Physical Activity
Physical activity plays an important role in all our lives, for adults and children alike. It is the foundation of building a healthy and balanced lifestyle, is a fantastic way to make and build friendships and is an excellent platform from which to learn and develop new skills.
Physical activity and play are essential for physical, psychological, emotional, and social health and should be seen as part of everyone’s daily lifestyle.
Playground Breaks
In KPS we facilitate the use of equipment during our 2 playground breaks, each class have their own labelled equipment box and a class leader brings the box to and from the yard at each break time, this is a big responsibility. The yard is zoned for each class and within that the children have areas in which some can run, play football, use hula hoops, bean bags etc. We encourage the children to run and move as much as possible during lunchtime and we are so fortunate to have ample space to allow all children to do this safely.
Active Break Everyday
We are busy in November with our ‘Active Break Everyday Challenge’ which sees classes take at least one active break every day, these movement breaks are a great way to restore concentration and focus throughout the day. This is a super focus for us as the weather dis-improves, it motivates us to get active and move both inside and outside. Classes make use of Go Noodle, Cosmic Kids, 10@10, the Bizzy Breaks from the Irish Heart Foundation and the PDST Movement in the classroom booklet.
Active Student of the Month
We acknowledge our Active Students of the month each month and it's an award pupils are thrilled to get! We award the prize for pupils who have shown an improvement in mastering a skill, shown more interest and enthusiasm for activity and who are eagerly willing to take part and work as a team.
Run Around Ireland Challenge
This has been one of the most popular challenges of the Active School calendar. Our Active Walkway has been clearly established as the foot flow around it has been constant. Classes have made a well worn path around the school grounds in their quest to reach destinations around Ireland. One of our classes ran around Ireland 4 times and then aimed for European destinations, while others took to timing themselves to see how quickly they could make it around Ireland! This was a marathon and not a sprint as this challenge spans over 4 weeks and it sure improves our stamina! We certainly have some Fionnuala and Una Britton's in the making here in KPS, roll on the Olympians of the future!!
Click on the links below to hear our local heroes Fionnuala and Una's advice to us.
Fionnula Britton and Una Britton
Now have a look at our own future Olympians! 
12 Days of Fitness
As part of our first Active Flag, December saw the launch of our ‘12 Days of Fitness’. The children took part in a different ‘fit’ activity each day in the days running up to our Christmas holidays. Some of the activities really tested our resolve, like the plank and the wall sits!
Santa Dash
The culmination of our first Active Flag Activities for Term 1 was our Santa Dash. The children in all their festive gear, jumpers and hats, dashed around our Active School Walkway. We ran a Santa Dash colouring competition to get everybody in the festive mood and this helped to decide who would lead each class in the Dash. Classes sang Christmas songs and shared the good cheer as we visited both school buildings sharing the Christmas joy! Many classes took a detour down the village to post their Santa letters at the Santa Post box and the senior classes walked to the local nursing home to share their musical talents with others in our community.
Look at our specially designed poster for our Active School Flag Santa Dash competition, the winner in each class got the honour of leading their class on the dash!
Leprechaun Leap - St. Patrick's Day Parade and Seachtain na Gaeilge Celebrations
We held a super St.Patrick's Day Parade to mark our patron saints day, celebrate all our Seachtain na Gaeilge activities and to mark the official opening of our Active Walkway. The school grounds were awash with colour and Irish music, contemporary and traditional, as classes marched around the school grounds in glorious sunshine. For many of our younger pupils this was one of the first parades they'd ever attended!
