Active Flag

St. Attracta’s N.S. was delighted to be awarded its first Active School Flag in June 2021.

During the school year 2019-2020 and again from 31st August 2021 to June 2021 we worked very hard to achieve our Active Flag.  Our Active Flag Committee led the pupils, teachers and parents throughout over the two years as we all made our Active Flag school slogan FITTER, HEALTHIER, HAPPIER a reality! The composition of our ASF committee changed over the two years. Unfortunately the Covid-19 school closures from 12th March 2020 and again from 6th January 2021 impacted on our plans. But Covid-19 didn’t dampen our enthusiasm that has already caught hold. While adhering to the Covid-19 restrictions, pupils and teachers kept our Active Flag pursuit alive during the lock-down. Our Active School Week became a highly successful Active Home Week. See all our class videos and images shared on our school twitter account. To find the Active Flag tweets, simply do a search of the words ‘@Active Flag’.

The videos below give a  small flavour of the activities we completed before we had to close.  Andy Moran, a past-pupil, launched our Active School Flag bid with a very energetic 10@10.  All classes also enjoyed our Active Halloween circuit stations. Watch more videos here on our school’s Vimeo channel – when the page opens, scroll down to all the ASF labelled videos.

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 3rd-4th class also take part in Aquatics, having swimming lessons in Claremorris Pool.

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 2019/2020. We also introduced the Move Well, Move Often programme to teach the Fundamental Movement Skills to all pupils. From November 2019, we introduced a School P.E. Year 1 & 2 , meaning that 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. From April 2021, we introduced a specially revised School P.E. Year 2 – TERM 2 & Term 3 plan in light of the period of distance learning from January to March 2021.

Our school teaches the Land PAWS water safety programme in the 3rd and 4th classes every year. These are the classes that attend swimming lessons as set out in the school’s plan for P.E. Year 1 & 2. For 2020-2021, the PAWS programme was also taught from the Junior Infants to Second Class (see photos below).

Our PE equipment and resources are clearly labelled, well organised and accessible. In line with our Covid-19 Response Plan, every class was given its own supply of P.E. equipment (see photos below). In May 2021 the school took delivery of a brand new steel container for the storage of P.E. equipment – see the video of its arrival on our school twitter feed here. From September 2021 we look forward to using this single storage place for all our equipment.

Click on the images below to see our Physical Education highlights!

To enlarge the images below, double click on any image.

Physical Activity

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

•  10@10 circuits – we run 10@10 circuits for all classes on designated days every month.
• Active special occasions – we run special 10@10 circuits for Halloween and Christmas. For 2019-2020 our Easter and summer special occasions were victims of the Covid school closures.
• Fitness Friday – classes  move from station to station in the yard over a 10 minute period. Each station is led by a pupil from a senior class and/or playground leader.
• Lunchtime Leagues – we run various lunchtime leagues throughout the school year in Spikeball, Football and Soccer. Teams are made up of boys and girls from different classes and matches are played during lunchtime. Older pupils act as referees for the matches.
• Playground Leaders – Before the Covid-19 restrictions pupils from 4th to 6th classes gave 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. Since the introduction of our Covid-19 Response Plan, all classes appoint their own 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 – We have a designated 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. We introduced the walkway in June 2019 and, in 5 days, we collectively walked and ran the distance from Ballaghaderreen to Lough Key Forest Park.
• Active Breaks – All classes 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 completed the ‘Run a Day’ challenge, as a whole school initiative, over a period of 4 weeks during late April and May 2021.  year. Each class selected an Irish landmark to ‘run’ to e.g. the Spire in Dublin which is 183km away. We used 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 was updated on class noticeboards. Our school promotes physical activity in a cross-curricular way through the Run Around Ireland Challenge. Teachers use the running destinations to support pupils in their study of geography, history and maths.
• Active Home Week and Virtual Sports Day – please see the section below
• Staff v 6th Class Step Challenge – the 6th class pupils take on the staff in a step challenge. Pupils wear pedometers for a week recording their steps every day. The following week, it’s the staff’s turn and whoever gets the most combined steps are the winners. The winners then choose a forfeit for the losers!!Click on the images below to see our Physical Activity highlights!

To enlarge the images below, double click on any image.