Active School Flag
Active School Flag in St Patrick’s De La Salle
The staff and pupils here in St Patrick’s De La Salle BNS are currently working towards attaining our 1st Active School Flag.
So what is the Active School Flag?
The Active School Flag is a Department of Education and Skills initiative which recognises schools that strive to achieve a physically educated and physically active school community by awarding them with an Active School Flag.
To achieve the Active School Flag we started on our journey by choosing PE as our focus subject area for School Self-Evaluation. We surveyed all the stakeholders in our school, (the parents, staff and the pupils) to gather their views on PE in our school and assess what was working well and what was not and what we could do to improve this. The feedback from surveys and questionnaires received has been invaluable. From them we evaluated our current provision across PE, physical activity and partnerships. We then planned and implemented improvements that continue to have a real and tangible impact in our school community.
Our school has a strong tradition of Gaelic Games with many past pupils representing their club and county at the highest level and some captaining Kilkenny All Ireland hurling winning teams. We, in St Patrick’s De La Salle acknowledge the interests of all our pupils and continue to introduce a variety of new sporting activities such as tag rugby, swimming, yoga, tennis, athletics, gymnastics, volleyball and badminton. They are offered opportunities to find a sport or physical activity that they can enjoy and work at. We have made a huge investment in both outdoor and indoor PE equipment, in playground markings and we have invited outside coaches to our school to share their expertise in different sporting areas.
As part of the Active School Flag Programme, we organise an Active School Week in May/June each year. This is a whole school initiative where the emphasis is on physical activity and fun for all and where active homework replaces written homework.
To find out more about the Active School Initiative click on www.activeschoolflag.ie.
