Active School Flag (ASF) is an initiative by the Department of Education and Skills supported by Healthy Ireland. It is awarded to schools who commit to developing and maintaining a physically active and a physically educated school community. As part of this initiative, schools aim to get active, more often.
All children require 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity every day but only 20% or one fifth of Irish children reach that target.
As part of the Active School Flag process, Scoil Bhríde will be developing four key areas:
Physical Education
Physical Activity
Partnerships
Active School Week.
Active School Flag Website: www.activeschoolflag.ie
Active School Week
Active School Week is one of the most memorable weeks in our school calendar. Children engage in exciting, challenging and fun activities throughout the week with their classmates, peers and teachers. Lots of activities and challenges builds and creates a love of exercise and a sense of shared purpose in maintaining a healthy lifestyle!
Active School Committee
An Active School Committee was elected with members from Junior Infants all the way up to 6th class. The Committee meets on Thursdays during lunchtime to discuss and make decisions on how to make our school more active during the day.
Our committee members are a dedicated group of children with wonderful ideas. The Active School Co-Ordinator in the school is Ms. Murphy.
Be sure to check out our Active School noticeboard in the hall where the Active School Committee will display any updates or announcements.
Physical Education
As part of The Primary School Curriculum (1999), pupils in Scoil Bhríde receive a minimum of 1 hour of timetabled physical education each week. On days when PE is scheduled, children can wear their school tracksuit and suitable footwear such as runners.
Physical Education or PE is split into different topics or strands such as: Athletics, Games, Gymnastics, Dance and Outdoor & Adventure. In Scoil Bhríde, we use the PSSI lesson plans to guide our delivery of the PE Curriculum.
Each class focuses on different strands from the curriculum at particular times of the school year.
Throughout the school day, there are lots of opportunities for children and staff in Scoil Bhríde to be physically active. During breaktimes, children and staff are encouraged to be as active as possible by taking some simple steps like “Doing your Talking as You’re Walking”!
Our Sixth Class love helping out in the Junior/Senior Infant yard at breaktimes.
In Scoil Bhríde we are huge fans of GoNoodle. NTV videos like Footloose and Can’t Touch This are a big hit. It’s a great way to be active on a rainy day with channels like Indoor Recess and Brainercise with Mr. Catman. Log on to https://family.gonoodle.com/ to try some of the activities for yourselves. Let us know your family’s favourite!
The Active School Committee have launched a new initiative this year called “Fit Fridays”. Each week we have an active assembly where the committee show 5 new exercises for the whole school to learn and practice. On Fridays we also have Drop Everything and Dance in the Juniors, Seniors and First Class yard. Our Active School committee are there to encourage everyone to jump, move and dance.
We’re working on even more ideas for Fit Fridays so keep an eye out for any new activities you think we could try.
If you are involved in a sports cub or are physical activity providers then we would be delighted to hear from you. We are anxious to get involved in as many new sporting initiatives and ideas as possible while we work towards our Active School Flag.
After our success collecting the 300 Aldi Play rugby stickers last year, we are very excited to get started again this year. As an extra challenge, we now have two posters to fill but that gives us double the chance of winning some of the great prizes on offer.
We are also really looking forward to getting great use out of our new Aldi Rugby kit this year.
Helpful websites:
Here are a list of some websites or apps which you might find helpful in keeping active at home.
- The Irish Heart Foundation
- Irish Water Safety
- Road Safety Authority
- Couch to 5k: available on iTunes or Google Play
- Supertroopers