80% of Irish children, currently, are not active enough’

(Children’s Sport Participation and Physical Activity Study, 2010)

Physical Education is a very important part of the culture here in Gortskehy National School. We believe that it helps contribute to the well-being of all our pupils, helping them to lead full, active and healthy lives. We aim to foster a love and appreciation of physical activity in the children.

We have a physical education plan as part of our whole school plan and we work on a two year system, whereby we incorporate the fundamental movement skills over this time. Children from 1st – 6th class go swimming for 6 weeks every year covering the aquatics strand. Each year the teachers identify a strand that we need to develop.

Each classroom teacher is committed to teaching a broad, balanced and inclusive PE lesson every week. Currently, the infants are timetabled for PE on Tuesdays and Fridays for half an hour each day. The middle room are timetabled for one hour on Friday. The senior room are timetabled for one hour on Friday afternoon also. From time to time, we alter the days and duration of lessons, depending on the strands we are teaching. Some strands may require two half hour lessons in the week for 1st – 6th class pupils in order to allow children effectively master skills.

Digital Learning Plan – GortskehyNS

Each school must now create a Digital Learning Plan (DLP). Staff from Gortskehy NS have attended the PDST Seminar on ‘Using the Digital Learning Framework to Embed Digital Technologies in Teaching, Learning  and Assessment’. I have attached our DLP for your viewing and this document will be reviewed annually to include updates and to reflect all progress made. Feedback on implementation will occur at planning meetings and through pupil work. We are continuously working with our pupils and our digital cluster partners St. Pats BNS, Castlebar and Meelickmore NS, Claremorris to fulfill our Digital Schools Excellence initiatives throughout the year. All updates pertaining to our digital cluster can be found on our website

www.digitalgmp.scoilnet.ie 

As part of our Creative Schools Programme the pupils from the senior room took part in a sound workshop with Ed Devane today. Ed is an Irish multidisciplinary artist working primarily with sound. The children completed several activities throughout the day which included finding electro magnetic signals, working with a contact microphone to listen to sound vibrations, making recordings using an a digital audio recorder with various sounds from around the classroom. The class really enjoyed the day and are looking forward to the next stage of the workshop in early May.

Ed Devane

Website – www.eddevane.com

Instagram – ed_devane