boys from Tennant Creek Primary School to put into practice the skills, attitudes and values they have developed in their respective academies.
Each academy travelled a significant distance to participate – Tennant Creek Academy made a 1,000km round trip, Yuendumu had to travel 600km there and back, and Ntaria’s round trip was a 260 km journey.
The carnival provided participants with an opportunity to not only mingle with and test themselves against each other, but also to compete against students from the three Alice Springs based schools that also played in the carnival – Bradshaw, Gillen and Yipirinya.
For the Yuendumu and Ntaria boys, the carnival was a rare opportunity to play in a properly organised team structure, as they don’t have the same access to a community competition for their age bracket that the Alice Springs and Tennant Creek boys have.
The two remote teams met in their final game of the carnival and the match was one of the highlights of the event. Donning the tradition magpie (Yuendumu) and bulldog (Ntaria) colours of their respective clubs, the young men put on a spectacular goal for goal show.
Susan Neale, a Year 6 teacher at Ntaria School who attended on the day said, “The Clontarf programme has been a great benefit for our Ntaria school boys. It provides our boys with the needed essential skills to enable them to be more resilient in and out of the classroom, such as consistency, encouragement, ability and stability.”
Prior to the carnival, academy participants from Yuendumu and Ntaria enjoyed a sleepover at the Yirara Academy, and during the lead up to the big day, participated regularly in school and local clinics with members of the Centralian Middle Academy.
