Our Active Committee worked tremendously hard to be awarded our 2^nd Active Flag in June 2024. A New Active Committee was set up for the academic year ‘23/’24 to oversee the renewal application for our Active Flag. The Active Committee carried our surveys to find out which sports their classmates took part in outside of school. They then displayed this information in a bar graph and presented their findings to the school during assembly.

We created various initiatives to encourage our children to be more active in school;

• A playground leader was scheduled for each small break to help those who needed support in choosing what to play or who to play with 

• Our school took part in the Run Around Europe challenge and the committee were very thoughtful in their choice of destinations—with Kyiv holding a special place in our hearts 

• Every year, in June, we run our Active Week. This is huge hit with the children.  They get to experience a wide variety of activities from Soccer and Gaelic to Yoga, Tennis and Golf. We try to expose the children to as many activities as we can, so they can find something that will be of interest to them and they can pursue further 

• We held our first End-of-Year Active Talent show in June ‘24 with each child given the opportunity to showcase their wonderful active abilities. We were amazed by the talents among our pupils - Irish dancing, Scottish Dancing, Gymnastics, Soccer Skills, Gaelic Skills, Basketball and Interpretive Dance to name but a few! 

• School days can be long, for all pupils, and children’s levels of focus can deteriorate, especially on hot days. At Kilbarron NS, we incorporate many movement breaks throughout our school day.  These movement breaks can be done at any time - whenever the class needs a little brain break.  Watch out for the STAFF lollipop sticks…. Dreaded by all staff but loved by all children! 

• Our school is situated in a beautiful town, and our school grounds include a football pitch, a basketball court, a sensory garden, some grassed area and a polytunnel. The Active Committee set up an Active trail around our school grounds that can be used across the entire curriculum - maths trails, literacy trails, Irish trails, active trails and mindfulness trails.  These trails are differentiated for each year group and provide great opportunities for outdoor, active learning. 

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that children and adolescents aged 5-17 years should engage in at least an average of 60 minutes per day of physical activity. To help encourage this, the Active Committee created a celebration station for any physical activity carried out by our pupils outside of school hours.  A display can be seen in the foyer of the school.

Thanks to our very generous school community during our recent fundraising, the children of Kilbarron NS now have a wonderful new climbing frame and slide to enjoy! The Active Committee put together a timetable to make sure all classes would get their time to play on the new climbing frame.  The slide made such an impact on the children, it even made it into our Active Flag School Slogan: 

‘In Kilbarron School, we go outside to run around and play on the slide.'