Physical Education

We pride ourselves on delivering a physical education programme that focuses on all PE strands ensuring that all children enjoy a rich variety of experience in physical education. At the beginning of our Active Flag programme, we identified areas of the PE curriculum we felt our school were not strong in such as strands Dance, Gymnastics and Outdoor Adventure. To improve upon these strands we reached out to local Dance and Gymnastics clubs to bring coaches and instructors in to help tutor the children in these strands as well as provide opportunities for the teachers to observe and learn from the experts in these. We reached out to the Local Sports Partnership to see if there were any upcoming courses for primary school staff and attended an Orienteering course which then became a PE lesson students look forward to each summer. Our pupils learn fun orienteering skills over the course of a few weeks before undertaking an exciting orienteering task laid out in a nearby Park.

We are so lucky in Carlanstown NS for our pupils from Junior Infant to 6th class to attend swimming lessons in our local pool every year. The lessons provide our children with amazing life skills, promotes confidence in the water and hopefully encourages them to participate in swimming lessons outside of school too.

We strive to offer a balance of individual, team, co-operative and competitive activities aiming to cater for individual pupils’ needs and abilities that enables them to enjoy physical activity.

Aims

We endorse the aims of the Primary School Curriculum for PE:

• To promote the physical, social, emotional and intellectual development of the child.
• To develop positive personal qualities.
• To help in the acquisition of an appropriate range of movement skills in a variety of contexts.
• To promote understanding and knowledge of the various aspects of movement.
• To develop an appreciation of movement and the use of the body as an instrument of expression and creativity.
• To promote enjoyment of, and positive attitudes towards, physical activity and its contribution to lifelong health-related fitness, thus preparing the child for the active and purposeful use of leisure time.

PE Equipment

We are so lucky in Carlanstown NS to have a PE storage cupboard that is full of fun PE equipment. All classes are responsible for making sure equipment is returned neatly after each use.

With the help of some student council members and 6th class prefects, we carried out a reorganisation project this year whereby we threw out any old or broken equipment and repurchased new equipment.