Keeping Active throughout lockdown
Diary of an Active School
December 2019
We kept up our hurling training with Paul until the holidays.
We used lots of energy rehearsing for our Christmas panto which included lots of dancing and we walked to the local hall to rehearse.
November 2019
Hurling: On our return to school from Mid-Term it was time to welcome Paul back to coach the children in Hurling. The hurling sessions will continue until Christmas.
Sportshall Athletics: We also got stuck into training for Sporthall (Indoor Athletics) when we came back after Halloween. We took part in the Donegal Sportshall Athletics Regional Event in the Rosses Community School on Friday 29th November. The events at this included: Speed bounce, Standing Long Jump, Vertical Jump and a 1Kg Throw as well as several relay races of varying lengths. Everyone gave 100% on the day and we finished in 4th place out of 11 schools and were very unfortunate to finish just 1 point outside of the medals.
October 2019
Cross Country Running: On Thursday 3rd of October the whole school took part in the local schools Annual Cross Country Competition in Carrickfinn. Every single student ran their hearts out and the effort certainly paid off as we came out as WINNERS of the Small Schools Section.
As a result of some fantastic performances we had several students qualify for the County Final of the competition and we were super proud when our U-9 Boys team took home the Gold Medal and the U-11 Boys won Bronze. We were also extremely proud of Leah who was the only girl to qualify.
September 2019
Everyone was very happy to be back at school full of stories about how they spent their summer holidays. Almost every student took part in Summer Camps which involved sports of some kind and returned full of energy ready for another school year. We took up where we left off with our morning run around our playing area.
Cross Country Running: At the beginning of September we sent 5 athletes to compete in a County competition at Finn Valley and we were very proud of everyone who took part but especially so of our medal winners:Evan and Odhrán
Drama: September also saw the beginning of a 6 week course of Drama lessons with Sean from the Balor Theatre. As well as learning some of the skills involved in acting the children also played lots of games that helped them to improve their concentration, coordination and team work.
Football Coaching: Everyone was delighted to welcome Robbie back for his first 8 week session of football coaching.
May 2019:
Football Coaching
Robbie is back with us for his second term of football coaching which will bring us up to the summer holidays. As always the children benefit greatly from these sessions which help to improve and perfect individual skills as well as teaching the importance of being a team player.
Cumann na mBunscol – Rounders
We played the first round of the rounders competition against our neighbouring school Keadue on 17th of May. Everyone played their best but unfortunately the opposition had the upper hand on this occasion. We wish Keadue all the best in the competition.
Annual Rosses School Sports Competition
We had a successful day at the schools sports day in Carrickfinn despite some of our best athletes being sidelined through injury or illness. Everyone put in a huge effort especially some of our younger students who stepped into the breach to make sure we competed in all races, even though it meant we had someone from 1st class competing with 5th/6th class. We had 4 medal winners on the day, with Odhrán winning 2 and he could have had a third but was just pipped at the post.
It was very heartening to see the determination displayed by everyone who took part, they ran, jumped and threw their hearts out and didn’t give up as they knew that even if they didn’t place in the top three they were still earning points for their school.
Forest School
Having had to postpone it due to weather conditions earlier in the year we were delighted to finally get out to explore the great outdoors with Breege our Forest School teacher. Everyone is really enjoying getting to spend time learning about nature and how to take care of it.
April 2019:
We continued with our morning laps and regular afternoon sessions of Just Dance or Mini Circuits. In PE we continued to prepare for the athletics competition taking place in May.
Success at Cumann na mBunscol 🙂
Both our senior boys and senior girls took part in our division of the Cumann na mBunscol Gaelic Football competition on Friday 5th of April. We are proud of our boys team who played their best and gave their all but unfortunately did not progress on the day.
We are even prouder of our girls teams who were victorious on the day and will play in the County Final at the end of May. Comhghairdeas libh a cailiní.
March 2019:
Our morning session of The Running Initiative is still going well with everyone from Junior Infants to 6th class completing their laps every day before classes begin.
We had hoped to begin a 6 week program of ‘Forest School’ this month but the weather, especially the high level of rainfall, left the proposed site unsuitable. Having had to cancel the first two weeks we decided to postpone Forest School until after the Easter Holidays.
As Forest School was to be part of our PE for this term we had to come up with an alternative and Miss O Donnell and Mrs Doogan stepped into the breach and began a program of athletics coaching which will take us up to the Easter break. Mrs Doogan is an active member of the Rosses Athletics Club and Miss O Donnell is applying the skills she learned at the ‘Move Well, Move Often’ seminar.
February 2019:
We continued with our daily running initiative and everyone is getting fitter and faster as the weeks go by.
John Ward was with us for the first three weeks of February as he continued with GAA coaching.
On Wednesday 15th of February we had a visit from Anne the Active Flag accreditor and she was very happy with what she seen and heard.
For our last PE session in February we decided to brush up on our rounders skills with help from Eoin who was with us for work experience. Rounders brings a new set of skill sets, including catching, throwing, batting, running and counting!
Hooray – we got the great news that we have been successful in securing our second Active School Flag. Go Scoil Mhuire 🙂
January 2019:
Running Initiative/The Daily Mile
We have continued with our running initiative, by doing laps of the yard each morning. We also signed up for the The Daily Mile in association with Athletics Ireland.
Football Coaching
We have John Ward from the Dungloe GAA club with us every Tuesday until Mid Term.
Circuits
Since our return to school after the Christmas holidays Miss Mc Ginley has initiated a 15 minute session of Circuit training every afternoon. These sessions include: Jogging on the spot, Jumping Jacks, Squats, Burpees, Wall Sits, Sit Ups etc. This type of activity leads to increased fitness, strength and endurance as well as giving the students a fresh injection of energy to help them concentrate on the remainder of their daily lessons. Some of the exercises also help with co-ordination, concentration and co-operation with the children supporting each other in completing specific tasks.
December 2018:
Gymnastics
Our weekly sessions with Ellie continued until the 14th of December.
Hurling
We took part in the final blitz of the series on the 4th of December playing Acres NS.
The Running Initiative
Our daily morning run continued, an extra lap was added each week so that by the time we broke up for Christmas we were up to 8 laps of the pitch. We find it a great way to start off the day and the benefits can be seen as the students are getting fitter and faster but also are more ready to apply themselves to lessons in the classroom.
November 2018:
Gymnastics
Since we returned after the Mid Term break we have begun a 6 week course in Gymnastics with Ellie. Ellie is a qualified gymnastics instructor who has worked with Finesse Gymnastics Club in Letterkenny. Gymnastics is especially good for developing motor skills, co ordination, balance and strength.
Hurling
We also signed up for a series of indoor Hurling blitzes in partnership with Dungloe GAA Club. The children from 1st class upwards took part in 2 blitzes this month playing Dungloe NS and Scoil Roshine.
Fitness/Athletics
Miss O Donnell attended the PDST CPD seminar: ‘Move Well, Move Often – Developing Physical Literacy’, on the 21st of November.
For the last week of November Miss O Donnell implemented ‘The Running Initiative’, part of the Move Well Move Often programme with all the students from infants to 6th class. This involves the children running laps of the games pitch in the school yard before formal lessons begin in the morning. They began by running one lap and increased this each day until they were up to 5 laps by the end of the week.
October 2018:
Football (GAA)
Our Wednesday coaching sessions with Robbie continued until mid – term and the senior students took part in a football blitz in ‘The Banks’, involving 6 other schools from the area.
September 2018:
Football (GAA)
To start off this year we had 8 weeks of football coaching with Robbie from Clg Naomh Muire. Lessons typically start off with a group warm up followed by drills to help develop ball handling, co ordination and concentration. To finish off the children are divided into teams and they compete either in relay skills races or a short football match, this helps to promote teamwork which is invaluable in developing communication, co operation and even sometimes conflict resolution!
Athletics
On Thursday 27th of September we attended the annual Rosses Schools Cross Country Competition in Carrickfinn.
PE at Scoil Mhuire Belcruit
While we endeavour to include some form of activity on a daily basis in the school, we also have at least one day each week where PE is part of the timetable. We work in partnership with our local sports clubs to provide expert coaching in different types of sport. We have worked with coaches from Dungloe GAA Club, Naomh Mhuire GAA Club, Rosses Athletics Club and Dungloe Demons Basketball Club and Tir Conaill Rugby Club. Working with coaches from local clubs not only gives the children new skills but also encourages them to join the club and get involved in different sports outside of school. The teachers also get involved in teaching PE using lessons from PDST to incorporate different strands into the PE timetable.
Congratulations Odhran
We were delighted and very proud to hear that Odhran Boyle had been selected to represent Donegal in the Cumann na mBunscol Mini-Sevens series 2018.
Eamonn Mc Bride Memorial Gaelic Blitz 2018
A Really Active School Tour
We had our school tour to Rockhill Activity Centre on Tuesday 19th of June. It was certainly an action packed day that was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.
The juniors spent time doing lots of different activities including, trampolining, peddle boating, water zorbing and a scavenger hunt.
The seniors were really put through their paces by the tour leaders. The day started out with kayaking in the bay, then they had a laser tag battle through the forest and finished off with an archery lesson.
On Friday 1st of June 2018 we had a walk and picnic in aid of Relay for Life. We all walked to the bridge into Cruit and spent some time enjoying the lovely sunshine. We also took the opportunity to invite one of our past pupils, Laoise, who is now an instructor with Irish Water Safety to give the children a talk on how to stay safe while at the beach. Laoise also showed the bigger children how to do some simple rescues from the shore and when we returned to the school she gave a demonstration of basic life support.
Active School Week 2018
Keeping fit and healthy and being active is an integral part of life here at Scoil Mhuire Belcruit. Throughout the year we try to have a varied PE program, during the last school year (2017/18) our classes included coaching in Gaelic Football, Hurling & Swimming. Our playground leaders ensure that there is always something to do at break times, their responsibilities include making sure everyone is involved in games, helping the smaller children with new skills and taking sports equipment out to the yard to use at lunchtime – and making sure that it is all stored away properly at the end of break! 10 @ 10, drop everything and dance and Go Noodle have become weekly events in our school.
Active School Week gives us the chance to ease off the books and enjoy lots of different activities and an amnesty on written homework means that the children are encouraged to take part in more after school activities with their friends and family.
Active Week 2018 was a great success and feed back from the children showed that everyone found something that they really enjoyed doing. We kicked off Active Week with the first of our 1k a day walks – students, staff and parents met at a designated drop off and we all walked to school together. The senior children continued with the 1k a day for the remainder of the week while the junior children did a ‘Wake up and Shake Up’ to start the day and the last hour of everyday was dedicated to practising for the annual inter schools athletics competition. The playground leaders set up 4 different play stations each day at lunchtime.
Tuesday included soccer coaching with John Francis and Yard games with Ann Marion. The children were introduced to the game of ‘Bench Ball’ and played lots of other games to encourage teamwork and co – operation. We had a ‘Just Dance’ session as a warm up for our athletics training.
Wednesday was an active day with a cultural twist – we had Gaelic Football coaching with Robbie, an afternoon of games that traditionally take place at local Meenacross Agricultural Show ( these were great fun and included ‘Throwing the Wellie’ & Egg Tossing) and we also had a Ceilí Mór when we danced the Seige of Ennis, Shoe the Donkey and An Dreolín. We also had a Skipathon challenge, with some of our students mastering the art of skipping for the first time.
On Thursday Ms O Donnell took the reigns and put the senior students through their paces with circuit training. Ms O Donnell also prepared a talk about healthy diet and presided over ‘The Great Sugar Debate’. The junior students enjoyed a day of playground games including parachute games, a Hula Hoopathon and a Limbo competition.
Friday was the day of the Rosses Schools Athletics competition and we had a short warm up session before boarding the bus for Carrickfinn. Unfortunately the weather on the day turned really wet and windy and the competition had to be called off before all the races could take place and a rescheduled event was held a week later. Unfortunately we did not retain our Small Schools title but we would like to commend everyone for taking part – especially in the wind and rain and congratulate our medal winners. There’s always next year!
We want to thank all the students, coaches, parents and staff for making Active Week 2018 a big success but special mention must go to Tristan and Rhys who despite being on crutches at the time gave it their best shot.
Everyone at Scoil Mhuire Belcruit is very proud of the fact that we were awarded our first Active School Flag in 2016/17. We strive at all times to promote a healthy and active lifestyle among our students, staff and wider school community. Being part of the Active School Program pushes us to explore new ways to exercise and keep fit and we have great fun while doing so. We hope that by experiencing as many different sports and activities as possible that everyone will find something that they enjoy doing be it as a team or an individual.
We were especially proud and honoured to have one of our own students raise our very first Active School Flag. Ella Mc Bride was awarded a Donegal Sportstar Award in December 2017 for Gymnastics. Ella has won numerous medals in individual and team competitions and she represented Ireland with her Gymnastics Display team at international level.
Active Schools week 2017
Active schools week took place from 24th – 28th of April. We had an extremely busy week with many of the children trying out new activities and sports for the first time. Each morning began with a Wake Up and Shake up followed by our 10@ 10 workout which we started during Operation Transformation and ‘Just Dance’. Active stations were set up in the yard using our PE equipment and the children were asked to try to come up with new games to play with the different equipment.Written homework was suspended for the week but the children were encouraged to engage in physical activity each evening after school and to keep a diary of what they did. 
On Monday we divided all the children into their Active Week Groups – each group consisted of children from all classes where possible. This meant that the children were playing with people they don’t normally play with which led to the sharing of new ideas for games and also helped to develop the leadership skills of the older children. We had hurling with Tom in the afternoon.
On Tuesday afternoon Miss O Donnell gave a talk on healthy eating and she prepared some smoothies for the children to sample.
On Tuesday afternoon our feet didn’t miss a beat as we danced the time away with Ann Marion who came in to show us how to Zumba and Jive. The children especially loved the jiving and some were surprised to find that it took more energy to dance than to play football! It was good to learn that keeping fit and healthy doesn’t always mean taking part in something that is labelled as ‘sport’ – dancing is a great way to keep fit as well as helping with co-ordination and balance.
Wednesday as always – was WoW and CoW, where we encourage the children to make a special effort to walk or cycle to school. The morning was spent with our GAA coach Robbie, who comes to us for two six week sessions during the school year. We have a rich heritage in GAA in the area and we are very proud that one of our past pupils, Declan Ward, was selected for the Donegal County Minor team this year.
Ann Marion returned to the school on Wednesday afternoon when she and Mrs Doogan led the children in some outdoor games and while they still had a bit of energy left over they did a bit of Ceilí dancing – They learned the ‘Seige of Ennis’, ‘An Dreolín’ and the old favourite ‘Shoe the Donkey’!
On Thursday morning we had John Francis Doogan and Pat Ward in to do some Soccer coaching with all classes. As well as learning ball skills the children also had a lesson in Teamwork as they were divided into teams for various relays and mini games.
Thursday afternoon saw everyone being put through their paces with some circuit training and some people took the chance to show off their acrobatic skills!
Friday was the culmination of what was indeed a very busy and enjoyable week. While we did try to fit in ‘The 3 R’s’ everyday, FUN was the order of the day on Friday – the children were allowed to wear their own sports clothes instead of the usual PE uniform. After our morning routine of workouts and dancing we had some fun in the yard with the parachute and some of the other PE equipment, then it was time to head for the beach which is a 15 minute walk from the school.
At the beach we met with one of our parents, Donal, (a top class golfer) who very kindly gave up his morning to coach the children in the game of golf. Everyone was taught how to hold a golf club and got a chance to hit a few balls – while some found that it is not quite as easy as it looks others were naturals and we definitely have some who might even give Rory Mc Illroy a run for his money! and with Cruit Island Golf right on our doorstep they will have plenty opportunities to develop their skills.
The rest of our time at the beach was spent training for the Annual Rosses Inter Schools Athletic Competition, the children practised their sprinting, jumping and throwing and of course we also had to train for the all important novelty races. We were very proud and happy to welcome our past pupil Declan Ward who was a member of the Donegal county minor panel this year when he called to say hello and wish us well with our efforts to gain an Active School Flag.
Keep an eye on our Gallery page where we will have lots more photos of Active School Week 2017…
Active School Week 2018