Active School Flag

Lisnagry National School is a recognised Active School and has been awarded the Active School flag. In our school physical activity is valued, promoted and enjoyed by all. The Active School Flag (ASF) is a Department of Education initiative which recognises schools that strive to achieve a physically active school community by awarding them with an Active School Flag. The aim of the Active Schools Flag is to encourage schools to be more active, more often. It links in with all of the work we are doing throughout the year on Healthy Living – being active, getting exercise, taking care of our minds and bodies.

We earned our second Active Flag this year and our flag-raising ceremony was held on 20th June. It was a wonderful and proud occasion, enjoyed by all our pupils.

Below are some of the initiatives we have ran over the year in order to achieve our goal and become a more active school. We focused our attention and made improvements in three key areas- Physical Education, Physical Activity and Partnerships. Read on to get a little insight into some of the initiatives and see photo slideshow below:

Here are some of the activities the Active Flag Committee organised to help all classes get more active. Pupils were  encouraged to share more suggestions with the Committee using the Suggestion Box in the school reception area.

•  11-B4-11  –  11-B4-11  Activities for all classes on Fridays.
• Active special occasions – Halloween and Christmas themed walks-Autumn Sensory walk, witches walk and Santa Dash
• Lunchtime Leagues – lunchtime leagues at different times during the school year in soccer Teams are made up of pupils  from different classes and matches are played during lunchtime. Older pupils act as referees for the matches.
• Playground Leaders– Pupils from  6th classes  give up a yard break per week to independently organise and run games with the Junior Classes, ensuring they are active and happy throughout break time. Our school trained these pupils as playground leaders. Pupils in the playground leader role rotate during the year to ensure that as many children as possible have an opportunity. The school facilitates the use of playground equipment during break times. Playground leaders oversee the daily distribution and collection of the equipment.
• Active School Walkway– Pupils will use our designated  run / walkway around the playgrounds in our school. Maths and nature trails also provide lots of opportunities to work up the steps count.
• Active Breaks – All classes will 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 is given to movement breaks in the classroom.
• Run around Europe Challenge– Every class completed the ‘Run a Day’ challenge, as a whole school initiative, over a period of 6 weeks in Term 2. Each class selected a European city to ‘run’ from our school. We used our Active Walkway to clock up the kilometres; Progress for each class in the Run Around Europe Challenge was updated on the class record posters. Our school promotes physical activity in a cross-curricular way through the Run Around Europe Challenge. Teachers used the running destinations to support pupils in their study of geography, history and maths.
• Active Homework– Teachers assigned identified active homework to pupils once weekly in June
• After school clubs – Many of our after-school clubs this year were activity based. Popular clubs included  Karate and Hockey
• Staff vs Pupils Skipping Challenge and Teachers vs Pupils soccer match– some  class pupils took on the staff in an active skipping challenge as part of our ASW 2024!! Nothing like competition to bring out the best. The staff also enjoyed a competitive soccer match against the teachers.  Well done all!!