Active Flag                       

This year our school is wishing to achieve the active schools flag. We are striving to become a physically educated and a physically active school community.  Throughout the year we will be highlighting all that our school is doing under the following headings: physical education, physical activity, partnerships, and the active schools week. Watch out for all the activities our children will be involved in during the year. 

Physical Education:

    

PE Curriculum:

There are six strands of in the Physical Education Curriculum. The six strands include; Games, Athletics, Aquatics, Gymnastics, Dance, Outdoor and Adventure. Our school teaches five out of six strands each year. All class are thought the same strand at the same time following schools Physical Education plan. Physical Education is allocated one hour a week of teaching time. 

Physical Education Resources:

We have allocated an area in our school where PE resources can be accessed by all teachers. As a whole staff the teachers looked through and discussed the different resources which are available to use for ideas and activities throughout the year.

PE Equipment: 

The active flag committee have been working very hard sorting out our shed that holds all our PE equipment. They have been very busy completing an audit of all our equipment, sorting and labeling boxes. This makes sure teachers and students have access to all our equipment and can be used during all PE lessons.

Games: 

The games strand of the PE curriculum provides many opportunities for children to develop social skills and play through informal play opportunities. The pictures below show children developing the basic skills of different games before they develop into playing small sided games.

Athletics: 

Athletics was the PE strand to which our school focused on improving this year. Each class teacher received a copy of the PSSI lesson plans to encourage the improvement and development of different athletics lessons. Here the students are engaging in a variety of activities focusing of the improvement and development of running , jumping and throwing. 

Dance:
The dance strand of the curriculum provides children the opportunity to engage in both creative and folk dance. When teaching the dance strand children had the opportunities to explore body actions and shapes. When teachers taught the folk dance strand, we encouraged each class to learn the same types of folk dance. These dances were performed during our ‘lá glás’ in March as part of seachtaine na gaeilge.

 

 

 

 

Physical Activity:

Super Troopers:

Our school has joined the laya healthcare super troopers programme. Every student received an active homework journal and a wall chart. This is to encourage being active and engaging in physical activity at home. Each night there is an different exercise that students can complete. Our teachers are assigning active homework each night and are demonstrating the exercises with their classes each day. 

We even have families encouraging each other to complete their active homework each night. 

The Daily Mile:

Our School is participating in the running initiative of ' The daily mile'. Each day for fifteen minutes , each class during different times of the day will run laps of our Astro pitch. This will encourage an improvement of our fitness and energy levels, reduces stress and provides greater concentration in class. We began our daily mile in February and we hope to continue it until the end of our school year

Yoga: 

We introduced yoga to our infant classes on Friday afternoons. We brought in our own yoga mats from home and the infant classes look forward to it every week.  It helps them relax and unwind after a busy week in school.

 

Active Breaks:

Did you know that short energising bursts of activity boots blood flow, send oxygen to the brain and helps children retain information ?

Our School encourages active breaks during class times. We love using Just dance kids, go noodle, 10@10 and the body coach workouts as part of our active breaks

Partnerships:

Active School Flag Committee:

The following students were chosen be apart of our active schools committee.

• Luke Moore
• Seán Curran
• Hayley-Ann Griffin
•  Aidan Tobin
• Laura McManamon
• Fergal Roche
• Aisling O’Reilly
• Ellen Tierney
• Adam O'Reilly 
• Joey Cunningham

Active School Board: 

Our Active School notice board is up and running in both our school buildings. Check out our notice board for the latest up dates about our active school activities.

Active School Slogan:

Congratulations to Caoimhe Anger who created our active school slogan; "Don't delay get out and play"

Well done wall: 

We created a well done wall to celebrate the achievements of our students in activities outside of school. What a talented bunch of children we teach.

Community Partnerships:

For Allenwood to become an Active School we really do need your help. So please volunteer your time to help us achieve this goal. If people in the community have ideas, can lend a helping hand or offer some coaching on any other activities we would be glad to hear from you. 

You can follow all the activities we have planned on our website. 

The school actively encourages the local community to come and visit our school and provide taster sessions to the children. So far we have: 

• Basketball
• Hurling/Camogie 
• Soccer 
• Gaelic Football

GAA Coaching:

Mark Fitzharris is a GAA developmental coach. Through Kildare GAA Mark is responsible for the implementation of a specific number of Games Development projects. We are lucky to have Mark come to our school on Fridays to coach Infants, 1st Class for rudimentary and fundamental skills. He also takes the under 13 students for game based activities. We are very lucky to have Mark work with our school.

Hurling: 

Mr. Higgins class enjoying their wednesday morning hurling/camogie session on the pitch. Every wednesday, classes get a chance to practice and develop their GAA skills. We have some help from local coaches who come to our school to train our boys and girls . 

 

Camogie: 

Ms Broderick has been taking students from 2nd class upwards once a week for camogie training. The girls have been practising dribbling, catching and pucking skills. The camogie team have been lucky enough to participate in many camogie blitz throughout the year. 

Soccer:

Mr Higgins has been involved in training our boys in both football and soccer. The boys have participated in many many blitz throughout the year. 

Basketball:

6th class have been working hard on their basketball skills this year. They have been competing in different blitz throughout the year.

Irish Dancing:
Ms Sayers our very own professional Irish dancer, takes some students each week for Irish dancing classes. She has seen a huge improvement in our boys and girls ‘1 2 3s’ since the start of the year. She even helps give some help to some of our teachers who want to get back into Irish dancing. 

Active Schools Week: