Active School Flag: what is it and why?

According to the World Health Organisation all children require 60 minutes of physical exercise every day. As part of aiming to achieve the Active Schools Flag this year we are seeking, in partnership with parents and other organisations and family members, to energise all children throughout the day to be active for at least 60 minutes!

We are continuing to encourage activity on a daily basis. We are introducing an Active Yard during Big Lunch. This will include the children doing structured activities and games such as ball games, skipping, and hula hoops. After our Halloween disco on the yard went so well, we plan to start having regular music and dance on our yard!

Everyone enjoying the spooky Halloween music!

We are participating in the daily mile challenge which means every class goes for a run every day. We are committed to ensuring that every class has active breaks throughout the school day. We use the Go Noodle website (www.gonoodle.com), which is full of fun athletic and dance activities. The children earn points and move up a level, which challenges their strength and fitness.

Active Homework

As part of the Active Flag initiative, we are starting to give active homework. Each child has received a Super Trooper pack, which includes a journal, a wall chart and a letter to parents. The journal contains daily exercises that are designed to help children increase their balance, co-ordination, strength and endurance, in a fun way. The exercises are explained at the back of the journal. Parents are also encouraged to participate in these fun activities! The journal needs to be signed each week and returned alongside their homework.

Super Troopers is the first ever health homework programme in Ireland. It encourages children and their families to become more active and learn about healthy lifestyles. The programme includes short, fun activities around physical activity, wellbeing and nutrition. As we all know a healthy mind is just as important as a healthy body. For this reason, there are many opportunities in the booklet to allow for reflection on what makes us happy, how we are feeling etc. The booklet also contains healthy recipes to try out at home! 🙂