This year we are attempting to achieve the Active Flag in Scoil Mhuire.
This is a fantastic initiative which encourages exercise, teamwork, collaboration and innovation. The Active Flag committee (above) have been working super hard throughout this process.
The application is broken down under four headings - 1.Physical Education, 2.Physical Activity, 3.Partnerships and 4.Active School Week.
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Please feel free to visit the official Active Flag webpage for any further information -  ​https://activeschoolflag.ie/

1. Physical Education

• As part of our PE programme, children are provided with at least 60 minutes of physical activity per week. This takes place through PE lessons (timetabled), use of the Active Walkway, classroom breaks and outdoor movement breaks. 
• Each teacher strives to teach the five PE strands throughout the year, these include - games, athletics, outdoor and adventure activities, dance and aquatics.
• We are lucky enough that 2nd - 6th class attended Fermoy pool for a six week swimming block during the second term.
• In the lead up the St Patrick's day each class learnt several Irish dances, there was a fantastic céilí held in the halla and it was great to see children from Juniors to 6th partaking in many different dances.
• For the month of May each class teacher is focusing on the strand of 'Outdoor and Adventure'. We have been using lessons from the PSSI website and also the Active pathway to complete some of these fun outdoor activities.
• Junior Infants recently completed the Land PAWs programme and had great fun playing the interactive games and learning all about water safety. Second class are also going to cover these lessons during the month of June as part of the theme of 'Water'.
• We are lucky to have an excellent Active School committee who are excellent helpers and playground leaders. They did a super job at tidying up the PE shed and making sure it was all labelled very clearly.

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2. Physical Activity

• Earlier this year we began having Active Lunch breaks during big lunch on Fridays. This has been a great way to encourage children from a variety of classes to mix and to try different activities. It's also lovely to see children who might not love playing ball games every day, have the chance to enjoy some other activities for a change. The different stations we have tried include: parachute games, musical statues, hula hooping, skipping, tag games, relay races, OT yard games, gymnastics, basketball skills, ring toss and obstacle courses.
• The stations are led by the children in the Active Committee and Student Council. The children are excellent leaders and work really hard to encourage the others and the ensure that everyone is involved during the Friday breaks.
• We were luckily to have our new Active Walkway signage put up around the school yard just in time for the good weather! The children are really enjoying all of the wonderful Active Walkway activities. 1st and 2nd class teamed up with other classes to show them how to use the Walkway, it was been a great success so far and is a lovely way to incorporate activity into the school day.
• During the month of March the children took part in the ‘Run around Europe’ challenge. The entailed children from each class running laps to reach different destinations across Europe. The children decided we would start of by running to London (464 km). They managed to reach their destination the first week and they were thrilled with their success! The following week the children ran as far as Brussels (777 km) and just before Easter the children ran the distance to Paris (778 km). It was really great to see all of the children outside enjoying the fresh air and getting fit and healthy!
• As part of the Active School process we endeavour to incorporate activity into annual events throughout the school year. The whole school took part in a 'Witches and Wizards' walk for Hallowe'en and we did a lovely Christmas warm-up in December led by our fantastic active committee! The children also enjoyed getting active during the céilí for 'Lá Glas'.
  
• Mr Gibbons organised an indoor soccer tournament for the children from 4th class up. This was a great success and was enjoyed by all!
  
  

3. Partnerships

• The active committee worked together to come up with our super slogan - 'Active fast, active slow, come on everybody, LET'S GO!'. Well done to Molly Mullane in 4th class for coming up with the main idea for this snappy slogan. The committee have designed lovely posters displaying the slogan which we will display around the school.
• We established our committee during the first term. The committee is comprised of children from 2nd - 6th class. All of the committee members have shown amazing enthusiasm and interest from the beginning of the process and the best is yet to come during Active School's week! The committee have had many task so far - gathering information, coming up with ideas for active lunches, becoming playground leaders, creating slogans and posters. They even give up their lunch times to help ensure the Active Flag process is a success! Well done to Luke, Anna, Liam, Clodagh, Molly, Eoin, Laoise, Oliver, Dale and Ada - you're all doing a super jobs!
• Second class conducted a 'What clubs are you in?' survey - it was very interesting to see the wide variety of results and it was fun for the children to make colourful posters to display the information gathered. These posters are displayed near our Active Flag board.
• We also distributed questionnaires to pupils and parents, it was great to get constructive feedback from some people and we can use this feedback going forward to improve the PE programme in our school and the active flag process.

4. Active School Week

• This year our Active School Week will take place the week beginning May 27th. We did not have our Active Week during the official dates due to preparation for testing and Holy Communion. We are also optimistic that the weather will be nice during the last week of May!
• We have lots of fin activities in the pipeline. These include visiting teachers (Tennis, gymnastics), workshops to be held by our own Miss Maye (Poundfit) and Mr. Bennett (Fun Gaa skills). During this week there will be no homework apart from Active homework each evening and each morning will begin with a whole-school warm-up (weather permitting!) There are a few more surprises planned for that week and we hope everyone will enjoy it. The committee will be busy for the next few weeks organising the finer details so stay tuned for more information closer to the time!
• During Active Week there are also going to be some fun staff challenges to show the children that we are all taking part in being healthy and active.