Rathgarogue NS

Scoil Naomh Áine are proud current holders of the Active Flag. It was awarded in ‘2015‘ then renewed twice in ‘ 2018‘ and ‘2021‘. The Active School Flag is a Department of Education and Skills initiative which recognises schools that strive to achieve a physically educated and physically active school community, by awarding them with an Active School Flag.

The Active Schools Committee are currently working towards our 4th Active Flag in Scoil Naomh Áine. To achieve the Active School Flag we started by self-evaluating our current provision across PE, Physical Activity and Partnerships. We then planned and implemented improvements that continue to have a real and tangible impact on our school community.

Physical Education

• Our Whole School Physical Education (PE) timetable consists of 5 of the 6 PE strands each year. All classes are taught 5 different PE strands each year: Athletics, , Gymnastics, Games, Dance, Outdoor and Adventure, Aquatics*(Water Safety). The school plan reflects each of the strands of the curriculum and pupils are timetabled to receive 60 minutes Physical Education per week as a minimum.
• The Active School Flag Programme has helped teachers to work together to strengthen our delivery of a different PE strand each year. Teachers use the PE curriculum, PSSI lesson plans and the Move Well, Move Often Resources in their planning to guide their provision of physical education lessons. Scoil Naomh Aine are members of the Sports Inclusion Disability Charter. Our school works hard to ensure that P.E. activities are planned so that they are inclusive and accessible to all.
• Members of staff regularly undertake C.P.D. in P.E. and ideas and resources are shared among staff. The Active School flag is discussed at all staff meetings.
• Pupils from third and fourth class attend swimming lessons in the local swimming pool.
• Our school teaches the Land PAWS water safety programme each year to all classes.
• Physical Education progress is important to us in Scoil Naomh Aine, each student's PE progress is discussed with parents at P/T meetings and feedback is provided in the child's end of year report.
• Our school carries out an annual audit of P.E. equipment and resources are organized and clearly labeled in our P.E. store.
• All pupils receive P.E. homework related to the strand and the fundamental movement skills we are focusing on. The fundamental movement skill (fms) we are focusing on is sent out to parents on the first Monday (minding our mental health Monday) of each month in partnership with our wellbeing committee. The children have no homework on this day and are encouraged to practice their fms.
• This year we have prioritized the following fundamental movement skills for further development in our P.E. programme.

Locomotor- walking, running and Jumping for height/length

Stability- Balancing

Manipulation- Throwing and kicking

• The curriculum strand prioritized this year is Dance.

Physical Activity

Playground Breaks

Scoil Naomh Aine provides two daily playground running breaks for all classes. Each class has access to their own yard space for running and games. Each class has access to their own soccer pitch for soccer and other sports.

Pupils have access to sports equipment during breaks, each class has their own tubs of sport equipment and each class has a designated equipment leader who’s responsible for bringing equipment on and off yard and keeping an audit of their playground equipment.

Marathon kids (2022/2023)

Pupils in 5th and 6th class took part in the Marathon Kids programme. Our children learned about the health benefits of sport and performed running sessions each week inching them closer to completing their first marathon as well as learning about the benefits of physical activity. They completed a full marathon of 42.2 km.

Playground leaders

Our school trains pupils as playground leaders to encourage physical activity during break time. Our playground leaders organize and plan activities/ playground games for active break times twice a week Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Active Schools Walkway

All classes and staff use the signposted Active School Walkway around the perimeter of the school to promote physical activity and for cross curricular learning.

Active Breaks

All classes completed the 4 week Active Break Olympic challenge with Dare to Believe.

All classes were encouraged to complete the Road to Paris with Dare to Believe.

All classes complete an extended classroom based physical activity break on wet days, some of the activities include Go Noodle, Bizzy breaks, dance breaks, and dare to believe olympic challenges.

A whole school approach has been agreed towards setting actions to decrease sedentary time. These actions are posted on each classes' Active Class Poster.

Scoil Naomh Áine decreases sedentary time by

1. Active breaks throughout the day.
2. Going outside for a walk while having a classroom discussion/ using the active schools walkway.
3. Active learning in the classroom- completing classroom tasks while moving.

Run Around Ireland Challenge

We completed our walk around Ireland as part of our Step into Spring initiative. In total the whole school collectively completed 7,524km.

Run Around Europe Challenge

All classes completed the Run Around Europe challenge . This is a daily whole school initiative over a 4 week period in March and April.

Each class chose a capital city in Europe as a target city to run to. Any students who may have been born in one of these countries or who have strong ethnic relations to one of the countries there class chose that capital city/ country and the class used the run around europe challenge as an opportunity to learn about their peers ethnic background. We decided to make this challenge cross curricular. The children learned facts about their target capital city along their journey and each class shared a fact about the capital city they ran to at assembly.

The below table shows the capital cities each class chose to run to and the total kilometers ran by each class per week and by then end of the running challenge.

As a whole school our combined total of kilometers was 16,224km. The extra kilometers ran by the students in our school helped us reach the capital cities Brussels, Copenhagen, Paris, Oslo, Madrid and London.

Feel Good Fridays/ Feel Good Days

Our Active Schools and Wellbeing committee’s collaborated to provide the children with extra opportunities to improve their physical activity and reduce sedentary time while in school. The students were surveyed and asked how we can improve physical activity and wellbeing in our school. The children asked for extra break time. Once a month we planned extra active break times for the children, this involved the children being provided with a longer break time where they maintained physical activity through playing playground games.

Feel good friday: Dance Takeover

The whole school practiced the cha cha slide in their classes and came together on the basketball court to perform it as a whole school.

Feel good day: Whole school trip to Kennedy Park

In partnership with the wellbeing committee our whole school went on a trip to Kennedy park. Where we went on a walk of the grounds and played in the playground.

All physical activity is planned to ensure they are accessible to all using the Sports Inclusion Disability continuum.

Partnerships

• Active Flag Committee - At the beginning of the year students put themselves forward for the Active Schools Committee, the children had to outline their strengths to their class and why they wanted to be part of the Active Schools Committee. The children then voted for their class representatives. Our Active Schools Committee is made up of student representatives from Junior Infants to Sixth Class. There are two representatives from each class. There are also two teachers on the Active Schools Committee.
• The Committee meets regularly to discuss and plan upcoming events for Active Schools. The children work hard to promote physical activity in their classrooms and the school.
• Pupils are given various roles and tasks to carry out throughout the school year such as making announcements at assembly, giving messages to the classrooms on various initiatives, designing posters for the school, and carrying out surveys. Our pupils play a very important role in organizing and delivering our Active Flag initiatives.
• At the beginning of the year all classes were asked for suggestions and entries for an Active Schools Slogan. The committee met and voted on the winning slogan.
• Achievements – we love to celebrate the achievements of our pupils in physical activity outside school. We encourage pupils to bring in medals/cups etc that they have won so that they can share their accomplishments with their peers and encourage other students in the school. We have a wall of fame in our school where pupils' achievements are displayed for all to see.
• GAA: Games promotion officer AL Monohan visits our school every Tuesday to work on the various fundamental movement skills with all classes. We love all the games and activities AL does with us while developing our FMS.
• Rathgarogue Cushinstown GAA– we have a very strong school-club link with our local GAA club. Parents and club members come to our school for lunchtime GAA practice on a weekly basis.
• Leinster Rugby – The New Ross CCRO (Club Community Rugby Officer) visits the school for a block of time each year to teach rugby skills to our senior classes. At the end of the block the children get to go to the New Ross Rugby Club for a tag Rugby blitz. The children really enjoyed learning rugby skills.
• Local amenities: In partnership with the wellbeing committee our whole school went on a trip to Kennedy park. Where we went on a walk of the grounds and played in the playground.
• Sports Active Wexford – we work with Sports Active Wexford to deliver programmes to our pupils to enhance their physical development
• Sports Active Wexford facilitated a playground leaders course in our schools. Our students put themselves forward to become playground leaders, they then undertook a playground leaders course delivered by Sports Active Wexford.
• Cycling Ireland – Senior pupils receive cycling lessons through cycling Ireland provided by Shielbaggan Outdoor Adventure Centre in the Summer term. Some of our pupils cycle to school every day, we have a bike rack at the front of the school to facilitate cyclists.
• Sports Inclusion Disability Officer- Scoil Naomh Aine are members of the Sports Inclusion Disability Charter. Our school works hard to ensure that P.E. activities are planned so that they are inclusive and accessible to all.

Active Week

Our Active Week is planned for June 2024. During this week we like to try out new activities and sports. We like to engage in physical activity as a whole school. We encourage active learning and as much cross curricular physical activity as possible during this week. Staff physical activity challenges are a big part of this week including student vs teacher competitions. Staff wear tracksuits during this week and the children receive active homework during this week.