| Active Flag Committee | Activities for Active Flag | Physical Education |
In September 2018, we formed our active school committee of ten members with students from 3rd to 6th class. We have a wonderfully proactive and hard-working committee. Our Active school committee come up with ideas and organise Active School Activities throughout the year, lead warm-up's for activities such as our Santa Dash and our Operation transformation walks, make class announcements regarding Active School initiatives, conduct a PE audit, clean and check the PE store regularly and keep it tidy, attend Active School meetings and they are currently planning our ASW and will then aid the teachers in running our first Active School Week from June 10th–14th.
Our Active School Notice Board
All ‘Active’ activities are posted on our Active School Notice Board which is located at the end of the corridor. All children will see new notices, monthly sports news, playground leader rotas and much more on the board.
We have a suggestions folder on our noticeboard for children to post new ideas that they may have.
Our Active School Committee help in ensuring the notice board is up to date at all times.
‘Get on your runners, get on your kit, let’s get active, let’s get fit!’
- our active school Slogan
Active School Slogan
One of our first activities when deciding to embark on our journey towards our first active school flag was deciding on a whole school motto we could use to ensure we stay active. It was decided that pupils from 1st - 6th class would come up with slogans of their choice and the teachers would choose the slogan they thought best suited our active journey ahead. Anna Fitzgerald in 2nd class came out on top with her very catchy and appropriate slogan ‘Get on your runners, get on your kit, let’s get active, let’s get fit!’ Well done Anna!
Active School Mascot – Active Annie
In order to ensure that all the children are involved in this exciting journey, we then gave Junior and Senior infants the task of designing our very own active school mascot. The children were busy designing their bears and while they were all beautiful, Caoimhe Manley in Senior Infants was our winner. There was great excitement when her picture turned into a reality and Active Annie was established as an active celebrity who turned up to cheer on our pupils during our active events!
Playground Leaders
Since January 2019, students in 5th and 6th class have kindly volunteered to give up their lunch time and work as playground leaders to monitor activity levels on our yard.
A huge part of their role is to teach Junior and Senior Infants games and skills on a weekly basis. The leaders teach a variety of games at lunch-times. The playground leaders must be applauded for their creative ideas and their wonderful demeanour with the younger pupils of the school. The sheer joy and excitement coming from the Infant classroom on the day of playground leaders speaks for itself. This is most certainly one of the most awarding and enjoyable active school experiences for all the pupils involved.
Playground leaders continues until the end of the year and they follow a monthly rota to ensure everything is kept on track. Examples of games and activities done with the infant classes can be seen below.
Gaelic Football League
During the months of October and November, all children from 1st-6th class took part in a school league which ran for three days per week at lunch time. The children really enjoyed this new experience at our school and a huge congratulations to Pauric Bergin and his team for winning the final!
Hurling League
The school hurling league is taking place at present and will run until the first week of June. Children from 1st-6th class take part in this league. Again this is a great opportunity for the children to have great fun in an active manner and support each other to do their best.
Brain Breaks and Rainy day activities
Active Brain breaks are a huge favourite with all the pupils here at Bishop Harty NS. They are very much embedded into our daily routine with all teachers on board in creating active learning classrooms as much as possible. All teachers engage in doing rainy day activities in the classroom to ensure children get their exercise in despite the weather. Our Active School committee were busy creating active break challenges for each classroom which have been a firm favourite with the children and teachers! Other activities the children engage in are Just Dance, Go Noodle, the Body Coach, 10@10 to mention but a few.
Do Your Talking as You’re Walking!
This motto is very important for both our pupils and staff in our school. Children are encouraged to constantly be moving on the yard during break and lunch times.
The pupils have created wonderful posters which are dotted around the school as reminders for us all to ensure we keep our activity levels up!
Hockey Thursdays!
Hockey Thursdays began in the month of February for girls from 3rd to 6th class to increase activity levels among the girls. It has been a huge success that we now have it open to both boys and girls from 1st-6th class. This is a very positive initiative that the children organise and take control of themselves.
Basketball
Basketball is a firm favourite among our senior pupils during the months of April and May as they prepare for their league competition at the end of May. Again, the children take complete control of organising their teams and games each break and lunch time.
Halloween Themed P.E stations
Here at Bishop Harty N.S, we love to integrate physical activity into all aspects of learning. In order to keep with the theme of Halloween, we set up Halloween themed P.E stations which can be seen below. The children really enjoyed being active in their very creative, scary, homemade costumes!
Santa Dash Run
Our Santa Dash run took place on Friday 21st December 2018. All our children wore Santa Hats and Christmas Jumpers on the day and we used the walkway route in our neighbouring soccer club, Ballymackey FC. The children ran as many laps as possible with Santa leading the way, motivating the children at all times. Great fun was had by all!
Seachtain na Gaeilge
To mark Seachtian na Gaeilge in an active way, the children participated in Irish Dancing and performed a Ceilí on Wednesday 13th of March 2019. We were also fortunate enough to get an amazing performance from our excellent Irish Dancer, Craig from 6th class.
The children also engaged in an active Irish P.E game whereby the children had to run to find objects in the box and run back to their team. Mar shampla, faigh peann dearg, faigh leabhar gaeilge srl. A great collaborative, active game as Gaeilge!
Easter Egg Hunts at Bishop Harty N.S
On Friday 12th April, Junior and Senior Infants and 3rd and 4th class took part in active Easter egg hunts around the school. Eggs were hid all over the school grounds and children were very successful in their quest for lots of eggs!
‘Active Break Every Day’ Challenge
During the month of November 2018, each class in our school committed to performing an active break each day. The children could choose between a running break, a dance break or an exercise break each day. The children had great fun in completing and ticking our chart each day.
‘Run Around Europe Challenge’
We decided to undertake the ‘Run around Europe Challenge’ during the month of October. This was a non-competitive running initiative that took place for a duration of four weeks. The children in each class decided what country they would like to run to and set off on their challenge. Overall, the pupils in Bishop Harty N.S ran a total of 10,940km and visit cities such as Paris, Vienna, London and Athens. 1st and 2nd class engaged in doing a project on Vienna and created a wonderful informative booklet on Vienna. 3rd and 4th class also created informative posters on their focus destinations. A huge well done to all our pupils for making this running initiative such a successful and enjoyable experience.
‘Fitness Challenge of the day’
During the month of May, we have decided to implement a ‘Fitness Challenge of the day’ aspect to our classrooms. Each week, a class will take charge of coming up with the fitness challenge of the day which the whole school will take part in. 3rd and 4th class decided on each daily fitness challenge for the first week which was a huge success among our students. Next up is 5th and 6th class, followed by 1st and 2nd class and last but not least our junior and senior infants will decide on our daily fitness challenge for the last week of May!
Partnerships
‘Get on your runners, get on your kit, let’s get active, let’s get fit!’
-Active School Slogan
We have used twitter throughout the year to keep all our followers up to date on Active School Activities. Twitter is also used to inform students and parents/guardians about physical activity opportunities and achievements that have occurred throughout the year in the local community. During ASW a daily tweet will be sent out with an update on the days activities.
Newsletters/Sports news of the month
Throughout the year we have ensured our Active School activities are in our Newsletters to keep parents/guardians informed on what is happening in our school. It also gives us the opportunity to ask for help from parents in assisting us with various events. Parents/guardians have helped greatly throughout the year supporting the Active School initiative. On our Active School Notice Board, we have our school Sports news of the month to keep children informed of activities happening throughout the month.
Tag Rugby
Paddy from Nenagh Ormond Rugby Club started coaching in our school in September 2018. He came on Tuesdays and taught 3rd-6th class Tag Rugby for a period of 8 weeks. The students enjoyed developing their ball skills and playing games.
Gaelic Football
Nora Dwan, a local GAA coach came for the months of September and November to teach all classes Gaelic football. Nora introduced Junior and Senior Infants and First and Second class to Gaelic football skills and a variety of ball games. She works fantastically with all the children in our school.
Nora had our U11 and U13 boys and girls teams well prepared for their blitzes which took place in the month of November.
Hurling
Nora Dwan, also comes for the months for March, April and May to teach all classes Hurling. Again Nora introduces the infant classes to Hurling skills and many different ball games. The U11 and U13 boys and girls team did extremely well in their hurling blitzes which took place during the months of April and May.
John also comes to teach our hurling teams (pupils from 3rd-6th class) skills every Wednesday. He also focused on fundamental movement skills through the medium of games with our pupils from Infants to 4th class.
Circus Workshop
Joanna Parks, from Cloughjordan Circus Club, came during the months of November and December to complete a circus skills workshop with our pupils from 3rd-6th class. The children learned a range of skills such as juggling, hat manipulation, balance pyramids and more! The children really enjoyed such a unique and fun experience.
FAI Soccer
John Paul O’ Meara, a coach from the FAI came to teach soccer skills to our pupils from 1st-6th class every Wednesday during the months of November and December. The children are huge soccer fans and players here at Bishop Harty N.S so this partnership was a firm favourite among our pupils. John Paul established a superb relationship with the children and introduced our children to some wonderful soccer activities.
Swimming
All children from 1st-6th class went for swimming lessons in Nenagh Leisure Centre for a period of 6 weeks during the months of January and February 2019. As this was a new experience for our children, it was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Operation Transformation walks
In collaboration with the very successful TV programme ‘Operation Transformation’, we decided to undertake an Operation Transformation walk every Wednesday for the duration of the programme and in conjunction with Ballymackey FC. The Active School Committee led these walks every Wednesday. The walk lasted 30 minutes each week. No better way to begin our day than getting the children active!
Sporting Achievements
Achievements outside of school are regularly celebrated here at Bishop Harty NS. Children are always encouraged to share stories with their class about their active hobbies and sporting activities outside of school. The children are encouraged to perform their talents for other classes e.g. Irish Dancing.
What club are you in?
As part of our journey towards achieving the active flag, we were interested to see what clubs/activities the children are involved in outside of school. Pupils in 3rd and 4th class conducted a whole school survey to find out this information and it was wonderful to see the variety of clubs our children are involved in. It is also great to see the wide range of clubs available to our pupils, something to suit all interests! Well done to all involved.
Active School Week
*Pending
Our very first Active school week will take place from 10th – 14th June 2019.
We have some very exciting initiatives taking place during this week. Some exciting activities already planned include Zumba and Crossfit exercises classes, a taster session of Athletics in Nenagh Athletic Club to link with our Strand focus this year, an orienteering hike to the Galtee mountains for our senior pupils, the launch of our Active Walkway, complete the daily mile, many student vs teacher challenges and much more!
Throughout this week, both teachers and pupils will wear tracksuits. There will be no homework, only PE homework and children will be as active as possible. The Active School Committee will be hugely responsible for organising the events throughout this week.
All classes in our school are taught five out of the six strands of the P.E. curriculum each year.
The six strands include: Aquatics, Athletics, Games, Dance, Gymnastics and Outdoor and Adventure.
Physical Education is allocated an hour per week of overall teaching time. Discretionary time is also used towards P.E. We have standardised the school year so that all classes are taught the same strand at the same time.
Teacher Planning
All teachers in our school have access to a range of resources in order to provide an efficient PE lesson to our pupils. A range of wonderful resources such as the PE curriculum, the PSSI lesson plans, the Move Well, Move Often books, GAA books, PAWS and a variety of warm-up and cool-down activities that have been accumulated by the teachers are very much a vital aspect in the delivery of our PE lessons here in Bishop Harty NS.
P.E. Equipment
Our Active Schools Committee undertook the big challenge of transforming our PE store this year. They have done an amazing job and continuously monitor our PE store to ensure it is kept neat and tidy. All our equipment is clearly labelled ensuring ease of access for both our teachers and pupils.
P.E. Resources
We have a dedicated area in our staff room where teachers can easily access Resource books for P.E.
Athletics
This year the strand of Athletics has been the area we have prioritised. Athletics is taught under the strands of running, jumping and throwing and Understanding and appreciation of athletics. We scheduled it to be taught during the months of September and October to link with the local Cross Country competitions. It is also taught during the months of April and May as our CPD is covered at this stage and we also scheduled to undertake the Fit4Class Athletics programme during these months with the nicer weather.
We have broadened our skills and teaching methodologies within this Strand. The teachers are working in collaboration with each other and are offering each other vital support in terms of techniques, skills and ideas used. The teachers have focused on teaching the fundamental movement skills most suitable for Athletics such as running during the months of April and May. This is a popular strand among the children who love the aspect of competition involved in activities like relay races, obstacle courses and so on.
Aquatics
There was great excitement this year when it was decided swimming was talking place during school hours for all pupils from 1st – 6th class. All pupils attended swimming lessons in Nenagh Leisure Centre for a period of six weeks from 11th January to 15th February 2019.
The children receive excellent tuition and enjoyed this new experience very much. All children will be presented with a PAWS certificate for the level they achieve at the end of the year. Junior and Senior Infants were taught the Land Paws Programme.
Dance
Dance is taught during the months of November and December. These months were chosen as the weather is generally poor and it also happened to link in with our Christmas Concert productions this year where the children were very much involved in the creation of dances to accompany songs in their production. This was an excellent opportunity for cross-curricular exploration!
The strands of exploration, creation and performance of dance and Understanding and appreciation of dance are covered. With the children being the teachers vital resource, the PSSI lesson plans are also a very useful resource when planning our dance lessons.
Games
The Strand of Games is covered by teachers during the months September and October and it continues throughout the year with local coaches coming to train the children in sports such as Gaelic Football, Hurling/Camogie, FMS games and Tag Rugby.
The children are extremely fortunate with the wide variety of games they can participate in both at school and at local level in competitions.
Across the classes students participate in a wide variety of games during PE lessons conducted by teachers. Basketball, Dodgeball, Hockey, Rounders are just some of the games the children take part in. We are fortunate enough to have wonderful playing grounds here at our school such as a basketball court, a soft court, a large GAA pitch not to mention access to the local Astroturf field which we are very grateful for. These resources along with our adequate equipment assist our teachers greatly in delivering the games strand.
Outdoor and Adventure
The Strand of Outdoor and Adventure is covered by teachers during the months of May and June. The strands of walking, orienteering, outdoor challenges and understanding and appreciation of outdoor and adventure activities are covered by the class teachers. The PSSI lesson plans are a very valuable resource for our teachers when teaching this strand. It is our intention to go on a whole school walk in the local area and take the pupils from 3rd-6th class on an orienteering hike in the Galtee Mountains to Lake Muskery during the month of June 2019.