Active School Flag (ASF) is a Department of Education and Skills initiative supported by Healthy Ireland, and part of the National Physical Activity Plan.

The ASF initiative provides schools with a framework to guide, support and incentivises them to work towards achieving a physically educated and physically active school community.

To achieve the Active School Flag, the following criteria should be fulfilled:

1. Physical Activity
2. Physical Education
3. Partnerships
4. Active School Week

Physical Activity

Physical Activity is the promotion and engagement of exercise and movement in addition to the 60 minute per week timetabled curriculum subject of Physical Education.

We at Scoil Mhuire are passionate about the physical health of our pupils and encourage children to get 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day.

Scoil Mhuire participates in a wide variety of different programmes and initiatives, which inspire our pupils to become more active.  Our school promotes physical activity into school calendar events, daily movement breaks along with holding seasonal activities and events.

ACTIVE SCHOOL COMMITTEE

We set up our own ASF committee where two children from each class in 3^rd to 6^th class were selected. Some of their roles include:

• Inform classes on upcoming events
• Brainstorm ideas for active participation
• Keep our active school notice board up to date
• Organise PE equipment after big lunch
• Help ASF co-ordinators to plan events
• Helped in the selection process of the ASF slogan

‘Stop Gaming, Start Training!’

• Help to lead playground activities on the yard
• Help to prepare, plan and execute events throughout the year

To find out more about our schools activity levels, our Active Schools Committee conducted a ‘What Club Are You In?’ survey on 2^st to 6^th class to find out about physical activity participation in the local community. The results are as shown on the chart below:

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

All classes engage in six different PE strands each year: Athletics, Aquatics, Dance, Gymnastics. Games, Outdoor and Adventure.  Each class receives at least an hour per week of physical education. By taking part in the Active School Flag programme it has helped us to focus on an improved provision of Physical Education in the school.

Athletics:

All classes follow PDST lessons on Athletics. Classes engaged in relay races, whole school relay and worked on developing jumping, throwing and running.

Aquatics:

The children from 2nd to 6^th class attended swimming lessons for eight weeks in the Aura Leisure Centre in Youghal, Co Cork. Each week the children learn and develop different swimming strokes and techniques. Aquatics consistently proves to be a weekly highlight for all children as they learn new skills and overcome fears

Our school teaches the Land Primary Aquatics Water Safety programme each year which outlines the essential life saving guidelines that every child should know.

As you can see below, the children from 4^th class received certificates on completion of this programme.

Gymnastics:

In gymnastics we focus on the basic movement actions of balancing, rolling, turning, twisting, stretching, climbing, transferring weight with a variety of rolls

Games:

Playing games is important for children’s development and contributes to their overall enjoyment of PE. Whether it be whole class, group, partner or individual games, children flourish in a fun environment where they can practise all the skills they have learnt. We have been fortunate enough to have a great partnership with local clubs and have benefited greatly from external coaches coming in sharing their skill set with the children.

Dance:

We have some fantastic dancers in Tallow NS- from break-dancers, Irish dancers and not to forget the free-stylers! Children love participating in movement breaks that incorporate dancing throughout the day. We host a ‘Feel Good Friday’ at lunch time every Friday where popular songs are played on a speaker and children enjoy throwing some shapes!

Outdoor & Adventure:

We are so lucky to have such wonderful amenities around our school that we avail of regularly. One of the children’s favourite outdoor adventures is doing the Ramp Boreen Walk which clocks up many Km’s towards our run around Europe Challenge. We also have set up our own course around the school with 14 stations where the children stop at a post and do the exercise marked. Great fun!

RUN AROUND IRELAND CHALLENGE

During March 2022, the whole school participated in a ‘Run Around Ireland’ Challenge. The aim of this challenge was to get all the children of up and active at different times during the school day.

This involved the use of our school walkway. Each lap a child completed counted as 1km. Look at all of the locations we have reached from Tallow…..

Spike Island, The Viking Triangle, Bunratty Castle, Killarney National Park, Dunmore Cave, National Aquarium of Ireland, Leap Castle, Mondello Race Track, Corlea Bog, Aviva Stadium, Croagh Patrick, Sport Ireland Campus, Armagh Observatory, Devenish Island, Glencar Waterfall, Proleek Dolmen, Surfing in Mullaghmore, Gobbins Cliff Walk, Ulster American Folk Park, Carrick-A-Rede Rope Bridge.

The 3^rd to 6^th class decided to go even further following on after March and wanted to run around Europe. Look at the picture below to see all of the locations they reached…

BREAKTIMES.

At Scoil Mhuire we are fortunate enough in having such amazing facilities to encourage activity at small and big break. Our facilities include a GAA pitch, 2 large grass areas, our zoned school walkway, 2 basketball courts and 3 free-play areas. Children use the walkway at break-times along with the free-play areas and basketball courts. The ASF committee help in the running and organising of lunchtime school GAA training. Friday’s are ‘Feel Good Friday’ where the school speakers are in full use, here you’ll find the children showing off some fun dance moves!!

Active Classroom/Rainy Day Breaks

All pupils engage in an extended classroom based physical activity break on wet days and short physical activity breaks during the day (Go Noodle, running breaks, 10@10, Just Dance, JoeWicks fitness challenges etc)

In particular the children have been loving participating in Olympic Movement breaks performed by Irish Olympic athletes.

Playground Leaders

We have super playground leaders from 4th to 6th. Our playground leaders take turns monitoring the junior and senior yard. The children plan and organise games, equipment and  ensure the area is safe for play. They explain and demonstrate the games, motivate the pupils and organise the tidy up afterwards.

GAA

Every day you’ll find our GAA pitch packed with boys and girls practicing their skills and training. Lunchtime training is from 3^rd to 6^th class in preparation for the GAA school’s competitions. We also run lunchtime blitz’s and training for 1^st and 2^nd class. Members of our ASF committee also help with the organisation, management and refereeing the games.  This year in 2023 our Girls Camogie team are the Western champions.

                                                Our 5^th class boys team representing the school at a hurling Blitz.

ACTIVE WALK  WAY

We are so lucky to have an Active Walk way in our school. By following all 14 signs we walk 0.5km. At each station, there are different activities that children can perform to improve their physical fitness.

The children also used the walkway for Active learning where they engaged in different activities at each station. Examples of some lessons included: finding the countries name matching the flag on each station, telling the time, multiplication games, writing descriptive sentences using the letters on each station as sentence starters, naming the 2d shape on each sign.

                                             Some children participating in the Wall Sit Challenge! Tough work!

PARTNERSHIPS

We believe partnerships are a key aspect of the Active School Flag. When a school participates in the Active School Flag Programme, it is vital to interact and engage with other organisations and clubs. It helps to spread the message of the importance of activity.

Our school invites different sports clubs/physical activity providers from the local community to visit our school during the year, to give information and taster sessions of their activity.

Coaches from the local clubs did some coaching GAA for children as taster sessions over a 4 week block and this was a great experience for all. This was from Tallow Camogie club and Waterford Camogie . Thanks to Liam for his coaching. Many children tried GAA for the first time and had great fun. Along with this, many of those children have since joined the local GAA club.

Our school has strong links with the local Tallow GAA club and Cois Bhríde. We work with these to advise children of training, competitions and who to contact about joining the clubs.

The school also engaged with the local soccer club getting some coaching and playing in a soccer blitz which was organised by Brideview United who are our local soccer club.

We also partnered with Waterford GAA for ‘Let’s move Waterford’. Children were given many different challenges to complete with their family as active homework exercises.

Waterford sports partnerships have helped the school to assist with information on different inclusive opportunities for schools in Waterford.

Cycling

Each Autumn, 5^th class engage in a 5 week ‘cycle right’ cycling programme. This includes learning how to safely cycle on the road and learn the rules of the road. Children learn to use the correct signs, approach junctions, roundabouts, positioning on the road etc. This programme also gave some children the opportunity to learn how to cycle for the first time and is hugely enjoyable and beneficial to all.

Active Flag Slogan

Well done to everyone who entered our active flag slogan and poster competition. We received some very creative ideas. Congratulations to Maryam in 4th class who won our active flag slogan competition which is “stop gaming, start training!!”.

Active Schools Week

Our active schools week (8^th-12^th May) was a major success where children participated in many different activities throughout the week which included some of the following:

1. Tracksuits replaced uniform.
2. Written homework was replaced with active homework where we worked with Waterford GAA for ‘Let’s move Waterford’. This involved performing active homework with their families. You can see some of the exercises in the partnerships section.
3. Class teachers used the school walkway with the children each day.
4. We performed a whole school relay which can be seen below. This was led by the older classes who helped the younger ones during the relay. The older classes loved the leadership of this.
5. There was a table tennis tournament which involved some teachers against pupils games.
6. All classes visited and used the local amenities which included the Ramp Boreen walkway, the local playground, local GAA pitch, lunchtime games tournaments and much more. This also involved the taster coaching sessions from local GAA club. Thanks to Liam for his coaching and to Barry for his help also.

See some pictures below from our active schools week…