Here in St. John's N.S., we have a Two Year PE Plan for the whole school. This allows all Strands & Strand Units to be covered by all classes, and ensures that the 15 Fundamental Movement Skills are taught at least once across the two years. All pupils are provided with a minimum of 60 mins PE per week, and from February to June we also have GAA Coaching delivered by a coach from the local Owenmore Gaels GAA club.
In the 2023/24 school year we chose Gymnastics as our focus, and a member of staff attended the Oide Gymnastics Workshop in Drumshambo, Co. Leitrim in February. Gymnastics lessons were particularly focused on the FMS of balancing. The PSSI and the Move Well Move Often resources have been utilised by all class teachers to aid their preparation and planning for PE.
The Four FMS we chose this year were balancing, running, catching and throwing, and they were incorporated into PE lessons throughout the whole year.
Sporting Facilities
We count ourselves very lucky in our school with the sporting facilities we have on our school grounds and also within walking distance of the school. We have an indoor hall with a store room for sports equipment. We have an outdoor basketball court on our school grounds. In addition, we have two other play areas for the - one for the junior and senior class. We are also in close proximity to the Abbey Drive park, which also have a children's playground.
We have an array of PE equipment available to us, and new equipment was purchased in Spring 2024. The equipment and resources are labelled, well organised and easily accessible for teachers. An audit of all our PE equipment ais conducted each year and teachers are asked to return equipment after use. We hope to further expand our PE resources in 2025
Aquatics
3rd and 4th Classes attend 6 weeks of swimming lessons from Jan - April, and the Land PAWS activities are done with 2nd Class. This year, in March 2024, we were lucky to have a visit from Rosie O'Regan from Water Safety Ireland, who facilitated a workshop with all the junior classes (Junior Infants - 2nd Class)
