Active School Week 2019
About the Active School Flag
The Active School Flag (ASF) initiative is a Department of Education and Skills initiative (DES) supported by Healthy Ireland (HI) which aims to get more schools, more active, more often. It is awarded to schools that strive to achieve a physically educated and physical active school community. ASF forms part of the National Physical Activity Plan and the Healthy Ireland vision where everyone can enjoy physical and mental and well-being to their full potential, and where well-being is valued and supported at every level of society and is everyone’s responsibility. 80% of Irish children, currently, are not active enough (Children’s Sport Participation and Physical Activity Study, 2010). They are present in every classroom in the country. ASF provides schools with a template to get their whole school more active, within the confines of the school day, with an emphasis on FUN and INCLUSION. Ballaghameehan National School are very proud to already have taken part in Active Schools and are excited to get started on our journey to our next Active Schools Flag and will keep you updated below.
From the 7th May – the 10th May the children took part in a range of activities. This year as part of Active Schools Week the school had to take part in a whole school fun activity and try something new. As part of our whole school fun activity the school went on a trip to Lough Key Forest Park. Both rooms went on a walk around the park and learned lots of interesting facts about the area from their guides. The junior room then went to the park where they enjoyed; climbing bars and ropes, zip lines, monkey bars, bicycles, swings, slides, obstacles courses and lots more. The senior room also got to took part in the Lough Key Boda Borg challenge. They used teamwork, ingenuity and lots of exploring to get them through the puzzles and activities before joining the junior room again in the park. The children all agreed this was definitelya whole school fun activity.
Tuesdays activity was a Welly Throwing contest. Which turned into a very competitive event with teachers and Deacon Padraig getting involved!! On Wednesday the children took part in their new activity for this years Active Schools Week which was orienteering. All the classes were divided into teams and took part in orienteering tasks. On Thursday we welcomed a GAA coach to learn some new Gaelic skills and on Friday the children went swimming. Both rooms also completed a Maths trail which involved lots of hands on Maths tasks around the school. PE homework challenges were completed every evening for the week.
