Active School

The Active Flag

The Active Flag is a Department of Education and Skills initiative that recognises schools that “strive to achieve a physically educated and physically active school community”.
Our pupils, staff and parents are committed to making activity and exercise a fun and everyday way of life in our school. We have been enjoying our active flag journey and our active flag committee have been leading us in many initiatives to keep us healthy and active.

Physical Education Programme

Here at Parteen National School we follow the Physical Education curriculum. The children participate in P.E class twice a week and wear their tracksuit to school on these days. The strands of the P.E curriculum are Athletics, Dance, Gymnastics, Games, Outdoor Adventure Activities and Aquatics. We have prioritised the strand of Dance. Our wonderful facilities including a state of the art astro-turf, large playing field, Playground and halla, our school grounds allow us to cater for the P.E curriculum.
Involvement in sport and recreation is beneficial for each childs personal development. Our school ensures that children with special needs can play a full role in all PE opportunities. The school provides opportunities for pupils to participate in a wide variety of sporting activities including Hockey, Rugby, Gaelic Football, Hurling, Basketball, Tag Rugby, Rounders and Athletics.

Partnerships

Pupils in Parteen National School are offered wonderful opportunities to participate with local sporting partnerships throughout the school year. Coaches come to our school to help develop the children’s skills in Rugby, Gaelic, Basketball and Cycling.

Our Active Flag Initiatives

Active School Slogan

Our whole school took part in creating our school slogan- Jump, Skip, Hop, Play, We Stay Healthy Everyday!
Playground Leaders

Our committee members play an important role in keeping the school active. playground leaders consist of pupils from Junior Infants - 6th Class. They are in charge of collecting and returning equipment, tidying the P.E room, setting up the playground, collecting children from their rooms and monitoring the playground to make sure everyone is active and most importantly having fun. Our class reps report back to their own classrooms about what we are organising.
Active Breaks

All of our pupils avail of active breaks throughout the school day. Engaging in regular physical activity can help improve attentiveness, reduce student stress and foster social skills.
PAWS - Water Safety

PAWS Water Safety is taught at every class level. Water Safety Ireland’s PAWS (Primary Aquatics Water Safety) outlines the essential life-saving guidelines that every child needs to know. This is usually taught in May/June as we approach the summer holidays.
Active Committee

Our school Active Committee comprises of two children from each class, these children work together to help create new active initiatives and monitor the playground.
Active Halloween

Pupils had a spooktacular start to Halloween 2021! Children from Juniors to 6th class took part in pumpkin relays, run around the school challenge and a spectacular halloween disco!
European School Sports Day

Parteen National School completed the challenge to #BeActive for 120 minutes. Our Active School Committee organised running, skipping and dancing along with a very cool obstacle course to celebrate European School Sports Day 2021.
Active Advent Calendars

What better way to countdown to Christmas than to get moving and have fun whilst doing so. Parteen National School pupils are busy being active with different and fun activities everyday on the run up to our holidays!
Munster Rugby Coaching

We are delighted to partner with Munster Rugby to provide pupils with 6 weeks rugby coaching. The training focuses on catching, kicking, running and fundamental movement skills.
Run Around Ireland Challenge

The Active School Committee launched its ‘Run Around Ireland Challenge’ . Each class has its own chart to mark their progress. Members of the AS committee check the classes progress every so often. Keep up the good work everyone.
Climb the Heights Challenge

Pupils and staff had so much fun participating in the Climb the Heights Skipping Challenge- every class took part and as a school we managed to ‘climb’ an amazing 145,974m.
Active Walkway

Our Active Walkway has been set up around our school grounds. The pupils from juniors - 6th class have really enjoyed the orienteering activities associated with the walkway. It energizes our school day and supports physical energy.
What Clubs Are You In?

Our Active Committee conducted the What Clubs Are You In survey? Hurling & Camogie were the most popular sports followed by soccer, swimming and Gaelic football. We weren’t surprised that Parteen GAA was the most popular club!
Feel Good Fridays

We have filled many of our Fridays with lots of fun activities such as skipping & running challenges, cycling, games, dancing, using our walkway and celebrating special occasions throughout the year.
Music on Yard

Our Active Committee have incorporated music on the yard activities every Friday. The committee are responsible for setting up the speakers and choosing the tunes. Pupils across the school love dancing during yard times, there is always a wonderful atmosphere.

Active School Week 2022

Active Walkway

Our Active Walkway has been a massive hit during ASW 2022. Pupils and staff throughout have enjoyed following the trail around our school and taking part in the wide variety of orienteering activities.
Donkey Derby

The Donkey Derby races were a firm favourite amongst our pupils this year. We used pool noodles and uni hoc sticks as our donkeys and we races on our astro-turf. There was lots of cheering and ‘hee-hawing’ along the way!
Yoga

We had a very zen Wednesday morning during ASW. Pupils from Junior infants - 6th class took part in yoga classes. The yoga activities were very fun and interactive. We learnt a variety of yoga poses, breathing techniques, followed guided visualizations and totally relaxed!
Munster Rugby

On Thursday of our ASW three coaches from Munster Rugby spent the day doing rugby drills, games and teaching all of our pupils fundamental movement skills. Children from Junior Infants right up to 6th class thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Thank you Munster Rugby!
Splash! Water Fun Event

What better way to finish up our ASW week than a whole school water fight! Our pupils had so much fun spraying and splashing each other and some teachers got drenched along the way…
Basketball Golf

Pupils tried out a new and interesting game of basketball golf during our ASW. It was a fun shooting game where you shoot a basketball from a variety of spots. Like golf, the goal was to shoot par or below. It was a big hit!
Active Homework

There was no written homework for all classes in Parteen National School during ASW. Instead, pupils just focused on completing as much active homework as possible. We also followed the Irish Heart Foundation Bizzy Breaks.
Bubbles Magic Fun Event

Our pupils had so much fun blowing, catching, chasing and bursting as many bubbles as they could during our Bubbles Magic fun on our playground.
Cha Cha Slide

Our whole school learnt the dance the Cha Cha Slide. We had so much fun following the steps- we preformed it altogether on our last day of ASW.

Our Local Hero

As part of our Feel Good Fridays, pupils and staff were delighted to receive such positive and encouraging words during our Active School Week from our local hero - Keith Earls. Keith grew up locally and we are so proud watching him play rugby for Munster and Ireland.