Active Schools 2021-2022

Taunagh N.S. is now officially an Active School.

We raised our Active Schools Flag on 1st October 2021. We held an outdoor assembly with Mr. Shorten. This was to recognise the commitment the children and the Active Schools Committee made to staying active, at school and at home over the last two years. We also handed over to the new Committee.

Taunagh N.S. is striving to achieve a physically educated and physically active school community. With help from our teachers, students, parents and wider community we hope that in 2021 our school will be recognised as an official ‘Active School’. As always, when the school community puts our minds to something we can achieve big things. This will be no different. So with everyone’s help, ideas and support, we expect to be flying the Active School Flag with pride at the end of this school year.

Physical Education

Taunagh N.S. is committed to providing high-quality Physical Education to all pupils. All classes receive 60 minutes of formal PE lessons each week. All classes are taught the strands of Athletics, Aquatics, Dance, Gymnastics, Games and Outdoor & Adventure each year.

Athletics 2020 & 2021

Aquatics 2019

Pupils from 2nd -6th classes also take part in Aquatics, having swimming lessons in Aura Leisure Centre in Carrick-on-Shannon.

Land Paws lessons 2021

The Junior Room learned all about Water Safety and enjoyed the interactive activites.

Dance 2019, 2020, 2021

December 2020

Making Shapes in PE ( December 2020)

Outdoor and Adventure

We were very excited to get a tour of Coopershill House and grounds in Riverstown.

PE Equipment

Our targeting of the Active School Flag has required an audit of our PE programme.

This is the storeroom before the audit.

P.E Equipment Audit

Store Room 2020-2021 (Covid -19 compliant)

Active School Flag Website: www.activeschoolflag.ie

Active School Committee.

Our Active Schools Committee members 2020-2021 are: (L-R) Fiach Cullinan, Ruman Butt, Joshua Gregg, Leah McManus, Lola Cunnane, Liam Ewing-Bernabeu. Missing from picture is Victoria Barlow.

The Committee members 2019-2020 are: (L – R) Ellen O’Hara, Finn O’Hara, Victoria, Penny and Karl Barlow.

A key part of the ASF process is finding ways to encourage less active children to ENJOY physical activity more. Therefore, it is essential that the voice of less active children is represented alongside the voice of more active children on the ASF Committee.

Teachers use a variety of resources to guide them in delivering quality PE lessons. PSSI Lesson Plans are widely used in our school and we focused on the Athletics strand for the school year 2019/2020. We introduced the Move Well, Move Often Programme to teach the Fundamental Movement Skills to all pupils. Since January 2020, all classes have been taught the same strand and Fundamental Movement Skill. This will allow for the sharing of resources and ideas among staff and ensure that an equal amount of time is given to each strand. We decided to focus on the Dance strand of the PE curriculum for hte year September 2020 – June 2021.

Physical Activity

Here are some of the activities the Active Flag Committee organised to help all classes get more active. Children can share more suggestions with the Committee using the Suggestion Boxes in each classroom.

10@10 – we took part in rte10@10 on designated days throughout January 2020.
Active special occasions – The ASF Committee organised a Spooktacular Disco at Halloween (2019 & 2020), which were a great success. Well Done! See our Active Halloween videos on this page. They also organised “The Twelve Days of Fit – mas” for each classroom in the lead up to Christmas. This too, was a great success. See videos below.

2019

October 2020

December 2019

December 2020

Active Lines

Playground Leaders – pupils from 5th-6th classes were our Playground Leaders (2019-2020). They gave up two lunch breaks per week to play games with the Junior Classes, ensuring they were active and happy throughout break time.

Active Break Every Day challenge – We did this as a whole school initiative over a period of four weeks from 11th November – 6th December 2019.

Daily Mile Challenge – The children completed a daily mile as part of the running break during our active break every day challenge.

Active Flag Committee – Our Active Flag Committee (AFC) is combined with our Pupil Voice Committee this year. On the AFC, pupils are given various roles and tasks to carry out throughout the school year such as making announcements to the classrooms on various initiatives, designing posters for the school, carrying out surveys and checking the suggestion box. Our pupils play a very important role in organising and delivering our Active Flag initiatives.
Active School Walkway – We have a designated walkway around the grounds of our school. One lap of the walkway is 1 kilometre. Thank you to Ms. McMahon for making this video.

Active Breaks – All classes take part in active breaks throughout the school day. This includes Go-Noodle and a variety of classroom movement ideas. On a wet day, if pupils cannot go outside at break time, extra time will be given to movement breaks in the classroom.

Run Around Ireland Challenge 2021– We have completed our Run Around Ireland Challenge. We started this challenge on March 22nd 2021. The junior room have chosen Benbulben, Sliabh Liag and The Blarney Stone as their Irish Landmarks to visit. We have visited Benbulben and Sliabh Liag, We almost reached Blarney Stone. We ran 203km in total. See our Run Around Ireland Challenge on our Active Flag noticeboard.

Partnerships

Shamrock Gaels GAA – we are developing a stronger school-club link with our local GAA club. Many of our pupils play at under age levels. We have 12 week coaching sessions with Ross, a member of Shamrock Gaels GAA, each spring term. We are very fortunate to have a lovely park and astro turf pitch near the school, which we can use when to weather is good. See Active Week Videos below for more photos.

Well done to the boys and girls who represented our school so well and the GAAmigos Skills Competition in February 2020.

Well done to the boys and girls who received the Fair Play Award from Cumann na mBunscoil, Sligo.

Sligo Sport Partnership – Orienteering with Mr. Barrett (March 2020)

- Gymnastics with Kate Frahill (April/May 2021)
- ASF Slogan: The ASF Committee organised an ASF Slogan competition. Well done all who participated.

Active School Club Survey We completed an Active Schools Club Survey with the Senior Room pupils using Microsoft Teams. The clubs with the most pupils are GAA and Soccer.

Pupil Questionnaire:
Parent Questionnaire We asked the parents to complete a short questionnaire using Microsoft Teams. You can see from the results that most children enjoy P.E., with Outdoor & Adventure being the most popular.

Active HOME Week (April 27th – May 3rd) 2020

The aim of this initiative was to motivate young people to keep active at home by trying out NEW activities, taking on CHALLENGES and having FUN with family activities. To complete the challenge the children had to find four different ways of being active every day, making sure that this adds up to 60 minutes, or more, of physical activity. All members of the family were encouraged, #Together, to take on the challenge.

Active Home Week 2020