The Active School Flag was launched by the Department of Education in May 2009. It is a non-competitive initiative which aims to get schools more active, more often. It is awarded to schools that strive to achieve a physically active and physically educated school community. This year we are participating in the initiative and we hope to achieve the Active School Flag.

To get the flag we must self evaluate current practice across three areas: physical education, physical activity and partnerships. The active school committee must plan and implement improvements in several areas to ensure we are an active school, inclusive to everyone’s needs.

As the Active School Flag involves the whole school community we would encourage you to also provide opportunities for your children to be active at home. Additionally, if you think you have any skills or ideas that would be of benefit to the Active School Flag we would love you to get involved. You can pass on your suggestions to your child’s teacher. Your support of the Active School Flag is greatly appreciated.

Our Active schools committee is Celine, Rebecca, Luke, Aisling, Conor,

Geordan, Rowan, Isabella, Michael, Aoibheann, Kevin and Leah.

1.1 Physical Activity

1.2 Active schools week

1.3 Partnerships

1.4 Physical education

Our Active school slogan is: ‘Let’s not eat anymore pies, let’s exercise and work

those thighs!’

Here you will find a range of activities and initiatives we have undertaken as part of Active Schools Flag.

1.1 Physical activity

The Santa Hat run

We kicked off Active Schools on the 21st of December when we went on a

Santa hat run. First to sixth class ran along the canal while junior and senior

infants ran laps of the school yard. We had planned on running 1km. We ended

up running 3.4km. As this was our first time to do a run we did thirty second

walk and thirty second run for the duration of the Santa hat run. When we got

back to school all the classes did a cool down to make sure we recovered

safely.

The Let’s Get Active Award – The four week challenge – Active Homework

We decided to start the year as we meant to go on and get involved in the Irish Heart Let’s Get Active Award which is a fun way to encourage children to get at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day. We used free pocket planners to track how much activity we did each day. We were awarded a certificate at the end of the four weeks.

‘We did active homework for four weeks and we all had lots of fun. Every night we would have to do our active homework. We started on the second week of January and we finished on the 5th of February. We aimed to do an hour every evening. We had to fill in 6 ten minute circles so we had to time ourselves doing different activities. The different activities could be running, jumping, skipping, walking, cycling, football, basketball, skating and anything that involves movement. Everyone had a great time doing the active homework and would love to do it again.’ (Isabella, 3rd class)

Lunchtime – Our break and lunchtimes are always active. We have lots of ways of staying active:

We earn active rewards by being first in line

We keep moving even if we’re just talking

We have playground leaders to make sure everyone is active, having fun

and nobody is left out

We have football free Fridays and play running games, play with skipping

ropes or hula hoops during this time

We always have equipment on yard. We have skipping ropes, a bowling

set, footballs, basketballs, and hula hoops

If it’s raining we use Go Noodle to stay active in the classroom

Sometimes we even do mini fitness classes during lunch (teacher or child

led!)

Basketball league

We realised that the only sport we play during lunch is soccer. We decided that

basketball would be our new lunchtime sport! We were split into 6 teams and

we play our basketball league one day a week during lunch time. We have

enjoyed playing basketball and lots of people even play it at lunchtimes now!

Indoor Hurling

4th – 6th class played in a local indoor hurling league with a number of schools.

This developed our hurling skills and enabled us to make new friends through

sport.

‘4th, 5th and 6th classes attended indoor hurling over the last few weeks in

Newtownforbes. We played lots of games. We won some and lost some. I made

lots of new friends and I really enjoyed it.’ (Conor, 4th class)

10@10

‘We started 10@10 in February and ended up during it for February and March.

We love how it gives us a little break from school work and it wakes us up for

the next lesson! Some days we do it in Irish and some days we do it in English.

It’s so much fun!’ (Latisha 3rd class)

Go Noodle

We love getting the opportunity to take a break during the day to stop our

work and get active for a few minutes!

Run Europe

Run Europe is our running initiative in which the whole school participates in

daily. We aim to pick a different city each week. So far we have run to Brussels,

Vilnius, Warsaw and London. 1 lap of the yard = 1 km

Belgium: Brussels

We ran to Brussels first which is 976km from Dublin. We learned that Brussels

is the capital of Belgium and that the population is around 1.1million. ‘Bonjour’

is hello and ‘merci’ is thank you. We greeted each other each day using

‘bonjour’ when we thought of it!

Lithuania: Vilnius

We ran to Vilnius then which is 2691km from Dublin. We learned that Vilnius is

the capital of Lithuania and that the population is nearly 580,000. ‘Labos’ is

hello. We greeted each other in Lithuanian when we remembered we were

there!

Poland: Warsaw

We ran to Warsaw which is 2242km from Dublin. Warsaw is the capital of Poland. The population of Warsaw is 3.1million. ‘Cześd’ is hello and ‘Dziękuję Ci’ is thank you. We enjoyed speaking Polish to the Polish children in our school.

United Kingdom: London

We ran to London which is 597km from Dublin. London is the capital of the United Kingdom. The population is nearly 8.8million. We learned the Severn is the longest river in London and the currency used is Sterling.

Portugal: Lisbon

We ran to Lisbon which is 2792km from Dublin. Lisbon is the capital of Portugal. The population is around 2.8 million. ‘Olá’ is hello and ‘Obrigado’ is thank you in Portuguese.

Italy: Rome

We ran to Rome which is 2477km from Dublin. Rome is the capital of Italy. ‘Ciao’ is hello in Italian.

Iceland: Reykjavík

We ran to Reykjavík which is 4282km from Dublin. Reykjavík is the capital of Iceland. We learned that it is pronounced like Rey ka vik.

1.2 Active School week – 26/2/18 – 2/3/18 (the following)

– 23/4/18 – 27/4/18

1.3 Partnerships – Park run

http://activeschoolflag.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/HSE-Physical-Activity-Fact-Sheet-For-Parents.pdf - Physical activity fact sheet for parents

1.2 Sunday: Park Run

We started Active School week on Sunday 25th of February with a school Park run. ‘On Sunday I was the Park run director for the Scoil Mhuire Clondra junior park run. I set up the route with help from my mom. I gave a speech explaining the rules and welcoming people. 96 kids and their parents attended. It was a great day. (Aaron, 2nd class)

(Aaron giving his speech.)

1.2 Monday: Obstacle course

Each class was given cones, skipping ropes, footballs, tennis balls, basketballs, shapes and hula hoops. Each class was divided into four or five groups. Each group got time to create an obstacle course. At the end, one child in each group completed the obstacle course for the rest of the class to watch while another child in the same group told the class instructions as to how to complete the obstacle course. (We were doing written and oral instruction in English during that week so this was a fun way to integrate this.)

1.2 Tuesday: Skipping challenge and sports quiz

On Tuesday we participated in the ‘Climb the Heights’ skipping challenge. Each classroom completed this at different times. We took turns between counting and skipping to make sure our numbers were as accurate as possible. 1 jump = 1metre. We couldn’t believe all the mountains we ‘climbed’. We climbed a total of 9486m! We climbed:

Carrontoohill (Ireland) – 1041m

Ben Nevis (United Kingdom) – 1344m

Mount Pico (Portugal) – 2351m

Dinara (Croatia) – 1831m

Mount Olympus (Greece) – 2919m

1.2 Wednesday: Gymnastics/Yoga

On Wednesday we did a mixture of yoga and gymnastics. Each class went at different times to ensure there was enough room in the hall to move! We performed different yoga poses and learned lots of different balances in gymnastics. We got to work in pairs for part of it.

1.2 (22/3/18 due to snow during Active schools week) Thursday: Céilí

On Thursday we had a céilí. Junior and senior infants were paired with 3rd and 4th class. 1st and 2nd class were paired with 5th and 6th class. We learned The Bonfire dance.

1.2 (23/3/18 due to snow) Friday: Easter egg hunt

On our last day before the Easter holidays we had our Easter egg hunt. Everyone found a mini chocolate egg. When they opened them, 2 had golden stars on them. They were the winners of Easter eggs! There were 2 winners in each class.

1.2 Monday 23/4/18 – We attended swimming lessons at our local swimming pool.

Tuesday 24/4/18 – Running

We had a mini sports day. Each class had races. We tried to develop our running technique and tried various things to see could we get faster. We also went for a run along the canal. For our Santa hat run on the 21st of December we ran 3.4km. For our run today we ran a total of 4.6km. It was so much easier than the Santa hat run because we have kept up our running initiative Run Europe and this really proved to us how our fitness levels have improved so much.

Wednesday – 25/4/18 Fitness

We did fitness drills with hula hoops and ladders. We went through them lots of different ways – hopping, side stepping, jumping, using fast feet, running and even on all fours. We came up with our own ways to go through the ladders too.

Thursday – Basketball

We worked on basketball techniques. We did chest pass, bounce pass and worked on our target practice. We then practised tackling someone and how to get past someone tackling you. We learned what double bouncing and travelling means.

Friday – Zumba

We finished our Active schools week with a zumba class.

1.3 Physical education

In our school, each class receives one hour of PE every week. Our P.E. classes are made up of the six strands of the P.E. curriculum and throughout the year we take part in athletics, aquatics, dance, games, gymnastics and outdoor and adventure activities. We think P.E. is a very important subject and we follow a school P.E. policy and timetable for teaching the various strands. We are lucky to have a huge range of PE resources in our school, a PE hall, 2 store rooms and PDST resources in the office.

When we started the Active schools process we agreed that dance was the area in which we needed to give the most attention to.

Zumba

We started Zumba dancing class for a 6 week block. Each class received a half hour each week on a Friday and we were surprised by how much we loved it!

Dance (strand)

Each class is starting an Irish dance programme called ‘Dancin’ Time’. Each class will learn two different dances.