Active School

Skip Around the World

The Skip Around the World Challenge took place from October 6th to 24th. This challenge built on the success of the Skip Around Europe Challenge which took place in March 2025. Our pupils participated in skipping tasks and activities each day, with the aim of skipping the approximate distance from Ireland to various world landmarks, such as the Great Pyramid at Giza, the North Pole and the Great Wall of China.

Every skip was worth 1km and pupils could count their own skips or take turns in pairs and groups to skip as much as they could for a few minutes each day at school. Each class recorded their total skips each day.

Desk to 3K

This year, we are focussing on the strand of Athletics in our PE curriculum. In partnership with local community group Kilflynn City Running and Walking Group, we will hold a fun run on Friday, April 11th, at Kilflynn Community Walkway.

In preparation for this event, we are in training for the next three weeks both in school and at home. We are following a Desk to 3K training programme to build our stamina and fitness levels (see Aladdin notices).

We are really looking forward to the Easter Fun Run. We are also encouraging all the adults in our community to sign up for the Stack’s Mountain 10KM/Half Marathon which takes place on Saturday, April 26th.

Update: Our Desk to 3K Easter Fun Run was a huge success! We all wore bright, pastel colours to mark the Easter holidays. Many pupils completed more than 3K on the day – amazing effort! We are so proud of all the children and staff who trained and participated. Thanks to Kilflynn City Running and Walking Group for their support with organising and running this event.

Easter Fun Run Desk to 3K

Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS)

All classes have prioritised four Fundamental Movement Skills this school year. We have chosen jumping for height, jumping for distance, balancing and landing. Our teachers have been using the Move Well, Move Often resources to explore these skills with the children. Below are examples of our pupils participating in activities and games which support the development and mastery of these four FMS.

Reducing Sedentary Time

We try to build activity and movement into our school day. We use our school walkway, movement breaks, video tutorials, active leaders, dance breaks etc. to make sure we are active and learning on the move.

Active Breaks Challenge

Our pupils and staff took part in this whole-school challenge for 4 weeks, from November 18th to December 13th 2024. We took an active break every day between lessons to adjust energy levels, restore concentration and help us to self-regulate. We used Olympic Movement Breaks, a series of short videos led by Olympians and High-Performance athletes. They demonstrate fun exercises and activities that students of all abilities can do across a variety of different sports including athletics, boxing, rugby sevens, swimming, breakdancing, and para powerlifting.

Active School Slogan

We held a poster competition to generate our Active Slogan for this school year. The pupils on our Active School Committee had the tricky task of sifting through the entries and choosing a winner. After much deliberation, the committee went with ‘Have a lovely day, go out and play!‘. Below are the winning entry and the entries that made the shortlist. Congratulations to our winners and all who participated. These posters are displayed along our school corridors to encourage our pupils to keep active.

Relay Takeover Day

To show our appreciation for Ireland’s amazing relay athletes, we encouraged all pupils to be active and to have fun by participating in relay activities on Friday, Sept. 27th, 2024. During the week, pupils also had PE lessons focussing on Athletics and relay skills.

Relay Take Over Slideshow

Active School Flag

We were awarded our second Active School Flag on June 12th, 2025. The pupils, committee members and staff were absolutely delighted to earn this prestigious award. It is a wonderful acknowledgement of the effort made by all members of the school to improve physical literacy and activity levels. All members of the Active School Committee received an ASF Leadership Certificate to celebrate their huge contribution to this achievement. Our ASF status will remain valid for 3 years. In the interim, we continue to engage with the ASF programme, beginning with the Skip Around the World challenge in October 2025.

Skip Around Europe

The Skip Around Europe Challenge takes place from March 31st to May 9th. Our pupils will participate in skipping tasks and activities each day, with the aim of skipping the approximate distance from Ireland to various European destinations.

Every skip is worth 1km and pupils will take turns in pairs and groups to skip as much as they can for a few minutes each day at school. Each class will record their total skips each day. At the end of each week, our Active Committee will update the school total and also announce the leading class!

Active School Week

Active School Week 2025 was a roaring success! Our activities included basketball, circuits, nature walk, swimming, tabata and active walkway. Our Staff v. Students basketball match saw the students come out triumphant – the staff will be back for revenge next year! We held a whole school Tug o’ War which was a huge hit. We also had our Skipping Takeover Day to conclude the Skip Around Europe Challenge – we made over 108, 000 skips over the course of the challenge! All in all it was a fantastic week.

ASW Tabata

ASW Basketball

ASW Circuits

ASW Staff v. Students

ASW Tug o’ War

PE Homework

We have been assigning homework in PE this year. In Term 1, each child received an Active Homework sheet. Each week, children individually chose an activity to partake in for homework. In Term 2 and 3, we are choosing activities from PE Homework Active Every Day.

20200131-ASF-Active-Homework-Chart-D-ENGLISH

Playground Breaks

Our pupils enjoy playing with equipment such as balls, beanbags, hoops and skipping ropes during outdoor breaks. They have developed their creativity by coming up with their own games using the equipment. As well as being physically active, the children get to strengthen their interpersonal skills such as conflict resolution, sharing and turn-taking.

PALs: Our 6th Class pupils act as a Playground Active Leaders twice a week. They organise and run playground games for our Infant pupils.

Active Hallowe’en

Our pupils and staff once again donned their most ghoulish costumes and paraded/zombie-walked to the village and back for a spooktacular start to midterm break. We also enjoyed dancing in our class lines.

Parade Video