Active Schools Flag - Ballyowen Meadows Special School

Active Schools Flag – Calendar 2022-23

Ballyowen Meadows Special School is working towards achieving the Active Schools Flag. We are a school that values Physical Education. We strive to enable all pupils to develop their fundamental movement skills in Physical Education lessons that are fun, positive and inclusive. The whole school will have many Active Schools Events and Challenges to engage in throughout the school year including;

Date	Event	Further Information
30^th September 21^nd October	European Sports Day 2022 Feel Good Fridays- Active Halloween	To include: Obstacle Course/Parachute games/balloon Tennis. Description and photos to be added to School website. Halloween themed Walk/Hunt. Find the Halloween pictures along the Walkway
8^th November-3^rd December	Active Break Every Day Challenge	4 Week period Indoor or Outdoor break daily Track on this chart; Active-Breaks-Poster-English-2020.pdf (activeschoolflag.ie)
20^th December	Santa Dash	Class to use their daily walk scheduled time. Wear Santa hats and jumpers. Run around the school as fast as you can!
January	Feel Good Fridays – Jump into January	Jump into January by bringing out the skipping ropes, skipping elastics and ankle hoppers into your yard. Encourage students to learn new skipping skills.
February	Feel Good Fridays -Learning on the Move	Not all learning needs to be done sitting down! Think maths trails, active tables, fitness spellings, action songs etc.
March 6^th-10th	Fruit themed Walkway Week	This is Food Dudes week. Follow the fruit themed exercises along the Walkway!
31^st March	Walkway Day	Easter egg Hunt Visual clues will be placed along the Walkway and in the Sensory Garden.
April 24^th – 28th	ACTIVE SCHOOLS WEEK	-See our weekly schedule to try a different sport or activity each day this week.
May	Feel Good Friday	12^th May: Farm themed activity along the walkway. 19^th May: Mini Beast themed walkway activity. 26^th May: Move Tour Body Challenge.
16^th June	Sports Day	Date may change depending on weather! Look out for some exciting new activities!

European Sports Day: September 2022

Our pupils took part in European Sports Day on 30th September with great enthusiasm! The aims of the day include raising the profile of sports in our school, promoting health and well – being for our pupils, encouraging social experiences and interactions and most importantly, having fun and enjoying some new activities!

Fortunately, the sun was shining on Friday which meant that we could enjoy outdoor activities. These included balloon tennis, parachute activities, an obstacle course and a visual activity trail around the school perimeter. It was lovely to see everybody out and about on the day and we are looking forward to continuing our quest for our Active Flag in the coming months.

Cycling practise.

Jude Ann and Matthew throwing

Basketball

We were delighted to avail of basketball lessons organised and funded through Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Sports Partnership. Our pupils really enjoyed learning about ball skills and had a lot of fun working with Andrew. Andrew has returned to set up our Ballyowen basketball Team and to provide classes every Monday for the rest of the term. Basketball lessons with Andrew.

Swimming

Our pupils absolutely love using our local swimming pool in Loughlinstown Leisure Centre on Thursday afternoons.

Santa dash 20th Dec 2022

Our pupils had great fun taking part in Santa Dash on 20 th December. They enjoying getting into the
Christmas spirit and ran several laps around our school building.

Gardening

Vanessa and Wendy tending to the flowers in the Sensory Garden.

Vanessa and Wending tending to the flowers in the Sensory Garden.

Tree Planting Day. Thanks to Hailey from Ballybrack Climate Action Group, we all had a very busy, active and fun filled day digging hole and planting trees.