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!
Congratulations to Eva, Isobel and Grace who took part in the All-Ireland Variety Show in Traboolgan, County Cork on Sunday 24th March 2019. The girls took home numerous trophies and came first place overall as part of the ‘Born to Perform’ stage school.
We are super proud of the three girls!
On Sunday 10th March 2019, all roads led to Donaghmoyne as our annual 5K Walk/Run took place. We would like to say a huge thank you to our Parent’s Association for their efforts in organising the race – it was a huge success and raised some very much needed funds for our school!
Congratulations to all of the winners listed below!
Men’s Winners | ||
| 1st Place | Henry Campbell | 20 minutes 11 seconds |
| 2nd Place | Ryan Duffy | 20 minutes 45 seconds |
| 3rd Place | Declan Martin | 20 minutes 54 seconds |
Women’s Winners | ||
| 1st Place | Orla Hamill | 23 minutes 18 seconds |
| 2nd Place | Erin Smyth | 26 minutes 20 seconds |
| 3rd Place | Deirdre McMahon | 27 minutes 07 seconds |
| Children’s Winners | ||
| Boys – 1st Place | Oran Smyth | |
| Girls – 1st Place | Áine Smyth | 25 minutes 10 seconds |
In December, teachers completed a ‘Mini Me Yoga’ Foundation course with Natalie Boyle. Today the children in Mrs Mc Guirk’s room got the opportunity to engage with yoga in a fun and active, but meaningful way. This is another step towards helping increase the overall mental health and well-being of both pupils and teachers as part of our Health Promoting Schools Campaign and Active Flag Campaign.
Here are some of the many benefits of teaching yoga to kids:
Yoga helps kids to:
The children enjoyed their session today and I can definitely see the children reaping the many rewards listed above!
As part of our Health Promoting Campaign and our Irish topic ‘food / bia’, we practiced our food vocabulary with a variety of poems and teacher-designed flipcharts. Then we designed a breakfast menu (biachlár). Then, we enjoyed a Healthy Breakfast as Gaeilge. We enjoyed some food, while practicing our ‘Gaeilge’ at the same time.
See some photographs below!!
Active Breaks for January & February 2019
We as a staff decided to commence the new year with adding an active break to our daily schedule. Each teacher decided which activity they would undertake, from running, dance or an exercise break. We concentrated on this for four weeks. See below for an example of our work.
Well done everyone for your active participation!
60 Minute Physical Activity Challenge
We also dedicated a total of 60 minutes to physical activity both in school and at home as part of our Active School Campaign. We really have kicked 2019 off to a Healthy Start!!
Our Parent’s Association have taken on the task of organising this weekly event in Donaghmoyne in 2019. This is the first year St. Michael’s National School and the people of Donaghmoyne have taken part in this initiative.
The first weekly event took place on Tuesday 15th January with over fifty people turning up on the day. The campaign will take place for eight weeks, occurring every Tuesday at 7pm. This is a great opportunity for people in this rural area to meet socially, while being active at the same time.
We look forward to seeing you all every Tuesday!
On the 10th of December, teachers completed a ‘Mini Me Yoga’ Foundation course with Natalie Boyle. We received lots of ideas for teaching children how to engage with yoga in a fun and active, but meaningful way. We found this course an excellent resource for allowing us the chance to acknowledge each individual child and help them develop a positive self-image. This was another step towards helping increase the overall mental health and well-being of both pupils and teachers as part of our Health Promoting Schools Campaign.
To further encourage friendship and its importance in our school (as part of our Mental Health and Well-being Initiative), we held a ‘Friendship Slogan’ and ‘Acrostic Poem’ Competition. This was to encourage children to think about friendship and what a ‘good friend’ is.
We had lots of fantastic entries! Our chosen poem and slogans that represent the meaning of friendship can be seen below. Well done to all of the children that entered!
