Active Schools Week took place in our school between Monday 27th and Friday 31st of May 2019. We engaged in many fun active events at school and at home, including a Summer themed Sports Day!
Have a peek below at some of the events we engaged in.
We had a very important visitor here today (22nd May 2019) in St. Michaels N.S. Donaghmoyne. John Mullen from the Active Flag Programme came to assess our school as an Active School. He was delighted with the work all our staff and pupils have been doing and will continue to do as part of this programme. We are delighted to announce that we have been successful and we have been awarded our Active Schools Flag.
In recent weeks, we have also been successful in achieving our Health Promoting School Status from Jennifer Treanor (Co-Ordinator of the Health Promoting Schools Programme) and we received our Health Promoting Certificate and flag.
Our third ‘Green Flag’ for Water Preservation and Conservation was also awarded to us by Moira Kelly (Monaghan County Council), who visited our school for our water themed day. We will celebrate everyone’s hard work and dedication towards the end of the school year when we raise our three flags.
Well done everyone on your fantastic achievements!
On Tuesday 14th of May 2019 we were very active in our school. We were fortunate to have Ryan Gaffney (on behalf of Monaghan G.A.A.) with us today to give us a taster session in hurling. The boys and girls had great fun and they also got the opportunity to practice some hurling skills. See some of the action below!
Today (9th May 2019), all classes commenced basketball sessions with our coach Enda. This will continue for the next five weeks. The children are really enjoying themselves as well as developing lots of basketball skills.
Active Breaks involve the children dancing and participating in various busy break activities which promote physical activity. Some of these examples include Just Dance, Go Noodle Dance, Busy Breaks and 10@10 challenges.
Children also do various exercises after each break for 10 seconds (Active Lines led by our Active Leaders) before entering the school.
Food Dudes is a programme developed by the University of Wales, Bangor, to encourage children to eat more fruit and vegetables both in school and at home. It is based on positive role models (the Food Dudes characters), repeated tasting and rewards. For the second time in May 2016 our children participated in this programme, tasting a variety of fruit and vegetables and receiving some wonderful awards for their efforts. Children got to taste foods they hadn’t eaten before and experiment with trying out some new ideas for healthy snacks.
As part of our Healthy Eating Promotion and our Irish Lessons, children got the chance to eat a healthy breakfast in school ‘as gaeilge’. Our Health Promoting Team continue to monitor the eating habits of the pupils in our school. Each class has appointed junk detectives to remind children of healthy eating Monday to Thursday, allowing for a small treat once a week on a Friday. Once a month a member of the team discretely does a lunchbox spot check to see that everyone is doing their best to eat healthily. We also choose one person a month from each class who has made a special effort to bring in a healthy lunch. Their names are displayed in our school each month. Literature and Newsletters are constantly sent out, providing parents with information on maintaining a balanced diet, providing parents with tips for healthy lunches and meals and also information on recommended portion sizes and daily dietary requirements for both adults and children. Our committee members have surveyed children on the most popular treats they eat and from that have compiled a Sugar Display Chart-highlighting the amount of sugar in those foods. They regularly visit the rooms to remind children of these ‘sugar-rich’ food. They also bring food props to our classrooms-showing children what portion sizes look like for children and adults alike. This gives a child a better idea of how much they should be eating each day. A suggestion box is also available for children to post suggestions of any healthy lunch ideas they may be able to provide!
World Mental Health day is celebrated every year and this year in school, we focused in particular on mental health among our pupils. We incorporated mental health lessons into our teaching on each day of this week!
We used child appropriate lessons to teach children about the importance of looking after their mind, just the same as they would look after any other part of themselves if it was unwell. The children enjoyed learning about their feelings and emotions and finding out some techniques for dealing with ‘negative’ feelings they encounter as part of their everyday lives!
We also listened to and learned about how real people (both adults and children) deal with difficult feelings. The website https://walkinourshoes.org. was used to explore these feelings. The children were interested to find out that everyone experiences ‘negative’ feelings sometimes and that this is perfectly normal. We also talked about different ways we may find useful to help us deal with our emotions
We held a design competition which encouraged children to design a poster incorporating a healthy living motto. Congratulations to Kiva who designed, what I’m sure everyone would agree, is a perfect Active Motto for our school to follow!
We use our WOW WALL to recognize children’s achievements both within school and also outside of school! This wall is an excellent way of encouraging both physical and mental well-being in our pupils!
Congratulations to the children from Ms Atkinson’s room who took part in the FAI five-a-side tournament in Gortakeegan on Tuesday 2nd and Thursday 4th April. Both teams played brilliantly and had great fun on the day.
A huge thank you to Peter and Ewan for volunteering their time to coach both teams in preparation for the day.
We are very proud of you all!
