Active School Flag

The Active School Flag (ASF) is a Department of Education and Skills initiative supported by healthy Ireland that is awarded to schools that strive to achieve a physically educated and physically active school community. The process aims to get more schools, more active. We are delighted to have registered for our first flag and our first whole school initiative is the daily mile.

The daily mile gets children out of the classroom for fifteen minutes every day to run or jog at their own pace.

We have also introduced Active Breaks where each class grouping has an activity they can engage with if they wish.

P.E. – games, athletics, aquatics, gymnastics dance, outdoor and adventure

The P.E. programme in our school incorporates six strands: Athletics, Gymnastics, Aquatics, Games, Dance and Outdoor and Adventure. This year we are putting a special focus on Athletics.

Click the links below to find out what we have been doing in each strand of the P.E. curriculum.

Games:

Basketball – we are very fortunate to have our brand new basketball court. The boys have been having a great time learning new skills.
GAA- all classes enjoy weekly football and hurling using our astro turf pitch.
Uni-hoc- 6th class boys did a block of work on uni hockey skills
Rugby- 5th class boys did a block of work on rugby skills and we were very fortunate that Luke from Leinster Rugby was available to come and do some taster sessions with the boys also.
Non-contact games

Dance:

Dance lessons involve the children taking part in a range of creative, pop and folk dances. When creating dance, the children explore a range of body parts, body actions and body shapes. Concepts relating to the body in space, the changing dynamics of movement and the implications of moving in relation to another person and his/her environment are explored.

Athletics

Athletics lessons focus on the development of basic athletics skills, i.e. running, jumping and throwing. All sessions are station sessions. Running activities are devised to encourage children to run and to accept challenges to their personal performances by running faster or by running over a longer distance. Jumping activities will give the child an opportunity to explore various jumps and to develop technique for height and distance. The child participates in throwing activities using objects of different shapes and weights and develops a variety of throwing techniques, improving accuracy and distance.

Gymnastics

Gymnastics allow children to explore the themes of travel and balance with an emphasis on promoting quality of movement. General gymnastics skills are developed with and without the use of equipment. Most sessions in gymnastics are organised through station teaching and children are encouraged to work both together and individually. We have been working with Trojan gymnastics this year to develop our general gymnastics skills without the use of equipment.

Aquatics

The aquatics programme is concerned with gaining competence and confidence near, in, under and on water. It provides unique opportunities for enjoyment, allowing the child the sensation of buoyancy. We teach the LAWS programme each year in every class.

Outdoor and adventure

We are looking forward to using our active walkway again this year as it was a huge success last year during active week. Activities such as orienteering and maths activities were the biggest hit with all classes. The active flag committee really enjoyed buddying up with younger classes to help them navigate active walkway.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES

To promote physical activity in our school we have introduced a number of new initiative to make sure the boys are as active as possible. Every class is encouraged to participate in active breaks for yard. Boys participate in safe skipping, football matches and Olympic handball. In term 3 the whole school participates in the daily mile which was a huge success last year. 5th and 6th classes completed the marathon kids programme where each boy ran 42km over an 8 week period. The active flag committee also organised an active flag walkway in term 3 where teachers were able to use the active walkway to cover many curricular areas such as maths, geography and English.

PARTNERSHIPS

We are very lucky that Ken from Cuala comes into Senior Infants to 3rd class for GAA every week. Junior infants will be starting GAA in term 3.

Megan from Cabinteely GAA has started working with our 4th classes this term on football and hurling skills.
Luke from Leinster Rugby came in and did a taster session for 6 weeks with classes from 3rd to 6th. 6th class participated in a blitz in Kilbogget organised by Luke with other local schools.

We have been very lucky to have Trojan gymnastics working with the boys and the staff this year to help develop the gymnastics skills of the boys in our school. We have been focusing on gymnastics skills without equipment.

ACTIVE WEEK

Our first active week was a huge success!! We had novelty races in the field. A soccer blitz for 5th and 6th class with Stephanie Roche. Jim from Leinster Cricket came in and worked with every class which the boys thoroughly enjoyed.
Olympic handball Ireland coach Vlad worked with 3rd and 4th classes and they are now equipped with skills to play handball in the yard.

3rd to 6th classes had a hockey workshop and Jnr – 2nd had a playball session with Cherrywood playball.
I think however the teachers versus Students penalty shoot out was the highlight for all the boys!!! It has definitely become an annual event!!!

Active School Flag

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