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Sport:

Ballaghkeene has a proud sporting tradition. We pride ourselves on having a very active school-going population where active lifestyles are promoted and encouraged. Children in Ballaghkeene NS receive coaching and exposure to various sporting activities. The school enters teams in Gaelic football, ladies' football, camogie, and hurling Rackard League competitions yearly. Whenever possible, the school enters second teams so that as many children as possible are allowed to represent the school and have lots of fun in the process. The teachers in the school give freely of their time to organise and run off various lunchtime leagues. We also participate in the Co. Wexford Athletics competition each year in Enniscorthy. Ballaghkeene NS is also a Hurling 365 school. One morning a week (weather permitting) parents and teachers coach hurling skills before school.

 

Active School Flag:

Ballaghkeene NS takes part in the Active School Flag initiative and we are currently working towards our third Active School flag. This is a non competitive initiative which seeks to recognise schools that place an emphasis on physical activity and wellbeing not just in the school but in the wider community. The process aims to get more schools, more active, more often. Our school has a hard working Active Schools committee that is made up of both pupils from 3rd to 6th class as well as some staff members. Our current committee members are Ms. L. Sinnott, Ms. C. Sinnott, Mr. Hendrick, Dylan Ormonde, Sam Harpur, Jonah Murphy, David Sinnott, Cormac O’Hanlon, Seán Gallivan and Niall Rochford.

 

Physical Education:

Children in Ballaghkeene NS have access to the six strands of the Primary school PE curriculum each year. These are 1) Games, 2) Athletics, 3) Dance, 4) Gymnastics, 5) Outdoor and Adventure activities and 6) Aquatics. The children in the school take part in 60 minutes of Physical Education per week. We have a well stocked PE store room that is kept in order by Mr. Hendrick and members of the ASF Committee.

The Games strand encourages the children to develop the basic concepts of games such as possession, attack, defence, teamwork and the use of space. The children are given the opportunity to take part in a wide variety of games such as hockey, basketball, tennis, badminton, hurling and football as well as traditional playground games and fun cooperative games which cater for the interests of all pupils. We have coach Caroline Murphy attending the school this year with her clear focus being on fundamental movement skills.

Athletics allows the children to engage in a variety of running, jumping and throwing activities. The children develop a sense of pace while moving. They practise various ways of jumping as well as various throwing techniques.

Dance as a part of the PE curriculum involves the children creating, performing and appreciating movement as a way of expression and communication. The children get to experience both creative and traditional dance. Last year we had a Dance coach come into the school and teach us creative dance. We are very lucky to have Ms. K Doyle to teach us some traditional Irish dances.

The children get to explore movement on the floor and they also use simple apparatus for Gymnastics. We are very lucky to have Tommy and the team from Gymstars Gymnastics to guide through our gymnastics skills and routines.

Outdoor and adventure activities include walking, orienteering and outdoor challenges. The children work cooperatively in groups for this strand and develop their problem solving and map reading skills. We are very lucky to have our Active School walkway set up for this and we make use of our large playground area.

Aquatics is a very important strand in the PE Curriculum. Children in the Senior end of the school attend swimming lessons for an eight week block in the local swimming pool. All classes in the school complete the Land PAWS Water Safety Programme each year in the month of June.

Teachers use a variety of resources to guide them in delivering quality PE lessons. PSSI Lesson Plans are widely used throughout the school. We have introduced the Move Well, Move Often programme to teach the Fundamental Movement Skills to all pupils. In September 2019, we introduced a standardised PE timetable, meaning that all classes will be taught the same strand and Fundamental Movement Skill at the same time during the school year. This will allow for the sharing of resources and ideas among staff and ensure that an equal amount of time is given to each strand.

 

Physical Activities:

The dedicated ASF committee in Ballaghkeene NS strives to provide a wide range of activities throughout the school year to cater for the needs and interests of all pupils in Ballaghkeene NS.

  • Playground Leaders: ·Pupils from 5th-6th class volunteer to become a Playground Leader. They give up one-two lunch breaks per week to play games with the Junior Classes, ensuring they are active and happy throughout break time.

  • W.O.W (Walk on Wednesday): From September until Christmas all children were encouraged to walk to school from the church ground every Wednesday morning. The parents of the children dropped them at the church where the staff of the school met them and walked them up to school. This was a great way to get some steps and fresh air in before school.

  • NCT (No Car Thursday): W.O.W Walk On Wednesday has now changed to N.C.T (No Car Thursday). The children still gather at the church grounds and they walk to school with their parents. This is a great way of getting the parents involved in the ASF process.

  • Fun Line Fridays: Before school on Friday mornings the children take part in some fun physical activity in their lines on the yard under the guidance of Mr. Hendrick and the Active School Committee members.

  • Active Break Every Day Challenge: Every class completed the 'Active Break Every Day' challenge, as a whole school initiative, over a period of 4 weeks this year. We followed the Olympic Ireland Movement Breaks set by various different Irish Olympians. We had great fun getting to know each of the Olympians and their chosen area of sport and we really enjoyed the various different activities and challenges they set us each day.

  • Hurling 365: Hurling 365 takes place every Wednesday morning from 8am to 8.50am. It invites students from Junior Infants right up to 6th class to come along and take part in the activities to help improve their fundamental skills and also their basic GAA skills. It is run by volunteers from the local GAA club, Parents and School Staff.

  • Table Tennis takeover: The boys and girls in the senior classes thoroughly enjoyed playing table tennis on the yard in September. We hope to get a table tennis league going outside later in the year.

  • D.E.A.S: We all know that movement breaks and keeping active throughout the school day not only helps us with our fitness levels but it also helps us to learn. We randomly Drop Everything And Skip during the day.

  • Run Around Europe Challenge:

  • Go Noodle: We use this fun filled website on rainy days when we do not get to go out to play on the yard. This website has a range of activities such as guided dance, boxercise, running and calming activities.

  • Lunchtime Leagues: We run various lunchtime leagues throughout the school year in Hurling and Football. Teams are made up of boys and girls from different classes and matches are played during lunchtime. Older pupils act as managers for the teams.

  • Partnerships: Ballaghkeene NS works with many different outside organisations in providing ample opportunities for the children of the school to take part in a wide range of activities. The children of the school also see the importance of physical activity on a daily basis outside of school and they are a part of many different organisations such as pony club, dance classes, rugby clubs, soccer clubs, athletics clubs and taekwondo along with many more. In school we work closely with the following:

  • Active Flag Committee – Our Active Flag Committee is composed of pupils from 3rd -6th class. Pupils are given various roles and tasks to carry out throughout the school year such as making announcements at assembly, giving messages to the classrooms on various initiatives, designing posters for the school, carrying out surveys etc. Our pupils play a very important role in organising and delivering our Active Flag initiatives.

  • Oulart the Ballagh GAA – we have a very strong school-club link with our local GAA club. We have volunteers who help out with hurling 365 and are very lucky to receive visits from the hurling and camogie teams when they are victorious in local success.

  • Wexford GAA- we have coaches from Wexford GAA who come out and do termly blocks of lessons with various classes to help children learn basic skills needed for Gaelic games and encourage the sport among them.

  • Hurling 365- hurling 365 takes place every Wednesday morning from 8am to 8.50am. It invites students from Junior Infants right up to 6th class to come along and take part in the activities to help improve their fundamental skills and also their basic GAA skills. It is run by volunteers from the local GAA club, Parents and School Staff.

  • Super Troopers – All our pupils receive a Super Troopers journal during the month of June which gives them Active homework each night. Pupils are encouraged to do the activity each night as part of their Active homework. This exciting programme encourages the children and their families to become more active and learn about healthy lifestyles.

  • WOW Wall – The school has a ‘Wow Wall’ outside the office in the main hallway where it takes pride of place and is visible to all. This wall contains pictures of different children and displays their achievements both inside and outside of school in the many and varied activities they get up to such as Irish Dancing, Boxing, Darts, Gymnastics, Horse Riding etc.

  • Sports Active Wexford – we work with Sports Active Wexford to deliver programmes to our pupils to enhance their physical development and to upskill staff on various strategies to improve the delivery of PE in our school.

  • Gymstars Gymnastics - We work in partnership with Gymstars Gymnastics in helping to deliver the gymnastics curriculum. Coaches Tommy and Kevin teach the children the various skills and techniques and help them practise them alongside with the help of their teachers. We are very lucky to have the use of the boxing club premises which is right next door to our school. Many thanks to The Ballagh boxing for allowing us to use such a great facility

 

  • Jonny Smith Dance Academy - The boys and girls have had great opportunities in the area of Dance under the guidance of the well experienced and widely known dance coach Jonny.

  • Active School Week: The highlight of the Active School Year! We have had an Active School Week in the middle of June for a number of years now and each year has proven to be more active than the previous. We incorporate our annual Sports Day into this week also. There are lots of different activities organised for ASW with some opportunities for the children to take on the teachers. Activities take place before school, during teaching time and at both break and lunch times. The wide variety of activities on offer during ASW means that all children get to take part in an activity that they really enjoy. We invite people into the school during ASW to provide taster sessions of different sports to all children. It is very busy for the committee in the weeks leading up to ASW as they plan and organise all the different events. We look forward to ASW 2024 which no doubt promises to be action packed.

  • Slogan Competition: We have had some excellent slogans created by our students over the recent years. They were are as follows: ‘Active body, active mind, leave those lazy days behind.’, ‘Run, skip, play, that’s the active way.’, ‘Get off your seat and move your feet.’  We decided it was time for an update and ran an Active Slogan Competition asking our students to come up with a new catchy slogan. We got lots of fabulous and excellent entries well done to all. We had one stand out winner from Jay O'Shea in 3rd class with his catchy slogan of "Wiggle, Jiggle, Jump and Giggle". We will now use this new slogan going forward with our Active Schools.

 

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