Active Flag

St. Attracta’s N.S. was delighted to be awarded its first Active School Flag in June 2021. During 2023-2024 we are working on renewing our Active Flag. We hope our efforts will be rewarded with a second Active Flag in June 2024.

Watch out here for updates on our 2023-2024 Active Flag Committee, a new Active flag slogan and Active School events throughout the year.

The Active School Flag 2023-2024 Calendar dates and activities will guide us in our work during the year.

Physical Education

St Attracta’s is committed to providing high-quality Physical Education to all pupils.  All classes receive 60 minutes of formal PE lessons each week.  All classes are taught the strands of Athletics, Dance, Gymnastics, Games and Outdoor & Adventure each year.  Pupils from our 4th classes also take part in Aquatics, having swimming lessons in Claremorris Pool. See our whole school P.E. Plan.

Teachers use a variety of resources to guide them in delivering quality PE lessons. PSSI Lesson Plans are widely used throughout the school and we have focused on the Athletics strand for the school year 2023/2024.

We have already introduced and embedded the the Move Well, Move Often programme to teach the Fundamental Movement Skills to all pupils into our whole school School P.E. Year 1 & 2.  All classes are taught the same strand and Fundamental Movement Skill at the same time during the school year. This allows for the sharing of resources and ideas among staff and ensure that an equal amount of time is given to each strand.

Our school teaches the Land PAWS water safety programme every year.

Our PE equipment and resources are clearly labelled, well organised and accessible  in our P.E Equipment Storage steel container. Every class is also supplied with its own sports equipment for break times.

Watch out here for images below to see our what’s going on in our P.E. lessons!

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Physical Activity

Here are some of the activities the Active Flag Committee will organise to help all classes get more active. Pupils will be encouraged to share more suggestions with the Committee using the Suggestion Box in the school reception area.

•  11-B4-11  –  11-B4-11 activities for all classes on Fridays.
• Active special occasions – Halloween and Christmas themed 11-B4-11; TableTennisTakeOver Day;
• Lunchtime Leagues – lunchtime leagues at different times during the school year in Basketball, Table Tennis and Soccer. Teams are made up of pupils  from different classes and matches are played during lunchtime. Older pupils act as referees for the matches.
• Playground Leaders – Pupils from 5th to 6th classes to give up one lunch break per week to play games with the Junior Classes, ensuring they are active and happy throughout break time. Our school trained these pupils as playground leaders. Pupils in the playground leader role rotate during the year to ensure that as many children as possible have an opportunity. The school facilitates the use of playground equipment during breaktimes. Playground leaders oversee the daily distribution and collection of the equipment.
• Active School Walkway – Pupils will use our designated  run / walkway around the playgrounds in our school. One lap of the walkway is 500m, meaning that for every 2 laps you do, you have completed 1 kilometre.
• Active Breaks – All classes will take part in active breaks throughout the school day. This includes Go-Noodle and a variety of classroom movement ideas. On a wet day, if pupils cannot go outside at break time, extra time is given to movement breaks in the classroom.
• Run Around Ireland Challenge – Every class will complete the ‘Run a Day’ challenge, as a whole school initiative, over a period of 4 weeks in Term 2.. Each class will select an Irish landmark to ‘run’ to e.g. the Spire in Dublin which is 183km away. We will use our Active Walkway to clock up the kilometres; 2 laps of our walkway is 1km. Progress for each class in the Run Around Ireland Challenge will be updated on class noticeboards. Our school promotes physical activity in a cross-curricular way through the Run Around Ireland Challenge. Teachers will use the running destinations to support pupils in their study of geography, history and maths.
• Active Homework – Teachers will assign identified active homework to pupils once weekly.
• Staff v 6th Class Step Challenge – the 6th class pupils will take on the staff in an active challenge. The Active Flag Committee Pupils look forward to coming up with an active challenge that will test the staff!! More details to follow…

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Partnerships

Our school invites local sports clubs and physical activity providers to give sessions as part of our P.E. 2 Year Plan. We also actively work with local clubs to promote new membership from our pupils.

• Ballaghaderreen GAA – In 2023 /2024   we will continue to build on the strong links developed since 20219 with our local GAA club. An increasing number of our pupils play at under age levels. This follows on from the intense coaching imitative run during 2022/2023 when all classes were provided with weekly sessions throughout the school year. We are very lucky to have access to the wonderful pitches including the  new astro turf which we  use for school annual sport’s day as well as training for school teams. We enter teams in the Mini-7s and Cumann na mBunscoil leagues – football and development  hurling and camoige.  In 2021 we introduced hurling sessions for all pupils from 3rd to 6th class as part their weekly P.E. curriculum. In May 2023 the girls’ team won the camoige Division 3 league title.
• Be Active for Parents – this initiative helps parents get involved in a real way with our Active Flag activities. Parents of children in the infant classes are invited to join our Súgradh Le Chéile days. These run for a hour during the school day. Parents and their children are put through their paces in a fun way.  Morning talk and walk sessions are also arranged for all parents just after the morning drop-off.
• Tennis Ireland– coaches from Tennis Ireland visit the school for a block of time each year to teach tennis skills to our junior classes. They also coach our senior tennis team for the local tournaments in the summer term. Tennis Ireland provided lessons during our school’s Summer Camp which ran from 20th to 24th July 2020.
• FAI Soccer Coaching– Pupils from 2nd to 6th class receive soccer lessons through the FAI for a x6 week coaching block each year. In 2022-2023 the school also provided after-school soccer coaching lessons for x6 weeks. These were run off on at the local soccer club by FAI trained coaches.
• Active Flag Homework–  Active Flag homework is assigned to all our pupils each week.
• Active Flag Committee – Our Active Flag Committee (AFC) is combined with our Pupil Voice Committee this year. The Pupil Voice Committee does great work every year by running lunchtime leagues. Pupils are given various roles and tasks to carry out throughout the school year such as making announcements to the classrooms on various initiatives, designing posters for the school, carrying out surveys and checking the suggestion box. Our pupils play a very important role in organising and delivering our Active Flag initiatives.
• Wall of Fame – We have a digital screen in the main corridor for all to see. This scree displays the achievements of pupils in varied activities outside of school as well as achievements, both sporting and otherwise made in school.
• HSE Health Promotion – We explore how we can develop a working partnership with the HSE’s Health Promotion Department through the local Health Promotion officer. We are committed to improving the overall health and well-being of our pupils.
• Watch out here to see images of  the school’s partnership with local sport clubs during 2023/2024.

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