Sport - Scoil Mhuire gan Smál Carlow

Physical Education

provides children with learning opportunities through the medium of movement. It contributes to children’s overall development by helping them to lead full, active and healthy lives. Each class has one hour of official Physical Education every week. Sometimes this may be in the PE Hall, where it is split into half-hour slots on 2 days per week. Sometimes it may be outside. Sometimes it may be taught by an outside instructor, for example, Ramona Iovan teaches gymnastics, swim instructors teach swimming, various coaches come to teach rugby, GAA, soccer, spike ball, etc. Children wear their school tracksuit on PE days.

“

Education curriculum:
• Athletics
• Dance
• Gymnastics (a block of 6 weeks of lessons taught by Ramona Iovan)
• Games
• Outdoor and Adventure Activities
• Aquatics (2nd, 3rd & 4th classes have a 10 week block of lessons in the final term.)

Active Week:
Active Week usually takes place in June. It is a week where every class focuses on physical activity and homework also includes physical activity. There may be a day of skipping, a day of ball games, a day of traditional yard games, etc. Each class level gets a time slot for their activity. Sometimes we have outside coaches for some activities, for example, Bootcamp, Pound class, GAA skills, Camogie skills, Rowing skills, etc.
We sometimes have a Fast Walk competition whereby each class goes on a quick walk around St. Patrick’s College field. The walk is timed each day. The aim is to do the walk in a shorter time by Friday.
We also have DEAD time – Drop Everything and Dance. At any time each day, music is played over the intercom and everybody must stop what they are doing and dance on the spot. It’s great fun! We sometimes call this BIRA time – Bí ag Rince Anois.

Sports Day:

Sports Day usually happens in June, sometimes as part of Active Week. It is a non-competitive day where the focus is on participation and fun for everyone. It takes place outdoors, in our own grounds and in St Patrick’s College field. Classes participate with their parallel class i.e. both Junior Infant classes together. Each class is given a plan of the events and their own starting point. The events usually include: a 3-legged race, a potato & spoon race, a sack race, a wheelbarrow race, a sprint, a tug-of-war competition, a parachute game, a skipping race, a beanbag on head race, a dishes & domes game, a pass-the-giant-ball competition, a basketball shooting competition and a fun circuit.

In the afternoon, we sometimes have some games with teachers versus 6^th class, usually a basketball game, a bench-ball game and some other fun games.