Physical Activity
- All pupils in our school are allocated 2 playground breaks each day. Our 1st break is at 10.30am – 10.40am, with our 2nd break taking place at 12.30pm – 1.00pm.
- Children are encouraged to run around during these periods.
- Our school yard is zoned to allow pupils to engage in different activities. At present, we have areas for football, basketball, hopscotch and other playground games. We plan on enhancing these in future.
- Our school facilitates the use of sports equipment during break times. At the moment, children are allowed use footballs, basketballs, cones and skipping ropes. We hope to improve the variety of options in the future.
- An active walkway is currently being designed to enable children to ‘do their walking while they’re talking’ during breaks.
- After indoor yards as a result of the rain, it is school policy for all teachers to engage in active physical breaks throughout the day. This may include dance breaks, exercise breaks or outdoor breaks when there is a momentary lapse of rain outside.Sample activities are linked below:Gonoodle https://app.gonoodle.com/Bizzy Breaks (more info on https://irishheart.ie/your-health/our-health-programmes/healthy-schools/active-schools/)JustDanceKids https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ-ZPsXExcQux3gt-5ynhbA
- Our school actively promotes physical activity throughout the year with various events e.g. our Santa Dash in December, our Sponsored Walk in May or our annual Sports Days amongst many others.
- All of our ASF physical activities are planned to be accessible to all pupils.
Active Committee
It is important to hear the voice of the children around the school and our committee have come up with fantastic ideas and suggestions for how to stay active in our school. They bring ideas that their friends in their class suggest and it’s a great way to find out the most popular games and activities.
Spooky Walk
We had great fun getting all dressed up for Halloween today and stayed active too! Every class went on a spooky walk and lots of parents joined in too!
We love to stay active during the day with our new Rock Climbing Wall.
Active Break Every Day Challenge!
A huge well done to all of the classes from Junior Infants to Sixth class who took part in our ‘Active Break Everyday Challenge! Each day all of the children took a quick break to get the brains and their body ready for their next lesson! All of the children loved taking part and their was a huge variety in each class from dancing to squats, a run around the yard or a ‘Body Coach’ workout on youtube! Great job everyone!
Santa Dash 2021
Our entire school took part in our Santa dash last Friday as part of our active schools flag programme. All the boys and girls dressed in Christmas clothes and Santa hats and ran a lap of our school yard while listening to festive songs! Well done to all the classes!!
‘Climb the Heights’ – Skipping Challenge
Mr Looney’s 4th class have been working on their skipping skills! They completed the ‘Climb the Heights’ Skipping challenge and climbed the highest mountain in all 31 countries with a skip for each metre! Amazing work!
Junior Classes – ‘Love Run’
We are taking every opportunity to be active in our school and so the Junior Classes took part in a ‘Love Run’ on Valentines Day!
All the classes made fantastic hearts and crowns to wear and had a great time having a break from the classroom running around the yard together! Well done everyone!
Irish Dancing
We are focusing on speaking as much Irish as possible this week but we were very excited to stay active at the same time! The children in 1st-4th class were given the opportunity to Irish dance with a professional Irish dancer! Have a look at the video! Táimid réidh le haghaigh Seachtain na Gaeilge anois! #activeflag #snag
girls football
Sports Star of the Week
We love to celebrate the many wonderful sporting achievements of the children in St. Dominic’s NS! Sometimes it is impossible to choose just one Sports Star of the week!
Well done to our Sports Star of the week in Mr. Looney’s 4th class for being awarded player of the match at the weekend in her camogie match with St Anne’s.
Another amazing Sports star of the week from Ms Kenny’s class for scoring a penalty AND 2 goals in his soccer match! Look at the amazing medal and trophy!
Player of the Match for St Dominic’s was Kyle from 6th Class (Ms Duffy). Our goals came from Brandon (6th Mr Brennan) and Lucas (6th Ms Duffy).
Our Sports Star of the week from Ms Pyne’s class who scored FIVE goals in his soccer match at the weekend!
Active Playground
We had a huge amount of interest in our playground leaders job and we have 8 very eager students ready to play games with the younger children, ensure that our new equipment is being used correctly and making sure every child is being active and having fun on yard!
For our active playground to work smoothly we need to make sure our new equipment is brought out each day and stored away and looked after carefully. We asked for volunteers for the important job of ‘Equipment Monitors’! They have been doing a super job!
Active yard Timetable
Active Lines
Our playground leaders have been great at getting every class moving with exercises as they wait for their teacher in their line!
Soccer Blitz
An amazing day at our first ever @ActiveFlag Soccer Blitz – over 90 pupils from 5th and 6th classes taking part in the @faischools Spar Primary 5’s. Thanks to Mr Looney for organising and all the teachers and captains who helped out.
And let’s not forget the spectators who cheered them on!
Run around Ireland
Our whole school took part in the ‘Run around Ireland challenge’! Every day for the duration of the challenge over 4 weeks you could see classes running around the yard making it to the various landmarks around Ireland. Our 2 fifth classes took the challenge to the next level by making it to each destination! Well done 5th class and to all the boys and girls! It was fantastic to hear that on day 1 some found it difficult to make it around 1 lap but by the end they felt fitter and could easily do several laps to add to the kilometer total of their class!
Getting active in our local environment
All 3 fourth classes had a wonderful day out at the Hellfire Club and Massy’s Woods today. A few tired legs and wet feet going home but lots of learning, activity and fun outdoors!
Junior Dublin Basketball Cup
Today Ms Ormsby’s class had the chance to look at and hold the Junior Dublin Basketball Cup – the first time Springfield Ladies (a local basketball team) have ever won it!
Walkway
Our school walkway is up and running! Thanks to Josh who fixed all of the plaques at various points of our walkway. The Active Flag committee met and measured out the 750m route beginning outside the office door and going around the yard and the pitch. There is a library of laminated challenge charts stored in the PE room which the teachers can take for their class to use on our walkway. There are challenge charts for everything from addition, multiplication, mindfullness, orienteering and lots more! We can’t wait to start using it!
Easter Bunny Run
What a fun way to hop into the Easter holidays! It was tough to hang onto our Easter Bunny crowns as we did our run today in the wind but all the children had great fun getting out of the classroom and getting active! They even had a dance as they waited at the start line!
Cycling Safety
Cycling Safety School begins today. Great day for our 5th class pupils to start. We plan to use the new Avonbeg greenway very soon!
School Sports Teams
We have a proud tradition of sports in St Dominic’s, underpinned by an ethos of inclusion and a spirit of fair play and team work. The pandemic has disrupted much of our activity, but as this academic year has progressed we have formed many of our teams again, with pupils training and taking part in matches. Following the Covid disruptions, most of our pupils have now gotten to wear the famous St Dominic’s crest on their jerseys for the first time. Thank you to all the teachers who give up their time to train teams and organise matches.
This year, our senior classes have had the following sports, with well over 100 pupils taking part across the activities.
- Boys Gaelic football – 4th-6th Class – took part in Term Two.
- Girls Gaelic football – 3rd-6th Class – Terms Two and Three. Training on Tuesdays after school.
- Girls Basketball – 4th-5th Class – Term Three. Training on Wednesdays after school.
- Boys Hurling – 4th-6th Class – Term Three. Training on Mondays after school.
- Boys Soccer – 4th-6th Class. Terms Two and Three. Training on Wednesdays after school.
Please contact your child’s class teacher if you would like them to get involved or for more information.
St. Dominic’s National School 