ACTIVE SCHOOL FLAG FOR DROMCLOUGH
Friday 12th May 2017, was a very special day for Dromclough N.S. as they raised their very first Active School Flag. Pupils, teachers, parents, invited guests and members of the wider school community all joined in the celebrations, a culmination of two years of hard work making improvements in the areas of fitness, sport and physical education.
The Active School Flag - the sporting version of the more widely renowned Green Flag - is bestowed on schools for their efforts in promoting physical education and physical activity within the school that meet the needs of all. It gives children an opportunity to develop a love for sport and living a healthy lifestyle as they are encouraged to take part in a minimum of 60 minutes physical activity per day. Establishing links and partnerships with other supportive groups, clubs and agencies that cater for physical education provision is also a key feature of the project.
The ceremony brought a close to Active School Week – five days in school life where books were given a back seat as activities such as soccer tournaments, orienteering trails, long puck competitions, taster workshops, circuit training and the annual “Sports-for-All” day took centre stage. This year, the highlight for many of the children was the eagerly anticipated “Teachers vs. Students Fun Soccer Challenge” in which the pupils of 6th class won 3-0!
As the sun basked down on the assembled crowd, Kevin Enright, ASF Coordinator for the school, spoke in detail about the successful campaign they embarked on to achieve an Active School status. He paid tribute to the strong team they have in Dromclough ably led by Principal, Ms. Mary O’ Connor. Local Kerry Senior footballer and special guest Shane Enright was on hand to raise the flag much to the delight of everyone present. The pupils were treated to an ice cream cone each from the Ice Cream Van to mark this achievement.
The Active School Flag - the sporting version of the more widely renowned Green Flag - is bestowed on schools for their efforts in promoting physical education and physical activity within the school that meet the needs of all. It gives children an opportunity to develop a love for sport and living a healthy lifestyle as they are encouraged to take part in a minimum of 60 minutes physical activity per day. Establishing links and partnerships with other supportive groups, clubs and agencies that cater for physical education provision is also a key feature of the project.
The ceremony brought a close to Active School Week – five days in school life where books were given a back seat as activities such as soccer tournaments, orienteering trails, long puck competitions, taster workshops, circuit training and the annual “Sports-for-All” day took centre stage. This year, the highlight for many of the children was the eagerly anticipated “Teachers vs. Students Fun Soccer Challenge” in which the pupils of 6th class won 3-0!
As the sun basked down on the assembled crowd, Kevin Enright, ASF Coordinator for the school, spoke in detail about the successful campaign they embarked on to achieve an Active School status. He paid tribute to the strong team they have in Dromclough ably led by Principal, Ms. Mary O’ Connor. Local Kerry Senior footballer and special guest Shane Enright was on hand to raise the flag much to the delight of everyone present. The pupils were treated to an ice cream cone each from the Ice Cream Van to mark this achievement.
- The Active School Flag (ASF) is awarded to schools that strive to achieve a physically educated and physically active school community. ASF is a Department of Education and Skills initiative supported by Healthy Ireland. The process aims to get more schools, more active, more often.
- Schools wishing to achieve the ASF begin the process by self-evaluating their current provision across 3 areas: Physical Education, Physical Activity and Partnerships. Schools must also organise an Active School Week (ASW) programme and commit to having it as part of their annual school calendar.
- We have introduced many new initiatives to complement our already well established and recognised sports programme, namely
- Morning Circuit Training
- Active Movement Breaks
- Drop Everything and Dance (D.E.A.D.)
- Fundamental Movement Skills
- Physical education homework once per week
- Dromclough NS held its first Active School Week in April 2016. It was a tremendous success with daily activities held for all classes. Along with our traditional Sports for All Day, we held a Glo Health Mile Challenge, a Teachers vs Pupils football match, daily soccer blitz, a Féis, Golf Pro lessons and daily active movement breaks and D.E.A.D. We continued to run successful ASWs each year thereafter.
- Active School Week 2020 will run from 27th April - 1st May 2020.
- We have set up an ASF committee each school year comprising of pupils from senior classes.
- Since receiving our active school flag the school has made many more developments and improvements in the areas of sport and physical activity.
- We now are in the process of working towards our 2nd flag in the current school year
- Please see our gallery of photos to view some of the activities which have been taking place.
- Check out more at http://activeschoolflag.ie/
