Meelick Primary School is an Active School. We worked together last year to get our first Active School Flag and we couldn’t be prouder of our pupils and school community who helped us achieve this!

 

Active Schools is an initiative that promotes physical activity that is valued and enjoyed by all. It provides schools with a framework to guide, support and incentivise them to work towards achieving a physically educated and physically active school community. It links in with all of the work we are doing throughout the year on Healthy Living – being active, getting exercise, taking care of our minds and bodies. For more information on the Active Schools Initiative, see here.

 

As part of our Active Flag we want to promote sports and physical activity in our school and we need your help! Below are two surveys about sport in our school: one for parents and one for the students. We would really appreciate it if you could fill them out. Thank you for your help! 🙂

 

Parents Survey

Students Survey

Physical Education

We thrive to ensure that our pupils receive a minimum of 60 minutes of PE each week. As part of Active schools, we decided as a school that we would focus on Outdoor and Orienteering strand as our school focus. See our pupils in action below!

Dance 

Each class engages with dance in the curriculum. Students are given a chance to explore, create and perform which in turn leads to better understanding and appreciation of dance.

Athletics

Our students love interacting with the athletics strand. We focus on running, throwing and jumping, thus giving the students an understanding and appreciation of athletics.

Games

Through various games, the students learn how to send, receive and travel using a variety of different equipment. They are also encouraged to create and participate in games.

Gymnastics 

Students are encouraged to participate in movement experiences both led by the teacher and creatively on their own or with their friends.

Outdoor & Adventure

We are very fortunate to have our Active School Walkway as it facilitates outdoor challenges, orienteering and walking. This is our whole school focus for Active Schools as learning on the move is beneficial for our students.

Aquatics

Each Year in Scoil Mhuire, all students from First to Sixth Class go to Grove Island for Swimming Lessons. They are taught how to swim, water safety and especially how to enter and exit the pool safely.

Paws 

Every class participates with PAWS Water Safety.  In the last term of the school year the children explore Water Safety Ireland’s PAWS (Primary Aquatics Water Safety). This programme highlights the essential life-saving guidelines that every child needs to know.

Physical Activity

Physical Activity is essential when becoming an Active School. We have engaged with various annual events such as Active Halloween, Active Break Every day, Active Advent, Orienteering Tráith na gCeist and Run around Europe Challenge to date.

To increase our physical activity during school, our Playground Leaders have been distributing equipment at playtime to encourage more activity. Everyone has been benefitting by the equipment on the yard and playtime has become much more fun!

Playground Equipment

All of our equipment has been updated and is easy to find in our Sports Equipment Store.

Music in the Yard

Music on the yard is always a hit in our school. The children love dancing and requesting songs.

Playground Leaders

Our Playground Leaders distribute equipment and encourage participation by all.

Active Walkway

Our Students love learning on the move. Our Walkway has had lots of use this year.

Active Break Every Day – Olympic DARE Challenge

The Active break every day Olympic challenges introduced some of the Irish Team that took part in the 2020 Olympics

Run Around Europe Challenge 

The children loved the Run Around Europe Challenge. Each class was so excited to see what city they could reach over the month!

Active Halloween

We had Pumpkin Relay Races, Spooky Dancing, Witch Hat Toss, Ghost Strike and Pumpkin and Dracula Tick-Tack-Toe.

Active Advent 

Each day during Advent each class had to find the activity behind the date.

Orienteering Tráth na gCeist

Le linn Seachtaine na Gaeilge, bhí tráth na gceist treodóireacht ag na páistí. Bhí an spraoi acu.

Active Easter

The children had Egg and Spoon races, Easter themed Fundamental Movement Breaks and Easter-Egg Jigsaw Orienteering.

Sports Blitz

Our students are given the opportunity to engage in many different blitz throughout the academic year. They have participated in the cumann na mbunscol hurling, camogie and football and also competed in rugby blitz organised by Munster Rugby.

Partnerships

Working together always makes things more fun and with Active Schools there is no difference. As a school we asked our students to come up with our Active Slogan and they did not disappoint. It was so hard to pick one so we had to pick runner-up slogans too!

 

Our Active School Committee have worked very hard behind the scenes assisting with organising activities and also helping with informing the pupils of the various activities running in the school! Our Playground leaders distributed equipment and encouraged participation daily.

 

We are fortunate to be surrounded by many clubs and sports facilities. We have been lucky enough to have linked up with our local parish hurling, camogie and football team, rugby teams. First class to sixth class enjoy swimming in Grove Island each year also.

Active Slogan

Let’s stay active, let’s have fun,

Get your friends and go for a run,

Stop being lazy, come out and play,

Come on Meelick, Save the day!

by Clodagh Riordan.

Active Committee

Our Active Committee have been great to assist with events and initiatives throughout the year!

Active Playground Leaders

Our Playground leaders have distributed and encouraged play on the yard daily in our school!

Dance Leaders

Our dance leaders helped with our on yard breaks and during our Dance Take Over Day!

What Club are you in Survey

It was so interesting to see all the different clubs that our students are in in our school!

Rugby Coach

We loved having Kenneth From the IRFU in to give our students a taste of what Rugby is like!

Hurling & Camogie Coach

Since January the children from Juniors to 6th have engaged with Hurling and Camogie training with Jim. Many thanks also to one of our parents Catherine who joined us to coach the children for Cumman na mBunscoil competition!

Gaelic Football Coach

From September to Christmas we were so lucky to have Mick from the local GAA club to train the children for their football blitz. The children also kept their skills alive with Jim who trained the whole school each Friday.

Celebrating our Students

We are so proud of our students and we love to celebrate their achievements in our school!

Welcoming our Local Clubs

We love welcoming our local clubs into our school to tell the students about all the fantastic facilities and teams they have.

Active Schools Week

Active Schools Week was a week not to forget in our school! The children participated in various activities and we even had a whole school dance! Some of the Active School Activities included; Obstacle Course, Co-operative Games, Dance Take-Over, Skipping challenge, Mindfulness bubbles, Music on the yard, Active Homework and including our walkways in our learning.

Obstacle Course 

We started our ASW with an Obstacle course. The children had to navigate their way through different activities in pairs and reach the finish. Some of the activities that were included in the Obstacle course were, ladders, balancing beams, skipping ropes, hula hoops, poly spot throw, and dart throw.

Co-operative Games 

The children really enjoyed the co-operative games during active school week. They worked as a together as a team to complete various activities. Some of the activities that the children engaged in were  the Hula Hoop Rock Paper Scissors, Polyspot Pass, Hula Hoop Pass and Don’t touch the ball.

Movement Breaks

The children have participated in many movement breaks during ASW. The children completed both in-class and outdoor movement breaks which they really enjoyed.

The children also completed some of the European Olympic Challenges along with dance movement breaks during ASW.

Skipping Challenge 

The children were challenged to skip their age ten times using an physical or invisible skipping rope.

Mindfulness Bubbles

The boys and girls in the infant classes had so much fun making bubbles and catching their friends bubbles on the yard.

Dance Movement Breaks 

To link in with our dance take-over on the last day of ASW the children completed dance movement breaks during the week.

Active Homework

To increase activity in our school we encouraged Active Homework which the children loved.

Dance Take-Over

Our Dance Take-Over was so much fun!

Teacher v’s Students

Our 6th Class Students put our teachers to the test for a basketball shoot-off. Everyone had lots of fun!

Junior & Seniors Walkway

Junior and Senior Infants engaged in Walkway activities on handwriting and find the shape.

First & Seconds Walkway

First and Second Class participated in Walkways on the telling the time on the clock and mindfulness.

Third and Fourths Walkway

Third and Fourth Class completed Walkways on Clocks Analogue and Digital time and on Shapes.

Fifth & Sixths Walkway

Fifth and sixth class completed Walkways on Flags and Countries and Multiplication.

Hurling & Camogie Coach

To conclude our ASW, all students participated with hurling and camogie coaching with Jim.