Holy Well NS is delighted to inform you that we are participating in The Active Flag Process this year. Active School Flag is a Department of Education and Skills initiative supported by Healthy Ireland.
The Active School Flag (ASF) is awarded to schools that strive to achieve a physically educated and physically active school community. The process aims to get more schools, more active, more often.
Schools wishing to achieve the ASF begin the process by self-evaluating their current provision across 3 areas – Physical Education, Physical Activity and Partnerships. Schools must also organise an Active School Week programme and commit to having it as part of their annual school calendar. Schools that can say ‘yes’ to all the ASF success criteria will be awarded with the active flag. The flag remains valid for a period of 3 years after which time schools will be invited to re-apply.
Physical Education
In the area Physical Education. Holy Well NS updated the PE curricular plan to include fundamental movement skills (FMS). Class teachers utilize the Move Well, Move Often Resources to do this.
See Fundamental Movement Skills below.
Active School Walkways
Holy Well NS has set up three Active School Walkway routes.
We use our three Active Schools WALKWAY routes to promote physical activity and cross-curricular learning in our school.
Our first Active Walkway route is in the Middle School and Senior School campus. We have an A4 walkway plaque to denote the start of the route near the main door of the Middle School building. We also have 10 green and 4 blue control point signs throughout the school grounds. The green signs are used to mark out the walkway route and the blue signs are used to denote the active zones. Our walkway encompasses the entire perimeter of the Middle School and Senior school grounds and is 0.75km in length.
Middle and Senior School Map
Our other two Active School Walkway routes are in the Junior Infant Academy and the Senior Infant Academy. See maps below.
Senior Academy Map
Junior Academy Map
Teachers use these walkways daily. Active School Committee members change the learning charts monthly to coincide with school events such as Seachtain na Gaeilge, Maths Week, Science Week and other annual holidays.
According to The Active School Walkway Resource pack the purpose of the Active School Walkway is to:
ENERGISE the school day
Support the PHYSICAL EDUCATION programme
Promote ACTIVE LEARNING across a wide variety of subject areas.
The Active Walkway encouraged class teachers to “Learn on the Move” using different learning charts. The flags, patterns and clocks proved to be very enjoyable for the pupils, as were the Seachtain na Gaeilge riddles and Marathon Facts.
We are now incorporating physical activity into school celebrations such as Active Hallowe’en, and Seachtain na Gaeilge. We had a Just Dance off for Hallowe’en using Hallowe’en songs.
Pupils participated in a Saint Patrick’s Day Parade using The Active Walkway as the route for the parade. Pupils read The Seachtain na Gaeilge riddles as they completed the route.
As a staff, we ensured that every teacher was providing sixty minutes of PE each week through timetabling and encouragement and through continuous professional development. Two of our teachers on the Active School Committee attended the Physical Literacy Matters PLE and they shared PE ideas, games and strategies with our staff via email and via a whole school staff meeting.
Two of our class teachers completed the FUNdamentally Moving Classroom course during the summer. The Physical Literacy and the fundamental movement skills covered in this course and The Equilibrium Movement Programme were shared with the whole school staff through a PowerPoint presentation during a Croke Park hour. The Infant Academies have adopted this programme in their daily routine.
The Land PAWS water safety programme
Every class completed the Land PAWS water safety programme which is extremely important because of Holy Wel NS’s location near the coast.
According to https://www.teachpaws.ie/
Water Safety Ireland’s PAWS (Primary Aquatics Water Safety) outlines the essential life-saving guidelines that every child needs to know, whether they’re learning at home or in the classroom.
Written and designed for all age groups, with beautiful illustrations, a wealth of tips and advice, and all sorts of interactive games and puzzles to reinforce the lessons learned, PAWS offers simple common sense on how we can be safe around our waterways. English and Irish digital lesson books are available with interactive puzzles to match.
Tidy and Accessible PE resources
The area of Physical Education also placed an onus on pupils and teachers alike to take care of our PE resources, keep resources in an accessible location and to keep those resources tidy. It gave pupils in classrooms opportunities to lead through various leadership roles such as PE Equipment leaders, playground leaders, classroom challenge leaders and dance leaders.
Outdoor and Adventure
All teachers agreed to work on the orienteering strand at each class level. The strand was voted for via an app forum. The staff of Holy Well NS worked together to improve our teaching of the orienteering strand through using The Active Walkways and associated maps, expertise from class teachers in orienteering and support from The Cork Sports Partnership.
Physical Activity
In the area of Physical Activity, Holy Well NS took part in planned initiatives such as The Active Break Everyday Challenge and The Skip Around Europe Challenge. These initiatives encouraged us as a school to be more active in a structured and timed way. Pupils learned how to skip during The Skip Around Europe 4-week skipping challenge. Some pupils could not skip before the challenge and now they can! Class teachers saw amazing improvements in their classes’ ability to skip during the challenge. Holy Well NS skipped 1 million 242 thousand and 587 skips in total which means Holy Well NS pupils skipped 1,242,587 kilometres around Europe. Well done everyone. What an amazing achievement. Pupils enjoyed skipping to the other European countries. Skipping totals were celebrated through intercom announcements in the Middle and Senior School buildings. This created a friendly rivalry between class levels. The Infant academies performed particularly well with a combined total of 146,025 skips for the 4-week challenge which is a significant amount when you consider their age range.
Pupils who may not have been very active before in team sports such as soccer, GAA etc, now enjoyed being part of The Skipping Challenge. We also had to purchase skipping
ropes which are now part of our PE rooms inventory.
Partnerships
In the area of Partnerships, we informed parents that we were taking part in The Active School Process and keep them up to date regarding initiatives we were taking part in via Aladdin.Our school’s Active School Committee was instrumental in our participation in the Active School Process. Our pupils had varied leadership roles such as PE Equipment Monitors, Playground Leaders and Classroom Challenge leaders who reminded class teachers of movement breaks, recorded skipping totals and motivated their peers to try their best.
Every class completed a What Clubs are you in Survey? Class teachers found this survey very interesting and beneficial as it integrated into the maths curriculum, and pupils enjoyed telling their classes about their clubs.
Every class voted on their favourite Active School Slogan, we voted for Hop, skip, jump and play, let’s get Active every day!
We held a colouring competition for The Infant Classes which they really enjoyed.
We also emailed the Cork Sports Partnership to inform them we were taking part in The Active School Process. Two lovely people from the Cork Sports Partnership came and painted playground games on our First, Second and Fifth Class yards. The Student Council and pupil representatives from The Active School Committee are having a great time learning how to play the games and teaching our playground leaders how to play them so that all our classes can be more active during yard times.
Our Fifth Classes took part in the Schools Introductory Orienteering Day on Friday 23rd May 2025 on the CARRIGALINE GREENWAY. This event was organised through the Cork Sports Partnership by our Active School Committee. The Fifth Classes really enjoyed the day. Sixth Classes will also be taking part in Schools Introductory Orienteering Day in June as part of Holy Well NS’s Active School Week.
Active Week
Everyone in Holy Well NS is looking forward to our Active School Week which takes place from June 9th to June 13th. This year will be extra special as it is our first year holding Active Week while applying for The Active School Flag. This year our Active School Week is jam packed with the following activities:
- Three Fun School Sports Days- The Infant Academies Fun Sports Day, The Middle School Fun Sports Day and The Senior School Fun Sports Day
- Whole School Soccer Sessions
- Sixth Class Orienteering
- Second Class School Tour to Nemo (Let’s Go Camp)
- Fourth Class School Tour to Fota Wildlife Park.
- First Class School Tour to The Mardyke Arena
- We will have Active Homework for the month of June
- New learning charts on Our Active Walkway route
- And last but not least-Pupil’s v Teachers Tug of War!
