Active Flag                       

 

             

            

This year our school is wishing to renew our active schools flag. We are continuing to become a physically educated and a physically active school community. Throughout the year we will be highlighting all that our school is doing under the following headings: physical education, physical activity, partnerships, and the active schools week. Watch out for all the activities our children will be involved in during the year. 

Physical Education:

    

PE Curriculum:

There are six strands of in the Physical Education Curriculum. The six strands include; Games, Athletics, Aquatics, Gymnastics, Dance, Outdoor and Adventure. Our school teaches five out of six strands each year. All class are thought the same strand at the same time following schools Physical Education plan. Physical Education is allocated one hour a week of teaching time. 

Physical Education Resources:

We have allocated an area in our school where PE resources can be accessed by all teachers. As a whole staff the teachers looked through and discussed the different resources which are available to use for ideas and activities throughout the year.

PE Equipment: 

The active flag committee have been working very hard sorting out our shed that holds all our PE equipment. They have been very busy completing an audit of all our equipment, sorting and labeling boxes. This makes sure teachers and students have access to all our equipment and can be used during all PE lessons.

Games: 

This year our focus is on the game strand. We are placing emphasis on the fundamental movement skills of Striking with a hand, striking with an object, catching and throwing.

The games strand of the PE curriculum provides many opportunities for children to develop social skills and play through informal play opportunities. The pictures below show children developing the basic skills of different games before they develop into playing small sided games.

 

Athletics: 

Athletics was the PE strand to which our school focused on improving this year. Each class teacher received a copy of the PSSI lesson plans to encourage the improvement and development of different athletics lessons. Here the students are engaging in a variety of activities focusing of the improvement and development of running , jumping and throwing. 

 

 

Dance:
The dance strand of the curriculum provides children the opportunity to engage in both creative and folk dance. When teaching the dance strand children had the opportunities to explore body actions and shapes. When teachers taught the folk dance strand, we encouraged each class to learn the same types of folk dance.  

  Physical Activity:

 The Daily Mile:

Our School is participating in the running initiative of ' The daily mile'. Each day for fifteen minutes , each class during different times of the day will run laps of our Astro pitch. This will encourage an improvement of our fitness and energy levels, reduces stress and provides greater concentration in class. We began our daily mile in September and we hope to continue it until the end of our school year

Scoil Mhuire Running Initiative:

During the month of March all classes engaged in the ' king of the hill' challenge. The whole school was encouraged to run the distance of Mount Everest. Congratulations to First Class who won the challenge.

 

 Yoga: 

We introduced yoga to our infant classes on Friday afternoons. We brought in our own yoga mats from home and the infant classes look forward to it every week.  It helps them relax and unwind after a busy week in school.

 

Active Breaks:

Did you know that short energising bursts of activity boots blood flow, send oxygen to the brain and helps children retain information ?

Our School encourages active breaks during class times. We love using Just dance kids, go noodle, 10@10 and the body coach workouts as part of our active breaks

Active Lines:

We have introduced active lines as we come in from our yard times. Our active committee have been busy calling out different exercises for us to complete

Partnerships:

Active School Flag Committee:

The following students were chosen be apart of our active schools committee.

• Aidan Tobin
• Maisie Mc Kenna
• Aidan Smyth
• Chloe Donoghue
• Freya Mc Bennett
• Dylan Johnson
• Ben Fayne
• Harry Moore
• Alexa Morira
• Robin Denehan

Congratulations boys and girls.

Active School Board: 

Our Active School notice board is up and running in both our school buildings. Check out our notice board for the latest up dates about our active school activities.

Active School Slogan:

 Don't just sit, get out and be fit

 

Well done wall: 

We created a well done wall to celebrate the achievements of our students in activities outside of school. What a talented bunch of children we teach.

Community Partnerships:

The school actively encourages the local community to come and visit our school and provide taster sessions to the children. So far we have: 

• Hurling/Camogie 
• Soccer 
• Gaelic Football

GAA Coahcing:

Mark Fitzharris is a GAA developmental coach. Through Kildare GAA Mark is responsible for the implementation of a specific number of Games Development projects. We are lucky to have Mark come to our school on Fridays to coach the classes for rudimentary and fundamental skills. He also takes the under 13 students for game based activities. We are very lucky to have Mark work with our school.

Hurling: 

Every Thursday, classes get a chance to practice and develop their hurling skills. We have some help from local coaches who come to our school to train our boys and girls . 

  

 

Leinster Rugby: 

 

Athletics:

Mr Higgins has been involved in training our boys and girls in athletics. The boys have participated in many many competitions throughout the year. 

Skipping John:

We were very fortunate to have skipping John return to our school and teach us the fundamental skipping moves.

Irish Dancing:

Ms Sayers our very own professional Irish dancer, takes some students each week for Irish dancing classes. She has seen a huge improvement in our boys and girls ‘1 2 3s’ since the start of the year. 

Active School Walkway: