In Carbury NS, we aim to maximise all opportunities for physical activity at school. We have introduced a number of initiatives to ensure our pupils are encouraged to be as active as possible. The students get out to play in the yard as much as possible. Staff regularly use brain breaks, Go Noodles and 10@10 especially during the wetter months when students may not get out at break times.
Break Times
We have two breaks throughout the school day where the children are encouraged to go outside and be active. This year, we set up the ‘Carbury Soccer League’ at break times to link in with our focus on ‘Games’. Two captains from the senior classes record the scores after each play time which is displayed on the Active Schools board. The senior classes play basketball at break time on Wednesdays.
Active Special Annual Events
Maths Week 2021
Students enjoyed completing Maths Trails during Maths Week this year. Some classes completed them on the school grounds and other classes had the challenge of doing them in the community.
Christmas
Students enjoyed “The Twelve Days of Fit – mas” challenge in the lead up to Christmas. Michaela announced the Christmas themed movement activity each day over the intercom. It was a great break from our school work that all the students looked forward to.
Easter
Junior Infants had a surprise visit from Ruby Rabbit who organised an Easter hunt. The children had great fun finding all the different pictures and ticking them off.
Cross Curricular Subjects
Students are often active in their learning throughout the school day and frequently go to the yard or hall for lessons. Some examples of active learning in Carbury this year are included below.
Junior Infants enjoyed a Spring walk where they used a Spring checklist to find lots of different things related to Spring outside.
Senior Infants enjoyed a walk while searching for signs of Autumn. They saw different coloured leaves and some children even found a conker.
First class took a class walk around the town while learning about bridges in Geography.
Second class students enjoyed completing the 'Walk For Water' event which was organised by the Green School Flag to raise awareness for water injustice.
Third Class wrote a set of instructions for a yard game of their choice when learning about procedural writing in English. Three students were chosen and taught their game for PE.
Fourth, Fifth and Sixth class enjoyed a history walking tour of Sligo in Term 3.
Active Break Every Day
The pupils participated in an ‘Active Break Every Day Challenge’ in December. The idea behind this four week campaign is for students to enjoy short active breaks in their daily school routine. The running, dancing and exercise breaks helped the students to re-energise and re-focus. Thank you to Michaela who shared the activities each day on the intercom with the classes. All classes had an Active Break chart in their classrooms to record their activities. Teachers frequently use Go Noodles, 10@10 or other movement breaks for their students.
'Climb the Heights'
Carbury students enjoyed the ‘Climb the Heights’ skipping challenge in February. This initiative encouraged students to be active and to work together to scale some of the highest peaks in Europe. One skip= 1 metre. Each class was allocated a slot for using the skipping ropes at school where they got active by skipping on the yard.
Active Homework was based on the skipping challenge for the month and was set every Thursday. The Active Committee created videos explaining the challenge and demonstrating the skips/jumping jacks for the students. If the students didn’t have skipping ropes at home, they could do jumping jacks instead. 1 jumping jack = 1 metre.
The students also completed ‘jumping jack’ movement breaks during class time to try and gain as many metres as they could. Michaela reminded us over the intercom at 10am every Thursday for the month. She gave the instructions and included the number of jumping jacks to be completed.
Third class students were responsible for totaling the number of jumps and reporting the progress to the classes. A ‘Climb the Heights’ poster was displayed in each classroom to monitor the students’ progress and to keep track of the mountains as they were completed.
Star Skippers
We rewarded one student from each class for their dedication and hard work during our ‘Climb the Heights’ challenge. The ‘Star Skippers’ were chosen by their teachers for the great effort they put into their Active Homework and skipping challenges in school.
Active Lines
We completed the ‘Active Lines’ initiative for the month of February. The Active Committee members lead the pupils with exercises daily while the students lined up after break times. The pupils particularly enjoyed the squats and windmills and improved their fitness. The committee came up with the movements/activities for each day for February and a rota was displayed on the Active Flag board.
‘Run Around Ireland’ Challenge
As part of working towards our Active School Renewal Flag, we took part in a running challenge for the month of March. During this time, we built in a running break into every day. Each class was given an allotted time to run laps around the yard. 3 laps= 1km. It was a brilliant way for the students to learn about some of Ireland’s most famous landmarks and ideal for bringing learning outdoors. Each class displayed their map of Ireland’s famous landmarks and ticked them off as they completed the distances to the different landmarks.
It was fantastic to see lots of the children running/jogging laps at lunch time also. Our weekly Active Homework challenges were based on the strand of Athletics for the month. Well done to our amazing Active Committee who created the videos for the Active Homework each Thursday. The videos were shared on Seesaw for the students to enjoy at home.
Active Homework
Active Homework has been assigned every Thursday this academic year. We try to focus on the strand or initiative that is ongoing in the school at that time. The Active Committee created some of their own ‘Carbury Workouts’ for students to try at home. This was very successful. Active homework is shared weekly on Seesaw.
Do Your Talking As You Are Walking
To ensure that children stay active during break times, children are encouraged to ‘Do your Talking as You are Walking’. This way the children can chat and stay active at the same time. The Active School Committee and teachers encourage students on the yard to be as active as possible.
Playground Leaders
As part of our Active Flag renewal process, students from 3rd and 6th have become ‘Playground Leaders’. These students have a very important role in encouraging the younger pupils to be active during lunchtime. There is a rota for the leaders so the important role is shared out.
The pupils are responsible for organising the equipment, setting up the games in the yard and packing up afterwards. Some of the games include ‘Target Toss’ and ‘Duck Duck Goose’. Every Thursday the leaders demonstrate and teach the new games and activities to the Junior and Senior infant students.
Active School Walkway
Ms Grehan and Mrs Foley attended the Walkway webinar hosted by the Active School Flag in February and were very excited to receive the walkway package a few weeks later. The Active committee members studied an ariel view of the school playground and mapped out a suitable route. They used trundle wheels to find the distance of the walkway which is 250m. All classes have enjoyed using the Active Walkway this term.
The official launch of our Walkway took place on Walkway Wednesday of our Active Week in June.
Decreasing Sedentary Time
All classes make an effort to decrease sedentary time in Carbury NS. Each class agreed upon a set of 3, or more, actions in which they can decrease sedentary time. Some ideas included using the Active Walkway across the curriculum, running breaks, 10@10 movement breaks and active homework. The ideas are displayed outside the classrooms to share with students, teachers and visitors.
Check out our ‘Physical Activity’ blog on our website to keep up to date with all our activities.
