RACKARD LEAGUE COUNTY FINAL WINNERS!
These wonderful players are now Roinn B County Champions 2024-2025 having been unbeaten throughout the tournament. They beat a good Tintern side at Wexford Park and we thank Tintern for a fair and well played game. Thanks also to our local club, Castletown Liam Mellows, for their grass roots coaching and endless encouragement of many of our players.
County Final Winners!
We were delighted to welcome the men’s and women’s winning county finals teams to school to show their silverware and celebrate with the children. It has been a great few weeks for the local community!
ACTIVE COMMITTEE 2024-2025
These wonderful children will be our Active Committee representatives this year and will be tasked with looking after many activities over the year.
RACKARD LEAGUE FINAL!!
These wonderful girls will be representing our school, Tara Hill NS and Coolgreany NS tonight, 05/11/2024 as they compete in the Rackard League Final. It takes place at 5pm in Chadwick’s Wexford Park. All support would be most appreciated as we cheer on this fantastic group of girls. There is a charge of €5 at the gate and I have been asked to note that no-one is allowed on the pitch, please. They are pictured with the women’s shield winners who are a great inspiration to them!
We will post photos of the great gathering for the teams in school today as the photos come through.
Athletics medal winners! WELL DONE !
Rackard League and Rising Stars – the story so far!
There has been so much going on with GAA games and tournaments that it has been hard to keep up! Here is an update as to how our teams have been doing so far. Huge thanks to Mr. Breen, Ms. D’Arcy and Ms. Carroll for their encouragements. Thanks also to all the staff who have helped out with supervision to make it happen!
Girls:
To date the girls have had a very positive start to the school football league. Our 6th class girls have won all their games and now compete in the district final TODAY in Naomh Eanna against Camolin @1:30pm. We wish them the very best of luck and are so proud of them!! Ádh mór a chailíní!!
Our 5th class girls have won all their games in the first round of Rising Stars and are through to the next round.
And….. our 5th & 6th girls also competed in the mini 7’s last week and are also through to the next round.
Maith sibh cailiní.
Boys:
The boys Rackard league team got through to the A quarter final on Monday v Bree in Castletown after qualifying top of their group after 3 very tough games v St. Joseph’s , Oulart and Blackwater. They unfortunately lost but we are so proud of their achievement.
The Rising Stars boys play their last group stage game v Loreto Gorey next Thursday and have also played brilliantly along the way with one win from 2 games.
The boys Mini 7s football team played last week in their first round blitz and showed determination and skill with a win v Gorey Educate Together but lost out to a very strong St. Joseph’s side who progressed to the next round. Well done boys!
Also pictured is Mr. Breen’s class proudly wearing our new set of jerseys which will be used for GAA, soccer, rounders and any other events. They were very generously sponsored by Mikey and Luke’s Mum and Dad of BET Technologies and the boys were delighted to join in the photo with the senior children. Thank you so much Lisa and Brian!
Relay Take Over!
Thanks to Ms. D’Arcy who coordinated such fun today with Relay Take over! Look at those smiles! Clink on the link for video!
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Orienteering/Active Walk Way
Mr. Breen’s class took advantage of the good weather to enjoy some orienteering using our Active Walkway signage. A great team activity!
CRICKET SAMPLER!
We were delighted to welcome Herbie and Peter who coordinated a cricket sampler for the children. The sun shone and all the children really enjoyed the experience!
Senior Bonding Day
Every two years, we send our senior classes to The Stables for a senior bonding day. They have a great time engaging in challenges and physical obstacles together! Thank you Mr. Breen and Sharon!
Annual Croghan Hike 2024
Some wonderful shots of our very successful Croghan Walk on 14th June 2024. We love this day! Our pupils proved their fitness and it was a lovely family day ou
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Active Week 2024
Day 1!
Some beautiful moments captured at our Walk a Mile with a Smile -Superhero Style on Monday – well done on your creativity! Look at those smiles
Active Flag – we don’t hibernate in winter!
5th and 6th class displaying great coordination by passing two tennis balls and using both arms to do so! Click on the link to view!
SANTA DASH 2023!
On Friday 8th December, Niall Breen’s 5th and 6th class pupils undertook a 5km Clone run in aid of Unicef – Gaza Emergency Appeal This fun run has become an annual event since its inception four years ago. Under the guidance of Mr. Breen, the children trained daily during the weeks leading up to the run and each child’s individual fitness level increased which was an added bonus! On the day, there was a Christmas disco in the yard for the whole school and the younger pupils excitedly cheered the senior pupils as they embarked on the run. The local gardaí were on hand to greet the returning runners with the siren and lights! Parents joined us on the run and also provided some well deserved hot chocolate and refreshments upon their return. We would like to thank Canavan’s Londis for their generous donation towards the refreshments. We chose Unicef this year as a way for children to help fellow children living in areas of conflict. While we don’t want the worries of the world to weigh too heavily on the children, we like to nurture a social conscience in allowing them to help those less fortunate than themselves at Christmas. The children raised over €2,200 euro which will go to the purchase of emergency kits, blankets, tarpaulins, medicines and water purification tablets. We are immensely proud of their efforts in raising so much money for Unicef.
October 2023
District Final Winners!
We are so proud of our 6th class girls who were part of the winning Rackard League team in the district finals v Gorey Central School this week! They played fairly and competitively and represented us so well!
Many thanks to Ms. D’Arcy for her encouragement of our pupils
A VISIT TO CROKE PARK!
Ronan was the lucky recipient of the Allianz pitch day prize which enabled him to bring his u8 teammates to play in Croke Park! What a fantastic opportunity! Memories to last a lifetime!!
You can’t beat Old School! Mrs Russell and Ms ní Shúilleabháin brought back the goods from a seminar with Jenny Moseley yesterday and kicked off Friday with whole school clapping and circle games. We loved seeing the buddy systems between senior and junior classes. Click the link to enjoy!
September 2023
Sport Education in Physical Education
Mr. Breen has taken on a new programme called ‘Sport Education in Physical Education,’ with his 5th/6th class. Sport Education is a specific evidence informed approach to teaching P.E class. It makes sport experiences in P.E more authentic to real life and accordingly prepare children to participate in recreational physical activity outside of school. Ultimately it encourages development of competent, literate, enthusiastic sports people. We are so lucky to have such giving staff here!
May 2023
A huge well done to Anna who won a medal for football over the weekend having participated with her club, Courtown Hibs in a blitz. Well done to coach Sharon and all the team.
April – Active Walkway
Ms. Lyng’s boys really enjoyed orienteering on our Active Walkway! Such concentration and what a view in the background!
FOOTBALL STARS!
Well done to our amazing soccer players who attended the FAI tournament today! Our boys were the overall winners in their division and our girls lost the final having gone to penalties – poor girls!!! We are so proud of you all and hope you had a brilliant day. We look forward to the county finals with the boys!
Huge congratulations to Tabitha and Ellie who made their school, coaches, club and Wexford very proud playing in Inter League Cup Semi Finals on Sunday. Individually they both played an outstanding game of football, integrally helping their team to a 4-1 victory over Dublin South. Marching into the final!! Proud review by our own Sharon who coaches with the club!
New PE equipment!
What a gorgeous day to be trying out our new sports euipment – many thanks to our PA for funding the purchase of these! The children reallly enjoyed these activities- thank you Mr. Breen !
Spring has sprung!
03/02/’ 23The weather was in our favour today for scooter day and spring was in the air! The children love this activity! Click the link to view !
Jumping into January!
Well done to Junior infants who are ‘jumping into January’ and learning how to skip!! Well done! Next Friday we will have a scooter day – vroom vroom! @ActiveFlag
January 2023 – Irish Women in Sport
We spoke today about the recent fantastic success of Rhasidat Adeleke in school today – we love to promote the achievements of Irish women in sport!
Congratulations @rhasidatadeleke !! You are an inspiration to our young, female athletes. Flying the flag for Ireland!
SANTA DASH 2022
5th and 6th class, under the coordination of Mr Breen, will be taking on their Santa Dash this Friday. We are very proud of them! They have been training hard and all their sponsorship will go to the local Ukrainian hub who have provided lots of support to our Ukrainian friends. Well done to the very talented artists who designed the sponsorship cards this year!
SHAPE HUNT!
You just can’t beat getting out of the seats for a shape hunt in junior infants!
SCOOTER DAY 2022
Scooter day is such a hit in our school and is a highlight of the active calendar! Thank you Ms. D’Arcy for organising!
* Big thanks to Henry our bus driver who was so patient in stopping and loading all the scooters today. He does it all with a smile. We gave him a little gift in thanks!
Click on the link below to view!
Hallowe’en activity!
*UPDATE! We were awarded a fantastic multi basketball net for our Enchanted Forest activity! Thank you Active Flag !!
Hallowe’en is a great excuse to get active! We had a disco on yard, an active walk through our Enchanted Forest and look forward to our school disco tonight, organised by our Parents’ Association! Click the links to view!
The cup on tour!!
The girls took great pride in bringing their cup around the classes today!! We have fingers and toes crossed for them for their match tomorrow v Blackwater! Also pictured – Caoimhe who was player of the tournament for AGB last week. A great week for all!
District champions!
Following their great victory at the district final, this wonderful team will be representing us in the county semi-final on Thursday at 3pm up at Tomnahely (Castletown pitch). We would really love for their school mates to support them! All support would be more than welcome!!!
Castletown County Champs!
Memories being made! We were thrilled to welcome the winning team to school today fresh from their huge victory yesterday! Thanks to the team for inspiring the children to see that they could be coming back to school in a few years with the cup! A historic occasion with 12 county finals under the belt – unrivalled!
Our Active Flag Committee 2022-2023
Castletown County Final!
Great excitement brewing here as our pupils gear up to support Castletown in the county finals on Sunday !!From all of us at Scoil Ghormáin Naofa – UP CASTLETOWN!! Click the link below to view!
Active breaktimes, infants love them!! Having a great boogie! Click the link to enjoy ….
WELL DONE ZHENYA!
Well done to Zhenya who brought in his medals to show us today. He presented them to the class and my how his English has come on since arriving from Ukraine not so long ago!!!
A WEEKEND OF WINS!
- There was huge achivement over the weekend and I am so proud of our pupils!
- Well done to the boys who won overall at Creagh, to the girls who made the semis and won the tug of war, to Robyn who came second representing our school in the inter-schools showjumping and to the U10 girls who were victorious in the end of season camogie finals day having topped the league! Well done to Hannah who won in her category also (pictured with fellow Tara Rocks player /teacher/uncle Mr. Breen!
SSE – School Self Evaluation – gymnastics
This year we are looking at the teaching of gymnastics using our outdoor facilities. Our staff undertook training in this area and are embedding new practices this month. The children are really enjoying these lessons!
Playground Leaders 2022-2023
Well done to our playground leaders who are doing a great job with our new Junior infants!
U-12 COUNTY FINAL WINNERS!
We are just so proud of our U12 players, Kayleigh, Ruby, Éabha and Ellen. They are wonderful role models for younger players. We look forward to following your progress girls!
BACK TO SCHOOL ! September 2022
5th and 6th class were full of enthusiasm and motivation during orienteering today! We love our @ActiveFlag plaques!
June – fun outdoors!
Click on the links to view what we got up to!
SPORTS DAY 2022
Link for photos https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1c4pv4qrC3OR3OOnijnz5Uq-2Ur5–nzl?usp=sharing
Many thanks to John Tobin for kindly capturing the many happy moments of our annual sports day. It was wonderful to welcome new faces to our school community as we welcomed incoming infants and their parents for induction. We were also delighted to welcome grandparents back as we had not had Grandparents’ Day this year
This year was a special one as we introduced the Joe O’Shaughessy Memorial Cup for the football penalty shoot out. Kiefer Shelly was the worthy recipient of the perpetual cup and we were grateful to Marcella O’Shaughnessy, Joe’s daughter, for presenting the cup and speaking about Joe. We were also pleased to welcome Joe’s wife Anne and their daughters Julie and Ellen.
Congratulations to Patrick Fanning who won the hurling penalty shoot out!
Enjoy the photos by clicking the link at the top of the post!
ANYONE FOR TENNIS!?
You know it’s summer when the rackets come out! Huge thanks to David from Arklow Lawn Tennis Club who came to coach our pupils today – they had a ball!
Croghan Hike!
WOW!! What a day! I am sure that parents have really tired little people at home today after a jam packed Active Week which culminated in our Croghan Climb. It was just fantastic to see so many parents, we really missed this sense of community during Covid. Well done to 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th who reached the summit!!!
Active Week – Monday
* What a great start to Active Week with Wake up Shake up, penalty shoot outs, GAA and tug of war to name but a few of the activities!
* ACTIVE HOMEWORK – Families are asked to practise the Cha Cha Slide – no excuses!! All families (Mammies, Daddies, grandparents, baby sisters and brothers!!) are invited to join us on yard on Wednesday at 9 for a Wake Up Shake Up to the Cha Cha Slide!http:// https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1gMUbEAUFw – dance steps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZv62ShoStY – full song
* Walk a Mile with a Smile – Superheroes! This takes place on Thursday and is always a hit! Juniors to second class may dress up as superheroes on this day.
Click the link above to view our first Wake up. Shake Up!
ACTIVE WEEK – TUESDAY
Inspiring Active Leadership
5th class enjoyed a great workshop in active leadership from Mary Flynn of Sport Active Wexford today. Thank you Mary!
Active Week – Wednesday
What a fun start to the day! Thanks to all who joined us for Cha Cha Slide!! It was lovely to enjoy such fun with families whilst being active! We had Eoin from Gorey rugby club in coaching us in tag rugb y today which is alwasy a hit.
Huge congratulations to the winning mini world cup side! Today, Man City were victorious and Jack Kenny was the top goal scorer of the tournament! Well done Jack!!
Proving ‘mens sana in corpore sano’ is true, we had a chess display from Michael and Sharon also!
Best wishes to our Rackard League hurlers who have gone to represent our school in the Roinn A semi finals. We are so proud of you!
Click on the link to see us perform Cha Cha Slide!
ACTIVE WEEK – THURSDAY
* Thanks to all who joined us for Walk a Mile with a Smile – Superhero Style! There were some great costumes on show!! Thank you to Ms. Ryan for the encouragement!!
* Our Wake up Shake up was great fun today. Ms. D’Arcy posed some challenges that contortionists would have trouble with!!! The penguin race was a hit!
CROGHAN HIKE!
We are very excited to resume our tradition of the annual hike on Croghan! This year our hike will take place on Friday 24th June. We look forward to parents and families joining us and to enjoying a picnic along the way! Click the link below to view our risk assessment.
SPORTING PARENTS: Massive congratulations to these Castletown Mums/Dads and teachers who were victorious in their rounders game at the weekend! Leading by example! As an Active School we celebrate our parents’ sporting endeavours!
Lunchtime soccer blitz
You know it’s summer term when we have lunchtime soccer blitz on the pitch! Huge thanks to Mr. Breen for coordinating.
Gymnastics achievers!
Congratulations to PJ and Mila who won medals last weekend in their gymnastics competition!
May 2022
We have so much to look forward to this summer term! Currently 1st/2nd and 5th/6th are running around Ireland! Click the link to view! We are also looking forward to Active Week, meeting a local hero and hiking Croghan! We will have earned our summer break!
LOCAL HERO LIAM COLEMAN – Friday 06/05/22
We were delighted to welcome Local Hero Liam Coleman who plays for local club and for County Wexford to school today. Liam answered questions and taught the children some new games. It was a most inspiring visit and we are very grateful to Liam! We wish him continued success! Click the link for video!
WALKING TRAIN – MAY 2022
Our walking train enjoyed their outing to pollinate a newly designated area by the Ahare river today. Such a fun and interesting experience!
GOREY RFC – MOST IMPROVED PLAYER!
CONGRATULATIONS TO EMER IVANOFF WHO WAS THE RECIPIENT OF THE AWARD FOR MOST IMPROVED PLAYER IN GOREY RFC THIS YEAR!
We are so proud of you, Emer!
PLAYGROUND LEADERS
Our playground leaders are wonderful role models for our junior infants! Pictured here playing fun games
ACTIVE WALKWAY
Pictured are our Active Walkway maps as designed by our students. The route spans an impressive 880 metres! Lots of learning, lots of moving!
LESS SEDENTARY TIME!
We support Less Sedentary Time.
Here in our continuously active school we promote learning through movement. We like to sit less and therefore learn more, through many different means, here are a but a few examples;
*We have a glorious outdoor classroom.
* We take short movement breaks daily.
* We have an Active Walkway, whereby we complete a range of academic activities whilst moving from station to station.
* Each class has an Activity Jar to get us up moving between lessons or on rainy days.
* We take standing breaks whilst reading, doing art or other subjects.
* We use dance websites online on rainy days to ‘Shake it Up!
* We use Bizzy Breaks on rainy days too.
- We have running and skipping programmes
- Run Around Ireland
- Run Around Europe
- Climb the Heights
Here in Scoil Ghormain Naofa we are proud to be in partnership with many sporting groups and organisations. We have rugby, tennis and GAA coaches come to our school yearly.
We are in partnership with Water Safety Ireland to teach Land Paws to promote water safety on land and sea
We are proud to support Enable Ireland and promote inclusion and disability awareness in our school through watching, following and cheering for our sporting hereos in the Special Olympics and Paralympic games. We work with the Irish Heart Foundation
to instill movement through Bizzy Breaks.
As well as this, as part of our local sports partnerships we have contacted Sports Active Wexford and look forward to receiving official playground leadership training for 5th class students in June, and in turn they can bring these skills forward to a new term to work with the younger classes.
We collaborate with our neighbouring schools Tara Hill and Coolgreany to participate in Rackard league competitive games yearly.
We have always welcomed all types of sporting visitors. Most recently our local sporting hero Liam Coleman, past pupil, club and county footballer paid us a visit to give some training and knowledge on the game.
We promote and advertise any local fundraising sporting event that may interest our sporty parents and guardians. We celebrate and share our students’ sporting achievements outside of school.
We promote female achievement in sport. We have a female sports stars display in school and regularly deliver the news of the latest female sporting achievements to our pupils during assembly. We regularly share these news pieces on our website, school app and via Twitter/Facebook
Finally we are in partnership with Active Schools Ireland to promote a wide range of movement activities on an ongoing basis.
April 2022
ACTIVE WALKWAY!
Ms. Morris’ junior infant class just loves our new Active Walkway. Here they are combining physical activity with literacy and numeracy and good old fashioned fun!
ACTIVITY JAR FUN!! We love seeing what comes out!
This month, 1st/2nd and 5th/6th will be undertaking A Run Around Ireland – let’s go!
How cool is our active playground!? We have such a variety of activities to keep our children fit whilst having fun on yard! Now, if we could only guarantee this weather every day……..
March 25th 2022
It was an exciting day in school with the launch of our new Active Walkway! Ms. D’Arcy and her hard working team have prepared this new amenity in our ever expanding repertoire of active opportunities for our pupils.
Located in various places around the school, students will have the opportunity ot engage in orienteering, fitness challenges and lots of cross curricular topics such as Maths and Geography while simultaneously staying fit and having fun!
Today we launched the Active Walkway to the excitement of our pupils. Congratulatons to Ruby and Cian who designed the winning maps of our schools – two future cartographers in our midst! Huge thanks to Ms. D’Arcy for all her work in prepparing the walkway with Mr. Breen, for running the competitions and for inspiring such motivation in our pupils to stay fit!
GOREY 5KM RUN!
These wonderful athletes completed the Gorey 5k run and are proudly wearing their medals!
RACKARD LEAGUE HANDBALL
Best of luck to Cian Horan who is playing in the Rackard League Handball singles tournament today! Go Cian! (03/03/2022)
NEW ACTIVE EQUIPMENT!
How lucky are we!? A recent kind donation has enabled us to purchase this fantastic equipment for our yard! We just love our movement breaks and playtimes!
EMPOWERING WOMEN IN SPORT
On Friday, we spoke about some recent amazing achievements of Irish women in sport including those of Rachael Blackmore, Rhasidat Adeleke and Leona Maguire. We continue to promote equality for all our pupils and also the respect for one another in sport and the wider world. This might be a nice conversation to have over dinner
ACTIVE LEADERS!
Our Active Leaders are doing wonderful work on yard. Structured games and activities will help to boost fitness and also create opportunities for inclusion on yard. Thank you Ms. D’Arcy and team. It is super to see leadership in our pupils.
Gorey RFC Blitz!
Many thanks to Eoin and all at @GoreyRFC for a great tag rugby blitz yesterday. It was run really well and our 5th and 6th class pupils had a super time! @ActiveFlag
Playground Leaders – Feb 2022
Well done to our playground leaders who are taking on their new role as part of our Active Flag status. They will lead playtime initiatives and we are very proud of them! We look forward to seeing more skipping, playing structured games and using more equipment for play time. We hope that this will both improve fitness and enhance friendships on yard. See pictures of Elena and Bart looking great in role!
Disco Friday
Active Friday! Thanks to Nathaniel for this fabulous speaker that he won
in an Active School competition , we will be having music on yards every few Fridays! Keep moving!
Thanks Ms. D’arcy for organising and for the great set list!
ACTIVE SCHOOL QUESTIONNAIRE
Our Active Committee interviewing junior and senior infants with the Active Flag questionnaire. It is lovely to see interaction between older and younger pupils and we hope to be able to do it indoors with buddy reading etc. once restrictions lift!
Flag Man Fred wins!!
We are so proud of our resident illustrator Nathaniel whose creation Flag Man Fred was loved by the National Active Flag Committee so much that they awarded our school an outdoor speaker!! Thank you Nathaniel! Nathaniel’s character and Patrick Fanning’s slogan were given a special mention in this month’s Active Flag newsletter. Well done boys!
SANTA DASH 2021!!
Today belongs to 5th and 6th class!!
What a fantastic morning with every child completing the almost 6km loop!! We are so proud of you all. When we have a total raised, we will share it with you. Congrats to Ravindra who crossed the finish line first! Huge thanks to Mr Breen and all the staff who participated and helped, to the parents who stewarded, ran/walked, prepared/donated refreshments. There was quite a spread on their return – and well deserved too!!
Thank you to Garda Ronan and Garda Katie who came out to give the children a send off with the siren!
The other pupils in the school gave the seniors a great send off and enjoyed their active disco on yard and a little Christmas treat as a reward. You all looked so great in your dress up clothes!!
We
HEALTHY FRIDAY!
The Student Council and Active Flag Committee of Scoil Ghormáin Naofa, Castletown, worked collaboratively to create a Super Healthy Day last Friday. The day kicked off with children arriving with their helmets and scooters to enjoy fun movement breaks throughout the day. There was great excitement with children zooming around the school yard! The Student Council distributed a range of healthy breakfasts to each classroom. All of the produce was donated by local companies and shops. Salt Rock Dairy from Tara Hill provided delicious creamy milk and Staffords Bakery delivered multiple packs of their tasty brown soda bread. Student council member Ellen made healthy granola bars and Nutorious Nutrition donated jars of their signature granola. Certainly the carbon footprint was minimal for this venture and children were made aware of the produce that is available locally. We would also like to acknowledge Lidl Arklow, Pettitt’s Supervalu Gorey and Tesco Arklow for generously supplying healthy low sugar cereals and fruit.All packaging was recycled, Salt Rock glass bottles will be reused and unopened cereal boxes were donated to the local Food Cloud collection. Even our pupils’ hens were fed the leftover cereal! We are delighted that this sustainability will satisfy the interests of our Green School committee who work hard to improve our practices all year round. The healthy, happy atmosphere feeds into the work being done by our Amber Ambassadors (for Mental Health).As part of our Active Flag, the action continued with pop music on the yard at breaktime. We want to encourage our students to move as much as possible and we aim to provide a variety of fun ways in which to do so, thus tapping into the interests of the various students. I would like to commend our staff and students for the collaboration in making the day so memorable. Mens sana in corpore sano!
SANTA DASH 2021!
We are thrilled to be preparing for the second annual Santa Dash in aid of St. Vincent De Paul, Gorey this December! Mr. Breen’s 5th and 6th class students are training daily by running laps in preparation for this great event which will take place on Friday, December 3rd at 11.15! Thank you to all the parents and staff who are on board in different ways to make this a memorable day for the children. There will be refreshments at the end of the trek which is a lovely treat to look forward to! Please click the link to view our risk assessment.
Big thanks to Mr. Breen for coordinating this event – keeping our students active and healthy!
U13 LEINSTER BOXING CHAMPION!
We are so proud of our student John Allen who was crowned Leinster U13 boxing champ at the weekend! Don’t forget us when you get to the Olympics, John!
ACTIVE BREAKS
Active breaks are run from November 8th to December 3rd. We are currently running around Europe and 5th /6th class are in training for their 5km Santa Dash on December 3rd! We look forward to cheering them on on the day!!
November 2021
We are delighted to welcome coach Eoin of Gorey Rugby Club to our school to teach Tag Rugby for the next six weeks. We love to give our pupils flavours of different activities available to them as part of our Active School status!
U13 Country final hurling winners! 18/10/2021
Huge congratulations to our pupils Kian, John and Ravindra who were part of the U13s county final hurling team who won at the weekend! We are so proud of you!! Up Castletown!
Inter schools showjumping tournament
Such style and grace from Robyn and Sophie! Well done girls!
18/10/2021
Well done girls on representing us in style! We are so proud of you and how well you did in Barnadown!
Best wishes to Robyn and Sophie who will represent our school in the Interschools showjumping event in Barnadown on Sunday! We are rooting for you girls and thank you for representing us!
04/10/2021
ALL IRELAND CHAMPIONS! Go girls!!
We were delighted to welcome Doireann Cullen, Megan Cullen and Muireann Fitzpatrick with their All Ireland cup for camogie which they won a few weeks back. The girls spoke passionately about being involved in sport, about empowering females in sport and of the importance of water, good sleep and a healthy diet. They answered lots of questions from the students too! I would like to think that we will welcome lots of our pupils back in future with cups of their own! The girls reminded us that it is never too late to take up sport and the fun that they have being part of a team!
* A great weekend of sport for some of our pupils. Jessica was part of the winning U-14 County finals team with Castletown and Kian and John played for the winning team U-13. Well done! Ravi is also a member of that team so well done to him also!
Team bonding at The Stables!
Mr. Breen thought it would be a lovely idea to combine our Active School endeavours with some team bonding and with that Rang 5/6 headed off to The Stables where they engaged in a 5km obstacle course! I marvelled at the fresh happy faces that came back afterwards! Thank you Mr. Breen and Carmel!
Healthy lunch ideas
Here are some healthy lunch ideas for your child’s lunchboxhttps://www.safefood.net/family-health/healthy-lunch?gclid=CjwKCAjw-sqKBhBjEiwAVaQ9azNnP8tnGbasfG9REfMXHf002gk17pIVUhC3FwpkLwybyemQX6YZSRoC_XsQAvD_BwE
* It is recommended that 5-8 year olds should have 3 daily servings of milk and 9-18 year olds should have five daily servings of milk. More information is available at www.moocrew.ie
* After all the ribbing we gave them last week, it is only fair that we post this photo to give Mr. Breen and Ms. D’Arcy their glory!
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It was a great weekend for GAA in Castletown with the senior men’s team progressing to the intermediate hurling county final! We are delighted for them and wish them a great win. Children may wear jerseys on Friday to support.
We do have ONE difficulty though….Mr. Breen will be playing for the opposition!! Despite Ms. Walker’s best efforts to convert him to maroon and white, he will play against Castletown on Saturday for Tara Rocks. He is going to have a tough week ahead I imagine!
The match is at 4pm this Saturday in Wexford Park.
* Congratulations to the u-12 girls who beat Tara Rocks at the weekend – hopefully this is a good omen!
* Congratulations to Ellen, Niamh and Jessica who were presented with their county final football medals at the weekend!
* Congratulations to John, Ravindra and Kian who will play in the county final for both football and hurling in the next fortnight!
* As an Active School we truly believe in healthy mind, healthy body. We hope that these achievements might encourage more children to join the local club.
*Pictured: The last time Castletown won the hurling county final was 56 years ago. In the picture is our SNA Fiona’s dad who was a great player in his day! Also pictured is our wonderful chairperson Joe O’Shaughnessy who has always been an ardent supporter of GAA (and everything else!!) in our school. I’m sure Joe would love to see the cup coming home this weekend!
Bench Ball! September 2021
We can’t think of a better way to kick start the Active School year than with an exciting game of bench ball in the sunshine! Well done Rang 1/2!
Target shooting winners!
Congratulations to the following children who were class winners in the target shooting competition on School Tour Day! Thank you to Mr. Breen for organising and for their prizes!
Winners: Ellie Byrne, Caoimhe Kinsella, Kate Kavanagh, Patrick Fanning, Ronan Russell, Fiadh Russell, Tom Tallon, Robyn Prendergast, Niall Kavanagh and Cillian Blackwell!
Well done to all!
Active Week 2021
Friday 04/06/2021
One of the year’s highlights happened today -we walked to the beach together!!
While we were there, Ms. Russell challenged us to a sandcastle competition. This taps into the construction strand of the visual arts curriculum and it was so nice enjoying this subject on the beach! Lots of students brought their own bits and pieces to add to their castles while others used natural materials – there was such a high standard!
We hope you enjoy our photos!
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Thursday 03/06/2021
So much activity today, our heads are spinning!!
We had a super morning with Tag Rugby with Daisy Earle of Gorey RFC. Daisy kindly spoke to our students today about her Leinster and Ireland career. This was really inspiring for our young female athletes and made us consider equality in sport. We want to see lots more recognition for female achievement!
We then had fitness training with Cormac Byrne and Conall from Bluefitness. They certainly put all the classes through their paces but it was so much fun!! We are so grateful to the guys for their time, patience and enthusiasm with all of our students.
At lunch time we had penalty shootouts with 2nd/3rd class who were brilliantly accurate!!
This afternoon we had a VERY competitive rounders game between 6th class and the staff. A certain male teacher (not mentioning any names!!) received a red card!
We are having a BLAST! Check out our links and photos below!
Wednesday 02/06/2021
We had to take a rain check on our beach walk but the activity continues and we hope that we can do our beach walk on Friday!
In the meantime, enjoy these lovely photos and videos
Tuesday:
Tuesday afternoon 01/06/2021
Superhero Walk a Mile with a Smile and Tug of War!
Huge thanks to Mrs. O’Flaherty for providing ice creams for the children after their Super hero Mile with a Smile!
We just can’t keep up with all the activity today!!
So far we have had circuits and fitness training with Marc Halpin. We are looking forward to our Superhero Mile with a Smile and infants-1st class Tug of War later!
Enjoy our photos and click on the links to view the action!
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Monday: TUG OF WAR!!
Ms. Russell gave a helping hand to the team! Great fun!! *Turn sideways to view!
We are delighted that the sun is shining and we are finally able to celebrate Active Week – one of our favourite times of year here in Scoil Ghormáin Naofa!
Mr. Breen and Fiona started the proceedings with Circuits for ‘Wake UP Shake Up’ and a really cool beanbag game that gets pretty competitive!
Fittest School!
30/04/2021
There was such excitement here today!
* We marked our entry into Fittest School with a hang tough and wall sit challenge for our children! 6th class are a determined bunch and Kaydie championed in hang tough while Sophia and Niall tied for first place after ten minutes in the wall sit! Best of luck to Mr. Breen, Ms. Morris, Ms. D’Arcy and Ella’s Dad Stephen , who will compete tomorrow. Pictured is Ella representing her Dad when we cheered the team on!
ACTIVITIES MARCH 2021
We love getting out with a big box of chalk. You can’t beat hopscotch!
PE plan for 2020-2021
We feel that PE is more important now than ever. Mens sana in corpore sano!
With this in mind, we have prioritised PE in line with department advice. We have always been an active school and see the benefits of fitness for learning and concentration.
Here is our PE framework for the coming year.
CASTLETOWN’S FITTEST FAMILY !
Thank you to Fiona for coordinating this wonderful challenge to keep us all active during lockdown. Our videos have been posted on Dojo, Facebook and Twitter. Fiona, you have great energy!
Our overall winners were The Kilroy Family! Check out their final challenge! They are the lucky recipients of a private family experience at The Stables Fitness. One of their personal trainers will take the Kilroys around their obstacle course consisting of a 140 foot rope bridge, tarzan rope swing, ramps, balance beams and much more! A great afternoon of fun awaits!
Caroline with her lovely prize!
Thank you to Canavan’s Londis, Inch for the lovely hamper prize!
Thank you to Baileys Toymaster who sponsored the prize that Niall and Darragh won!
Sean was another winner!
Well done to Hugo and Harry’s mum Emma who won this lovely hamper from Nutorious Nutrition. Many thanks to Una Synnott for sponsoring this wonderful prize.
Other winners included Caroline, Sean, Elliot, Niall and Darragh.
Fundraising for Gorey St. Vincent de Paul
18/12/2021
6th class handed over their whopping cheque to St. Vincent de Paul today. The members complimented them on their selflessness. Well done again!
04/12/2021
WHAT A DAY!! The sun shone, the atmosphere was electric and a motivational Christmas disco on yard was just the ticket to get our athletes going!! Many thanks to Gorey gardaí for giving us the countdown and to Joe O’Shaughnessy our Chairperson for lending his support. To all the teachers and staff, especially those who ran with and trained the children. A huge special thanks to Ms. ní Shuilleabháin who coordinated this massive event which culminated in donations of €3,088 for St. Vincent de Paul!!
WELL DONE TO ALL!
Hello everyone,
*Santa Dash week is here! We hope everyone can get behind the sponsorship of our very kind 6th class as they fundraise for St. Vincent de Paul. At assembly last week, we talked about children maybe giving a coin from their piggy banks (with parents’ permission) as we think it is a great lesson in selflessness. Any sponsorship can be given to class teachers. Thank you!
* Thank you to all the parents who are stewarding. Huge thanks to Donal Molloy who is bringing hot food and Fiona Blackwell who is supplying hot chocolate! It should be a lovely experience.
SANTA DASH FOR ST. VINCENT DE PAUL!
We are so proud of our athletic 6th class who will be undertaking a fun run in aid of St. Vincent de Paul on Friday 4th December. They are training with Fiona and Ms. ní Shuilleabháin each day for this 5km run. If you wish to sponsor them, please contact school on 0402 37596.
On the day we will give them a great send off with Christmas music in the yard! I believe one of our very kind Mums has arranged a nice warm treat for their return!
Here is the link to our risk assessment: risk assessment 4th Dec (1)
We just LOVE Kitt’s design for the 6th class sponsorship card! The jogging Christmas tree! Good luck with your sponsorship 6th class. Please observe Covid distancing, perhaps pledges can be made over the phone?
Stay posted for updates!
Gymnastics al fresco!
We love these pictures of our 2nd/3rd class students enjoying gymnastics on the grass! Under the keen eye of Ms. D’Arcy and Fiona, they learned the forward roll, backward roll and hand stand!
Not to be outdone – here is snr infants/1st class!
Yet more female sporting achievement in Castletown! Congratulations to our players who were part of the U12 division 3 county final winning team at the weekend! We are so proud of you girls! No homework for you tonight!
Fresh air movement breaks!
A beautiful start to the week! Lots of classes are making the most of the weather and our beautiful grounds to engage in outdoor learning. One positive we have taken from the Covid experience is our enhanced movement breaks throughout the day. These were introduced as a means of ventilating classrooms but we have found that children are energised and refreshed after them so we are going to keep regular fresh air movement breaks long after Covid!
An outdoor visit from victorious Castletown Ladies Team!
Well done to all on giving the Castletown ladies team such a warm reception today! It was great to celebrate female achievement in sport. Ms. D’Arcy gave a really motivational speech and former pupil Priya Daly O’Toole represented the team brilliantly with her speech. We hope that our female students are empowered by this display of achievement and hope that our male students grow up with a sense of equality in sport.
Have a great weekend!
Virtual Sports day 2020
We may have been apart but that did not detract from the unity of sports day this year. Thanks to Ms. D’Arcy for coordinating a fantastic day in connection with Healthy Kidz. For three weeks, students uploaded their daily practices in welly throw, sprint, marathon, strength, egg and spoon and obstacle course activities.
Ms. Byrne’s class were the outright winners and will receive yummy fruit pots in September. Top class participants will also win fruit pots.
We were delighted to be top of the national leaderboard yesterday! 
Here is a gallery of our activity – enjoy!
We are delighted to launch our preparations for Virtual Sports Day today! This morning, our families will be downloading their apps which will allow them to record their daily activities. There’s something for everyone; from sprint to egg and spoon to welly throw! I think there will be great competition amongst the classes! Huge thanks to Mr. Breen and Ms. D’Arcy for coordinating and to all the teachers for rolling it out with their classes. Check out https://healthy-kidz.com for more info!
Active Flag 2018-2019
** UPDATE!!***
We are absolutely thrilled to have today ( 17/06/2019) been awarded our @ActiveFlag !! Many thanks to Ms. D’Arcy who coordinated the long process and to the teachers, SNAS and students who entered into it with such enthusiasm!! We are looking forward to a super active sports day on Friday!!
We look forward to continuing our Active endeavours in the coming academic year!
It is with great heart and enthusiasm that we embark on the renewal process for our Active Flag. Here at Scoil Ghormáin Naofa, we extol the importance of healthy minds and healthy bodies. If we have both, then we will have the tools to be great learners! We are so indebted to Ms. D’Arcy for her passion in striving towards being an Active School!
A list of our Active School Partners:
GAA and Anthony Masterson and Paddy Brady, Coral Leisure Swimming, Jamie Stafford Tennis Academy, Gorey Rugby Club and Michael Bolger, Mick Kavanagh and Berney White GAA, Kim Gregan (yoga), Laura Gannon (sosa dancing), Shane Prendergast and Sprint Spinning Studio, Pete O’Brien (soccer), Parents’ Association, Teachers, SNAs
Physical Education @ Scoil Ghormáin Naofa
•Athletics
•Dance
•Gymnastics
•Games
•Outdoor and adventure activities
•Aquatics
All strands are covered extensively here!
Athletics: Through the Move Well, Move Often Physical Literacy model being spearheaded by Ms. D’Arcy and Mr. Breen, we have engaged in teaching and learning the fundamental skills of movement. This has been our area of focus for SSE and we evaluate progress in infant classes in particular.
Dance: we have engaged in classes for Sosa dancing and Irish dancing so far this year
Games: We have many opportunities to engage in Games and skills lessons. Some examples include GAA, basketball and rugby skills classes this year
Outdoor and adventure activities: By the end of this academic year we will have engaged in orienteering, used our Active Walkway, walked Croghan mountain and taken part in a student led outdoor Easter Egg Hunt!
Gymnastics: Despite not having a hall, we have accessed the Gymnastics strand with the support of Ms. Gregan who is a qualified yoga instructor and has shared her expertise. We have also had classes in circuits/pilates with Shane Prendergast (Sprint Fitness). As a school, we have identified the need for mats and benches to support this strand and our Skipathon fundraiser raised over €2,000 to purchase same. Our initial aim was to raise €700 so we were bowled over by the final total!! It shows us that our parent body believe in our Active endeavours! Thank you all!
No hall? No problem! 6th class exploring the Gymnastics strand
FOOD DUDES – November 2019
We are loving #FoodDudes! So far this week, our students have sampled fresh crisp cucumber, apples, corn, grapes, carrots, bananas and peppers! We think this works really well in tandem with our Active Flag status.
AN HAKA!
Féach ar rang 1/2 ag déanamh an Haka inniú! Éire abú!! #RugbyWorldCup
Our girls play at half time in Croke Park!
Congratulations to Jessica, Kaydie and Sophia who had a fantastic experience representing both Castletown club and our school at the All Ireland half time play in Croke Park yesterday (15/09/2019). They will treasure this memory for a long time!
Also pictured Ms. McDevitt who has been an incredible source of support and encouragement along with her husband Berney. Thank you both!
Fionn Kavanagh plays at half time @ All Ireland final in Croke Park!
What an experience for Fionn! One he will never forget! He was chosen from the Mini 7s team that won last year to represent Wexford, playing with boys from other counties.
ACTIVE WEEK 2019!!
Day 1:
Active Week kicked off with a bang on Monday morning as Mr. Breen, with the help of Fiona, coordinated a huge circuit of activities (over 20 stations!!). It was wonderful seeing the buddy system at play and the music really added to the atmosphere!
Infants had a magical time with bubbles on yard! There was a penalty shootout and Mini World cup also! In the afternoon, Fiona took Junior and Senior infants for Athletics.
Children were delighted that written homework has been replaced by Active homework for the rest of the term!
Day 2:
Our own Ms. McDevitt led the Wake up Shake up on Tuesday and treated us to Zumba on yard! Again, the weather was beautiful and so much fun was had! Cathy O’Toole came in to give a tug of war demo to 3rd/4th who then put on a display for the other students! Fiona continued athletics adn Mr. Breen constinued Mini World Cup and Penalty Shootout leagues
Day 3
We had a fun start to the day with Ms. D’Arcy’s Wake up Shake up! This time the teachers had to lead and we had such fun with the passing and rolling game!! Well done to all! We then welcomed two wonderful volunteers – Bobby O’Reilly (martial arts) and Shane Prendergast (healthy lifestyle presentation). It is great to give our students access to aspects of sport that they might not ordinarily encounter. We hope that Active Week will give them a sense of the importance of having a healthy mind in a healthy body!
Day 4
Wow, what an active day we had! Ms. Gregan started our day with yoga and meditation. Then jnr/snr enjoyed tug of war. At 12 , the basketball and football finals took place with Chicago Bulls and Barcelona winning! Mick and Jack Kavanagh arrived to help outwith the penalty shootout final. Thank you! This was followed by the Superhero Walk a Mile with a Smile. Finally the big finale to the day was the 6th class vs teachers/parents basketball matches. 6th class *narrowly* defeated the adults!!!! A great day was had by all!!
Day 5
We finished off Active Week in style! Our 2nd annual Croghan walk was a huge success and it was wonderful to see so many families there to join us. We are very grateful to the PA and Garda Willie Lynch who joined us for the walk and to James Crowe and Mark who facilitated us using the wind farm area. Thanks also to Cullens who discounted tasty fruit pots for the healthy eating aspect of the walk.
Junior -2nd class walked as far as the first windmill where they enjoyed the views whilst eating a picnic. Seniors walked the 5k route and did brilliantly!
I am extremely grateful to Ms D’Arcy who coordinated a jam-packed, amazing week of activities and to all teachers, parents, SNAs and Active Partners who took part. It will again be another experience that our students will never forget!
Gymnastics: Yoga with Ms. Gregan!
Here are some images of our junior and senior infants really enjoying their yoga moves with Ms. Gregan. This was followed by some solemn meditation!
Circuits in the Sun!
Many thanks to Graeme and Robyn’s dad Shane Prendergast,who has been teaching circuits to our students. It is great to see them being so active! Thanks to Shane for his wonderful generosity.
Mini 7s team play at half time in Wexford Park!
Massive congratulations to our Mini 7s boys’ team who represented us so well in the Wexford match on Sunday. Many thanks to Mr. Breen and Michael Kavanagh who attended and looked after the boys. I am sure that this will be a memory to last a lifetime!
ORIENTEERING EASTER EGG HUNT! 12-04-2019
We had an awesome morning thanks to Ms D’Arcy, PA, Student Council, Active School committee and especially Ms. Whittle who gave us an orienteering egg hunt! What a fantastic way to link Easter fun with the PE curriculum! It was great to see the buddy system in action too.
We hope you all have a lovely Easter!
Active Flag update: Ms. D’Arcy
We are busy preparing our line-up for Active School Week which runs from 27th May- 31st May Lots of details to follow in Term 3!
Also in term 3 , we will focus on the following as part of our SSE, Physical Literacy, Move Well, Move Often programme:
| April to June |
| Active School Week |
| Outdoor and Adventure |
| Gymnastics
FMS: jumping for distance |
| Athletics
FMS: jumping for height |
Curriculum Focus
We in Scoil Ghormáin Naofa are currently focusing on improving our gymnastics strand. This is a challenging area for us as we have no hall however, we love a challenge and we will try our best to develop some basic gymnastic skills.
During this term we have been fortunate to have a qualified Kidding Around Yoga Instructor on staff. Ms.Gregan has very kindly taken students for a 4 week programme. Children have been working on the core, strength, flexibility, posture, focus and balance. Such poses are: rag doll, plank, downward dog, upward dog, cow, cat, chair, laughing star, mountain stronger, dancer, tree, eagle and warrior.
Basic Gymnastic moves are practiced throughout the year in class especially on rainy days. Added to this our mindfulness programme integrates and compliments this strand extremely well.
Competitive sports
Basketball lunchtime league March – April for 3rd to 6th mixed boys and girls is running every Wednesday in the run up to Easter.
Rackard league and Mini 7’s football boys and girls term 1. Mini 7 boys were winners for 2nd year in a row!!!
Rackard league and Mini 7’s hurling/camogie term 2
Triona Byrne Kelly memorial cup blitz
Training
Ms.D’Arcy and Mr. Breen (March-April) will attend the final training day in Physical Literacy: Move Well, Move often programme which focus’ on the fundamental movement skills.
Non-competitive sports and events
Sosa dancing: keeping in line with all the great work done on dance in the past, children will begin Sosa dancing this week March 22nd. As well as this all classes were practising their Irish dancing for An Céilí Mór on 14th March for Seachtáin na Gaeilge. (see photo)
Dance activity is running all year through Go Noodle on rainy days.
Tennis– we enjoyed a tennis demonstration on the 14th March and an after school tennis club is running now for 3 weeks.
Active Homework will be given at least once a week
The Active Flag Committee complied a ‘What club are you in survey?’ The results are on the active notice board. (see photo)
The Active Survey for parents and pupils was given to each household in January and the committee rigorously went through what was returned. A summary of the results will be displayed shortly.
Skipathon/Climb the heights– January -February all classes were involved in this skipping challenge to climb different mountains around Europe. Can you add more from skipathon on front page???
Run around Europe November-December. Each class chose a city in Europe to jog to. 12 laps of the basketball pitch is 1km.Each child’s distance was added together until they reached their target.
Junior/Senior infants- London
1st/2nd – Belfast
3rd/4th/5th/6th – Rome
6th –Madrid
Active Motto winner was Shane Ivanoff 5th class with the slogan:
Any shape, Any Size, Everyone can Exercise!
Scooter day October another one to follow in term 2 (photo)
Playground leaders received training in October and played lunchtime games with Junior and Senior infants from November to February. We are hoping to get them involved doing games in 1st and 2nd class.
Land Paws Programme: Each class will learn about water safety on land and in the water.
Active Week 2019!
We cannot wait for Active Week 2019. This year, it will take place from Mon 27th-Fri 31st May and once again it will be jam-packed with activity!
Confirmed so far:
Daily Wake up Shake Up – parents, local partners and teachers to lead
Jamie Stafford Tennis Academy
Yoga with Ms. Gregan
Circuits with Mr. Breen
Walk a Mile with a Smile
Walk on Wednesday
Tug of War
Teachers/Parents v Pupils Basketball match
Bobby O’Neill – Martial Arts
Cathy O’Toole – Tug of War Ireland
The Big One! Croghan Walk – Friday 31st in association with our Parents’ Association
More details to follow…..
Sports Day 2019
Sports Day 2019 is confirmed for Friday 21st June.
We will have races for each class level, a penalty shoot out with local GAA celebrity Anthony Masterson and Mr. Breen, tug of war, fun games etc.
We also look forward to welcoming our incoming infants who will take part in a race. They will see from the start that Scoil Ghormáin Naofa is an Active School!
Thanks again to our Parents’ Association who will serve healthy fruit as an incentive towards healthy eating.
All sports day participants will receive a medal for their participation.
Physical Literacy – SSE focus – Move well, Move often!
Some documentary evidence of our Move Well Move Often programme!
Heart Skips a Beat Skipathon!
We had an amazing Skipathon on Valentines day! Our themes were ‘Healthy Hearts,’ and ‘Skip a Beat.’ We skipped to music, rhymes, solo, in groups with long ropes, in pairs, had races, knock out challenges. But most importantly we had fun exercising and raised much needed funds for P.E equipment. Huge thanks to the continuously, great support from parents and the students as well as our principal and staff.
It was not only a one day challenge this month our students are also ‘Climbing the Heights!’ whereby each class chose different mountains around Europe to climb for example Mount Olympus in Greece is 2919 metres high and one skip = 1 metre. We hope to climb many mountains and learn lots of geography too.
Thank you,
The Active School Committee
Check out these happy, active pictures!
Heart Skips a Beat – fundraising skipathon
Our active students are currently busy fundraising and practising their skipping for our Valentine’s day Skipathon! Junior and senior infants are learning the fundamental skills of skipping whilst older classes are using the ropes so kindly donated by Teagan Neville’s family! We can’t wait!
Pictured: A very proud Teagan and her dad, James
Here is a picture of Mr. Breen’s class practising their skipping for the skipathon next week!
The Tríona Byrne Kelly Memorial Blitz
We had a fantastic day at the arena with the annual Tríona Byrne Kelly Memorial Blitz. Tríona was the beloved sister of our teacher Nicky Byrne and mum to Daniel and Lee, students in our school. Congrats to our boys who won the B shield. Lee was so proud and scored a fantastic goal! A great team all round! Thanks to all the schools who took part and to their teachers and coaches. Thanks also to Cullens for kindly donating fruit packs. Ms Byrne was on hand to present st. Joseph’s, Gorey with the A division trophy and we congratulate them on their success. Many thanks to Mr. Breen for organising a wonderful day of sport!
The Heineken Cup visits Castletown!
Thanks to one of our Active Partners, Michael Bolger of Gorey RFC, who brought the Heineken cup to our school for a visit!
Lunchtime League
Great fun was had at the arena yesterday when our lunchtime league winners went on to represent Scoil Ghormáin Naofa. We were thrilled that they got to the final! Congratulations to Tara Hill NS who were victorious. Many thanks to Mr. Breen for organising.
School Self Evaluation: Physical Literacy – Move well, move often.
Ms. D’Arcy recorded three junior infants earlier this school year. You can view the recordings below. Their progress will be monitored and reviewed shortly!
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Equestrian Achievement!
Congratulations to Jordan Murphy who won gold at his equestrianevent in Cork! What a fantastic achievement, Jordan! We are very proud of you!
St. Stephen’s Day run – winners!
Congratulations to Oisín, Niall and Conor who were first across the line in their respective categories at the St. Stephen’s Day run in Castletown! We love their active spirit! I’m sure they worked up a great appetite for the selection boxes!
Ms. D’Arcy has begun the process of applying for the renewal of our Active Flag. She has some great ideas! Our Run Around Europe has been a huge success. Mr. Breen’s class has almost reached Rome! Stay tuned for further exciting Active Updates!
Sam Maguire visits Castletown!
It was with great pleasure that our students got to raise the Sam Maguire cup today! Our Mini 7s team have high hopes of raising it again in ten years for Wexford! Many thanks to Dylan’s Dad, Paul Bealin for arranging this for us!
Active School Motto Competition
Congratulations to Shane Ivanoff who won 1st place in the Active School Motto competition and was awarded with the other prizewinners at assembly last Friday. His motto was: ‘Any shape, any size, everyone can exercise. Let’s get active!’. There was great humour and wit in the entries and Ms. D’Arcy and the Active Council found it tough to adjudicate! The prizes were all suitably active too! Well done Shane! It is great to see this motto in action in school as classes complete their walk around Europe!
Mini 7s tournament – Scoil Ghormáin Naofa is tops!
We are immensely proud of our Mini 7s boys team who emerged victorious from a pool of 78 schools! They played a valiant Glynn side in the final and we thank Glynn for a great match. We will hold a civic reception in honour of our players next Friday and look forward to inviting parents and local club members.
Here is a report from one of our players, Mikey Kinsella:
It was a great match with Fionn and Conor flying up the midfield. When the high ball went up everyone was relieved when Fionn caught it. The ball went to Joseph but was intercepted by a player from the Glynn team. The first half score was 1-2 to 1 goal, in favour of Glynn. As we jogged off of the pitch we got a roaring from Mr Breen and Mick Kavanagh! In the second half the ball was down at the Castletown half but it was no match for Kyle Fegan, Mikey Kinsella and Diarmuid Brady in the backs. In the last five minutes we knew what we had to do. Mikey caught the ball and booted it up to Joseph, who crossed it to Dylan Bealin, who put it in the back of the net. Castletown were in the lead by one point. Glynn had hit it to their forward but it was no match for Fionn and Mikey who quickly shut him down.The final whistle blew and there were celebrations from everyone supporting Castletown!
Playground Leadership
Pictured is our team of playground leaders who recently completed training with Ms. D’Arcy and are now active leaders on yard! Leadership takes many forms in our school and we are delighted to see it in our students!
Playground leadership is part of our Active Flag portfolio of activities. It has been warmly received by teachers, students and leaders!
Our Active Flag coordinator, Ms. D’Arcy has a wonderful programme of events planned for the coming year. We kicked off this morning with Scooter day! What a fun Friday we are having! It was a joy to see our students whizz around the laps we had set up. Well done to all for remembering your helmets!
Hallowe’en fun!
We had a great morning on the last day of our first half term. Everyone came to school dressed up and we had a Hallowe’en Wake up Shake up on yard to get the juices flowing! We love being an active school!! Those who moved really well were tapped on the shoulder to indicate that they had won a homework pass!
We also had the pleasure of awarding our literacy narrative story writing competition winners. The standard was so high which reflected all the work the teachers had done around the genre. Ms. Gilmartin Ryan and Ms. D’Arcy had tough decisions to make when adjudicating! We will run another writing competition before Christmas with regard to our new literacy genre.
Many thanks to our PA who organised a brilliant disco at The Golden Anchor. It was a really active fundraiser and there were some really great dancers there!
Lunchtime League
We had a fantastic lunchtime league with a valiant Dublin side emerging victorious! It was brilliant to see our own 6th class students referee in such an efficient and respectful way! Many thanks to Mr. Breen for coordinating and thanks to Anthony Masterson for popping by. Best of luck in the next stage!
Rackard League and Mini 7s: Our girls and boys have had a super start to the Rackard League and Mini 7s tournaments. Our girls are playing particularly well this season! We are delighted to have Berney White on board this year to coach. Thanks to Ms Carroll, Mr Breen, Ms D’Arcy, Ms McDevitt, Siobhan and Carmel for their involvement and encouragement.
Our Parents’ Association are extremely supportive of our Active efforts and have a Hallowe’en disco planned for the last day of term. We will also work with them to plan another Croghan walk, based on our hugely successful walk last year.
Many thanks to the staff and students of Creagh College for facilitating the GAA blitz that we attended last week. Our girls reached the finals to a tough Monamolin side. Our boys were runner up in the tug of war and Usha and Julie came 1st and 2nd respectively in the crossbar challenge. Thanks to Mick Kavanagh for supporting us!
SSE – We have reengaged with the School Self Evaluation process and have selected Physical Literacy as our area of focus. Ms D’Arcy and Mr. Breen are rolling out the project and our teachers are all on board. We will evaluate the progress of our junior infants specifically as they learn the fundamental skills of movement through the Move Well, Move Often programme. We hope that this will motivate them to be active in their whole lives!
Keep tuned for updates!
GAA Updates – Hallowe’en 2018
Boys GAA:
Straight from the first week back our football teams were right in the thick ofit. The Mini 7s team got through their first round with great wins over Loreto, Gorey and Gaelscoil, Gorey. They are now hoping to go a step further in the second round of the competition.
The Rackard League team is also progressing very well with fantastic wins
over St. Josephs of Gorey and Bunclody. These wins put them through to an A
quarter final against Ballindaggin. The Teams are showing great interest, discipline,
work rate and team work during each and every day they take to the field.
The school also ran our own All Ireland series during lunch, which proved very
popular and served up some very exciting games. A lot of credit must go to both
5th and 6th class who helped run the competition. Well done to all the boys and
girls who took part from 3rd to 6th class. A special congratulations to Dublin who
came out on top after a hard fought final game against Wexford. A boys and girls team also attended the Creagh College annual football blitz. It was a very enjoyable day with both
teams representing the school superbly. Finally I would like to thank all who help
out with the GAA, especially the parents for their great support, Carmel, Ms. Russell,
Kevin Morris and Michael Kavanagh for all the organising, training and support
throughout the term. We are looking forward to what the GAA will bring after the mid-term break. Niall Breen
Girls GAA:
The girls Rackard league football team have been super! Having played 4
matches, they won 3 out of 4 games, beating Crannford, Monageer and Oulart.
Our Mini 7s team had one enjoyable day out. They played Tara Hill and
Ballythomas in the blitz. Both tough games. We overcame Tara Hill but
Ballythomas were in a league of their own having lost only two players from
last year and being defending County champions. Maith thú cailiní.
Huge thanks to Berney White for giving his time and help with Rackard league
and Mini 7s.
The girls had great success at the Creagh college blitz as well. They reached the
final and played magnificently against a strong Monamolin team. Usha and Julie
made the cross bar challenge final also with Usha taking the title. Both girls were
super. Paula D’Arcy
Pictured: Our wonderful Rackard League Girls’ Team who made the finals!
Our Healthy Eating Policy:
We promote healthy eating in school and this is enforced by our healthy lunch habits. Our parents are given information at enrolment and we remind children throughout the year in SPHE lessons and at assembly. On Friday, children are permitted to bring one small treat and we clearly define what that is.
Active School Flag
It has been a busy term for Active school flag activities. To begin with, we had our ‘Bring your scooter to school day,’ which was a great success and we look forward to doing it again. We have also selected a new committee; our members are Michael Kavanagh, Shayla Donnery, Jennifer Allen, Sophia White, Niamh Kavanagh and Harry Nicholls.
Our new committee have been busy with the ASF motto competition and listening to ideas for Active Ideas from their peers. The winner of this competition was Cáit Gregan with the very catchy ‘ Hop, skip, jump and play. Let’s get active every day!’
Active Week – day 5
We rounded off Active Week in style with a Friday full of fun! We started the day with an epic circuit course organised by Mr. Breen and supported by Fiona. There were over 18 stations!! We had fun in the sun at each station whilst listening to some great music in the background!
We then welcomed former #1 Women’s tennis seed, Yvonne Doyle to speak with our students. Yvonne is also a mindfulness coach and each class took part in some coached mindfulness after a busy week!
There were various activities during the day and the week finished with ‘Walk a Mile with a Smile’. It was great to see so many parents there too! Ms Gilmartin Ryan cheered on the walkers at various intervals and it looked like great fun!
We had such a super week. We are most grateful to Ms D’Arcy and all the parents, teachers and SNAs who got involved. THANK YOU!
Active Week – days 3 and 4!
I am just catching up on an epic two days!
Yesterday, we had the honour of welcoming Castletown’s own Mary Hickey to mark her Lap of the Map achievement. She gave a wonderful Q&A session to our very interested students and we were delighted to welcome members of her own family and Fr. McCarney to the talk. Thank you to the PA who again facilitated the refreshments.
The weather was on our side today as we embarked on our walk up Croghan. Big thanks to the site workers for stewarding the parking and giving us such a warm welcome. I was delighted at how well the children behaved and I didn’t see a trace of litter afterwards!
We then came back to sunny Castletown where we enjoyed the finals of the Mini World cup, refereed by Pete O’Brien and organised by Mr Breen. Well done to all! Following that, there was the tense basketball game between parents/teachers and students. The teachers/parents won so we won’t penalise those who tackled us!!
Tomorrow, we welcome former Women’s #1 tennis seed, Yvonne Doyle to talk to our senior classes. Yvonne is also a mindfulness coach and will be giving classes during the morning.
We will start at 9 with Wake up Shake up – this time organised by Mr. Breen. I wonder what he has in store?!
At 2 pm, we conclude Active Week with ‘Walk a Mile with a Smile’and we would love to see you all there!!
Many thanks again to Ms. D’Arcy for the wonderful week.
Active Week – day 2!
Today started off with a bang, or a boom, as 5th class taught the floss dance to the school. Shayla explained like a pro!! ‘Boom’ was played over the speakers and the sun shone! Well done to Siofra and Daniel who demonstrated! We also had a master class in shuffling from some 6th class students.
We saw the infant classes take part in their Tug of War competition! How can they look so cute and fierce all at the same time!
We keep bumping into other classes outdoors as we avail of the great weather and the fantastic activities that have been planned for us. We are having a ball!
Pictures to follow….
Active Week – Day 1! 14/-5/2018
Wow, what a start to Active Week! We began this morning with Wake up, Shake up led by Ms McDevitt who taught us all Zumba!! It was so much fun! What a way to kick start a Monday. It was great to have some parents take part too! Check out our video!
We then had a tug of war demo which was organised by Ms. D’Arcy and today it was the turn of 3rd and 4th class to pull with all their might! We think these pictures are just great!!
An Apple a Day…..
Many thanks to Graeme and Robyn’s dad Shane and his colleague Amy of Sprint College who gave of their time to do a healthy eating workshop with each class today (27/04/2018)! The children enjoyed a crunchy fresh apple whilst they learned about the food pyramid! The level of questioning was great from the children and Shane and Amy had put together a really interesting presentation for each level!
We are so lucky to have such interested parents among us. Just another example of our wonderful relationship with parents.
Thanks to Ms D’Arcy who coordinated this experience as part of our Active School work.
Parental involvement
Today, (08-02-18), Ms. D’Arcy had a really productive meeting with our Active School Committee parents! Aideen, Peter and Shane brought some really innovative ideas to the table and we will keep you posted as to what will be unfolding soon!! Watch this space! Thanks to all involved.
Scooter Day
We had another successful scooter day on February 2nd. The weather was on our side too! All our participating students had great fun whizzing around the one way system set up for scooter day. What a great way to end the week!
*Click below for video*
Parents Needed
We are looking for a parent for our new committee. So if you are interested in helping in a small or big way please let Ms. D’Arcy know.
Sam Maguire dropped in for a quick visit too. We live in hope that our rising football stars will bring him back to Wexford some day!
The pupils have been busy with Hip Hop and hurling since Halloween as well.
The Junior and senior infants have had fun with chalk also. On Friday 8th December they were let loose with chalk to draw pictures or games on the yard. Great fun was had by all.
‘Hop, skip, jump and play let’s get Active every day.’
The following are the list of winners and all received wonderful sporty prizes such as, footballs, basketballs, huge tennis ball, shin pads, sporty drinks bottles.
2nd places: PJ Crotty and Aedin Condren
3rd places: Ross Higgins and Lizzy Morris
Runners up: Shane Ivanoff, Robyn Prendergast and Ruby Fegan.
The winning entries can be seen on our ASF notice board.
A huge well done to the mini 7’s boys’ team on their great win and finally, well done to all the children who represented our school at different sporting events in 2017.
We are entering 2018 with an enthusiastic attitude and our teachers are embracing ‘Move Well, Move Often’, facilitated by Ms. D’Arcy, into their teaching. Stay tuned for more activity!
Happy exercising, Ms.D’Arcy.
MINI WORLD CUP!
Now it is soccer’s turn! Today we start our Mini World Cup leagues at break and lunchtime. Thanks so much to our Active School coordinator, Ms D’Arcy for all the work! Thanks also to Mr. Breen for refereeing!
