Physical Education
In Carbury National School, all pupils are provided with 60 minutes of timetabled PE per week. Tuesdays and Thursdays are the PE days in our school this year. Children wear their PE tracksuit and runners for PE days. While these are our timetabled PE days, the classes often enjoy physical breaks at different stages throughout the week.
In Carbury, we take part in all six strands of the Primary Physical Education Curriculum:
- Gymnastics
- Outdoor and Adventure
- Games
- Athletics
- Aquatics
- Dance
The class teachers cover each strand over the course of the year. Every year, a different PE strand is chosen and all teachers work together to strengthen their delivery of this strand. This year we decided to focus on ‘Games’. Teachers agreed that, as a result of Covid 19, the students had missed out on lots of opportunities to play games both in a school setting and outside of school. Teachers studied the PE guidelines for 'Games' for their class bands and created a list of suitable skills, lessons and games to implement in their PE classes. We developed the ‘Carbury Soccer League’ at breaktimes which the senior students thoroughly enjoy. They record their scores after each break time which is displayed on the Active Schools Board. We also installed new basketball hoops on the third/fourth class playground. We had our Playground Leaders organise games at breaktime for the infant classes.
Two of the class teachers completed a couching course hosted by The Irish Olympic Handball Association (IOHA). The teachers attended the 3-hour theory lesson and 3-hour practical lesson on Tuesday 8th of March. They received coaching certificates.
In our school, all PE activities are carefully planned and differentiated so that they are accessible to all pupils. The PSSI lesson plans and the ‘Move Well, Move Often’ resources are used by teachers to guide their delivery of the Primary PE Curriculum. Pupil's progress and achievements in PE is discussed with parents at PT meetings and this subject is also included in our annual school report.
Sporting Facilities at Carbury NS
We count ourselves very lucky in Carbury NS with the sporting facilities we have on our school grounds and also within walking distance of the school. We have an indoor hall with a store room for sports equipment. We have two outdoor basketball courts on our school grounds. In addition, we have two other play areas for the junior classes. We had two goals added to one of the yards this year for football. We are very fortunate to be a 5-minute walk from a state-of-the-art athletics track and playing fields in O’Boyle park. This facility has a 200m tartan track, three soccer pitches and two basketball courts. Students have used these grounds throughout the year for their games and athletics PE lessons.
PE Equipment and Store Room
We're very lucky in our school to have an array of PE equipment available to us. The equipment and resources are labelled, well organised and easily accessible for teachers. We carry out an audit of all our PE equipment at the end of each school year to see if any items need to be replaced. A record sheet is kept outside the store room and teachers are asked to fill it out as they take and return equipment. This was a great way of ensuring resources were properly quarantined during COVID-19.
Fundamental Movement Skills
Fundamental movement skills are the basic building blocks of movement and are an essential part of everyday life and recreational activity. It is only when these skills are mastered that a child can go on to develop specialised movement skills, which will allow them to reach their potential in sports-specific endeavours. This year we are working on the following skills in Carbury NS: Running, Skipping, Kicking and Walking.
Aside from PE lessons, we have focused on these fundamental skills throughout the year with different initiatives:
Running- Run Around Ireland Challenge
Skipping- Climbing the Heights Challenge
Kicking- Carbury Soccer League at break times
Walking- Active Walkway lessons and class walks in our locality
PAWS
Each class focused on the aquatics strand for the month of June. All students completed The Land PAWS (Primary Aquatics Water Safety) water safety programme. This was in collaboration with our Green Schools Committee who have chosen ‘Water Safety’ as their theme for the year. All students received a PAWS certificate as a reward for completing the programme. We held a poster competition where all the students designed a 'Water Safety' poster to raise awareness of staying safe at beaches, pools, farms and rivers.
We were delighted to have Sandra Draper and Lisa Dunne come in and speak with all the students for a Water Safety assembly. They emphasised the key points for staying safe in and around water.
Check out our ‘Physical Education’ blog on our website to keep up to date with all our activities.
