Active School Flag
Scoil Ghráinne is currently working towards earning our second Active School Flag.
Physical Education in Scoil Ghráinne
There are six strands of the PE Curriculum that are covered throughout the year:
- Games
- Athletics
- Dance
- Gymnastics
- Aquatics
- Outdoor and Adventure
- Junior and Senior Infant classes have a minimum of two 30 minute PE lessons timetabled per week, 1st – 6th classes have a minimum of one 60 minute lesson per week.
- We have a whole school approach to the teaching of PE which supports collaborative planning and management of equipment.
- Lessons are differentiated to cater for different needs and in the case of unforeseen injuries; activities are adapted to ensure all children are physically active e.g. child with a broken leg can take part in throwing activities.
- Parents are informed of children’s progress in PE both at Parent Teacher meetings each November and in the End of Year Reports.
- Teacher’s use the PSSI lesson Plans to guide yearly and fortnightly planning.
Fundamental Movement Skills
The fundamental movement skills are prioritised by school staff and promoted throughout the children’s physical activity lessons. These skills consist of running, dodging, jumping for height, jumping for distance, skipping, side stepping, hopping and walking. Posters outlining these skills, a step-by-step guide of how to successfully implement each one in addition to visual aids are displayed in the school sport hall. Scoil Ghráinne recognises the importance of the fundamental movement skills in children’s physical development and how children can develop these sport-specific skills when practiced regularly. These skills are central in supporting children’s co-ordination and movement which is why they are prioritised.
More information on the Move Well, Move Often programme can be found at:
PE Equipment
The boys and girls in Scoil Ghráinne love to partake in various sports and activities during the school day. Our school’s PE equipment and resources are located in the store room at the back of the PE hall.
The layout of this room allows teachers to access various different PE equipment and resources. The PE equipment and resources in the store room are clearly labelled with written and visual pictures on them. This is great for allowing staff members to easily gather and return items quickly during the school day.
The PE equipment and resources are loved by all the boys and girls in Scoil Ghráinne. Our PE resources include- cones, bibs, beanbags, skipping ropes, hula hoops, sponge balls, footballs, rugby equipment, basketballs, ladders, tennis equipment, badminton equipment, athletics equipment and parachutes.
Aquatics and Swimming
All classes complete the Irish Water Safety PAWS program each year between the months of April to June.
4th and 6th classes attend six weeks of lessons each year in the National Aquatic Centre with qualified swimming instructors.
Additional Physical Activity
In our school, we love taking part in active breaks many times throughout the day! We do far too many different active breaks to list them all but some of our favourites are GoNoodle, 10 @ 10, Yoga with Adriene, The Body Coach, Cosmic Kids Yoga, Yoga & Corpoideachas le Ciarán ar Cúla4, Run Around Ireland, D.E.A.D. (Drop Everything and Dance) and The Daily Mile. We really enjoyed taking part in the ‘Active Break Every Day’ challenge earlier in the year, so much so, that many of us have continued with it in our classes! Here are some photos of us doing our Daily Mile! As you can see, we are having so much fun! We love having these active breaks as we know they help us to become much fitter and healthier and we can concentrate a lot better and learn even more when we return to learning, after our active break!
Run Around Ireland Challenge
Every class completed the ‘Run a Day’ challenge, as a whole school initiative, over a period of 4 weeks this year. This has been a great way to learn about Ireland and many of its famous landmarks around the country. It gave running a purpose for the children as they reached targets and goals each week. The children reached landmarks such as The Spire in County Dublin, The Rock of Cashel in County Tipperary and Hook Head lighthouse in County Waterford. This helped the children to develop good running technique throughout. Huge effort was put in daily.
60 Minutes Physical Challenge
The children from 3rd-6th class in Scoil Ghráinne were each given a copy of the 60 Minutes Physical Activity Challenge to complete each term. The children recorded any physical activity completed for one week on the template given to them by their class teacher. The World Health Orgsnisation recommends that children should accumulate at least 60 minutes of physical activity daily, which is accumulated along with being active in during the school day. Examples of the children being active outside of school were walking or cycling to school, going for a walk or run as exercise and training for a team or individual sport.
Active Homework
All pupils areceive PE homework once per week, related to the PE strand they are working on.
- Click here to download a bank of active homework resources that the students/teachers can choose from to use for their active homework.
- Click here to download a sample of active homework activities that are related to the Athletics strand. This resource is suitable for all levels and contains activities for the week.
Local Clubs Partnerships
We are very lucky to partner with local clubs and teams each year.
- All classes participate in a 6 week block of GAA training with Erin go Bragh
- 5th and 6th classes complete rugby coaching with Leinster Rugby
- 4th class take part in Cycling Safety with Fingal County Council