
In September 2013 the staff and students of St. Patrick’s Secondary school embarked on a mission of developing a more active and healthy lifestyle for the whole school community.
By: Denis O’Donovan, Principal
This was part of working towards achieving The Active Schools Flag, an initiative supported by the Department of Education and Skills.
This initiative was led by our PE teacher Patrick McCarthy who set up an active school committee made up of teachers and students who developed a programme of activities for the year. This involved a 1st and 2nd years individual 6 week health and fitness programmes and their progress was monitored throughout the year. Our Students have participated in many physical activity events throughout the year including a 3k and 5k fun run, a fun athletics day, a tag rugby tournament, a cooperative games day in Killaloe, as well as climbing Torc Mountain and Mount Brandon. Students were also encouraged to walk and cycle to school as a means of becoming more active.
On Tuesday May 27th a representative from Active Schools visited the school to evaluate the work that had been done by the school and was most impressed by the amount of activities and progress made and had no hesitation in awarding the Active school flag to our school.
Congratulations to PE teacher Patrick McCarthy and all staff and students of the School on achieving this flag as recognition for the hard work and dedication towards keeping our school a physically active, healthy and physically educated school.
We would like to thank Georgie O’Callaghan, Sean Brosnan and Denny Porter for their contribution in encouraging students to become more active and healthy, our thanks to An Riocht athletic club, Castleisland Rugby Club, Castleisland Soccer Club, Castleisland Desmonds GAA club who all have given us the use of their facilities and have helped us in our endeavours.