“The Active School Flag (ASF) is awarded to schools that strive to achieve a physically educated and physically active school community. The process aims to get more schools, more active, more often.”
Knockainey National School is aiming to achieve an active flag by improving the ‘Physical Education, Physical Activity and Partnerships’ within our school.
The active flag has been set up by teachers Ms. Sarah Donworth, Mr. Frank Wixted and Mr. Kieran Cleary who are joined by a student active flag committee and representatives from the parent body. We would also like to thank our principal Mrs. Marie Moloney for her constant support and interest in this project. Furthermore, we wish to thank our parent representatives in advance for their involvement in making our school an active school.
Committee members:
- Juniors: Robbie Madden
- Seniors: Paddy Kirby
- First: Padraig O’ Callaghan
- Second: Holly Dawson
- Third: Robbie Joy O’Regan
- Fourth: Julie Boyle
- Fifth: Bríd Keane
- Sixth: Áine Cleary, Josh Hartnett, Michael Leo, Alanna Hayes
- Parent Representatives: Johnny Tierney, Cherry Joy O’ Regan, Mike Burke and Emer Keane.
- Teaching Staff: Ms.Sarah Donworth, Mr. Frank Wixted and Mr. Kieran Cleary.
Our committee members play an important role in keeping the school active. Our 6th class playground leaders are in charge of collecting and returning equipment, tidying the P.E room, setting up the playground, collecting children from their rooms at 12.35 and monitoring the playground to make sure everyone is active and most importantly having fun. Our AS committee lead the exercises for the active lines. Our class reps report back to their own classrooms about what we are organising.
Active School Updates:
Physical Education
This year Knockainey NS strives to ensure that all pupils will receive 60 minutes of Physical Education per week.
The 6 strands in the P.E. Curriculum are:
- Athletics
- Dance
- Games:
- Gymnastics
- Outdoor and Adventure
- AquaticsThe 6 strands are covered throughout the year, whilst first to fourth class explore the strand of Aquatics in Term 3.
If you wish to look at the curriculum, it can be found on the Physical Education Curriculum
Athletics
Warm up activitiesDance
Head, shoulders, knees and toes for Seachtain na GaeilgeGames
Enjoying Duck,Duck Goose and Traffic Light gamesAquatics
3rd and 4th on their way to University of Limerick for swimming - Our Strand Focus 2017/8Outdoor and Adventure was our chosen strand to prioritise for this school year. We downloaded lessons from the PSSI website to stimulate ideas and a resource bank for teachers. We decided to focus on this strand for the month of March and also for Active School Week. The children really enjoyed using controls and creating their own snake walks. On completion of this focus, we found the children had developed map reading skills.
Physical Activity
Active Breaks in the Classroom:
During the day we Drop Everything and Dance (D.E.A.D) in our classrooms. This helps the children to concentrate and learn better. Each month the AS committee have a new memo with dances for every class to use. We had Dancing December, Jumping January, Fit February, Marching March, Active April and Move It May. We use Just Dance, 10@10 and GoNoodle.
Our Active Playground
Children in Knockainey National School have two playground breaks everyday. Our playground is zoned into four yards, Juniors and Seniors yard, 1st and 2nd yard, 3rd and 4th yard and 5th and 6th yard. All children are encouraged to run and play freely on their yards during small break. We encourage ‘Do Your Talking as You’re Walking’ during break and lunch.
We have delegated Playground Leaders from 6th class to lead active lunch breaks on a Tuesday and Wednesday. The sixth class are divided into four groups. Junior Infants, Senior Infants, 5th and 6th class have their active lunch break on a Tuesday whilst 1st to 4th have theirs on a Wednesday. The playground leaders have an active playground box with lots of games to choose from and they use P.E equipment such as hoops, cones, balls and beanbags on the yard. Hopefully the fine weather will continue and we will use the grass for more active lunch breaks.Our Playground Leaders:
Our Playground Pictures:
Our Running Initatiative 2017/8
The Active School Committee launched its ‘Run Around Ireland Challenge’ during Active School Week. Each class has a different place to run to. Juniors are running to Tipperary 25km, Seniors and 1st are running to Limerick 30km, 1st and 2nd are running to Cork 90km, 3rd and 4th are running to Galway 140km and 5th and 6th are running to Brow Head 200km. Each class has its own chart to mark their progress with their Sonic superhero character. Members of the AS committee check the classes progress every so often and mark it on the main chart on our ASF noticeboard. Keep up the good work everyone.
Active Homework – Super Troopers
We are currently taking part in the Laya Healthcare Super Trooper programme. It’s a great way for children and their families to become more active, whilst also highlighting the benefits of a healthy lifestyle in a fun way. The journals are jam packed with lots of activities as well as challenges around nutrition and wellbeing. You can also visit Laya Healthcare – Super Trooper to find out more information.
We started the programme in January and children are really enjoying the activities.
Active Person of the Month
We decided to set up an ‘Active Person of the Month’ award to encourage everyone to keep active. The teachers pick a child from their classroom for the award. The successful candidates from each classroom receive their own certificate at the end of the month. Teachers are not watching for someone who plays lots of sports but for someone who is working hard, having fun being active and inspiring others to be active.
We would also like to thank Laura and Julie Boyle for designing the display for our Notice Board.
Active Líne
During the week members of the Active School committee do exercises with all the school in their lines after break or lunch. This is a great way to keep everybody active. We practise our Super Trooper activities to make sure everyone is able to complete them during the week for their active homework. Some of our favourite activities include ‘Head Shoulders Knees and Toes’, squats, jogging on the spot and lunges.
Partnerships
Last February we composed a survey to find out what clubs are in our local area. Each class completed the survey. This was very helpful when deciding what to do for our Active School Week. Football, soccer and hurling in Knockainey seemed to be very popular.
See survey aboveOn completion of the survey, we found that the main clubs that we could link in with for our ‘Partnerships’ section were: Knockainey GAA/LGFA, Knockainey AFC,JT Fitness, Bruff Rugby Club, Scarteen Pony Club and Sunhill Harriers Athletics.
In addition, we have a suggestion box in which our Active leader write any suggestions they may come across from the different classes.
Active School Week 2017/8
We held our first Active School Week this year which took place from the 16th to the 20th of April. Students and staff enjoyed lots of physical activity throughout the week and as the week progressed the weather improved immensely. All the school children were allowed to wear their tracksuits everyday which proved very popular. We had a week full of activities.
Monday:
• 9.45: Whole school did ‘Wake Up Shake Up’ and an active dash around the ring.
• 1.45: Whole school ‘Drop Everything and Dance’ to the YMCA song.
• 2.00: 1st and 2nd class did soccer skills and games with Eoghan O’Donnell.
• 2.30: 3rd and 4th class did soccer skills and games with Eoghan O’Donnell.
Tuesday:
• 9.20: Whole school ‘Wake Up Shake Up’.
• 10.10: 1st and 2nd ran towards Cork and completed a maths trail.
• 10.30: 3rd and 4th ran towards Galway and completed a maths trail.
• 12.00: Junior Infants and Senior Infants enjoyed athletics with coach Cherry Joy O’Regan.
• 12.10: 1st to 4th went swimming.
• 2.00: 5th and 6th did football/hurling skills with coaches Kate O’Donnell, Emer Keane and Mike Burke.At 2.40 they had a football match boys v’s girls. The boys were just lucky to win by a goal. Well done boys! Hard luck girls!
Wednesday
• Walk on Wednesday from community centre for park and stride.
• 10.30: Whole school ‘Drop Everything and Dance’ YMCA.
• 1.00: Juniors and Seniors Games and Tug of War with Johnny Tierney.
• 1.30: 1st and 2nd Games and Tug of War with Johnny Tierney.
• 2.00: 3rd and 4th Games and Tug of War with Johnny Tierney.
• 2.30: 5th and 6th Games and Tug of War with Johnny Tierney.
Thursday
• 10.30: ‘Drop Everything and Dance’ YMCA.
• 11.00: 1st and 2nd Running towards Cork and Orienteering.
• 11.30: Juniors, Seniors and 1st Running, games and parachute activities.
• 1.00: 5th and 6th Running towards Brow Head, Orienteering and games.
• 1.30: 3rd and 4th Running towards Galway and Orienteering.
Friday
• 10.00: Penalty shoot-out and welly throw.
Juniors verses Mr. Wixted.
Seniors and 1st verses Mr. Cleary.• 11.00: Penalty shoot-out and welly throw
1st and 2nd verses Mr. Heffernan.• 1.00 Whole school performance of YMCA.
• 2.00: Penalty shoot-out, welly throw and Keepie Uppie competition.
3rd and 4th verses Mr. Wixted.
5th and 6th verses Mr. Cleary.
We hope you enjoyed your visit to our page, please stay tuned for more activities. Our aim is to get Knockainey NS ‘more active, more often’
Active Flag Team.