COLÁISTE BRÍDE, Clondalkin - About Our School · COLÁISTE BRÍDE, Clondalkin - About Our School...
Transcript of COLÁISTE BRÍDE, Clondalkin - About Our School · COLÁISTE BRÍDE, Clondalkin - About Our School...
COLÁISTE BRÍDE, Clondalkin - About Our School
Coliste Bríde is a Presentation secondary school located in Clondalkin in Dublin. There are
960 girls enrolled in the school coming from a diverse range of backgrounds. The school
was completely rebuilt in 2005 and we are now lucky enough to have a bright modern
building complete with a great sports hall and lots of outdoor space for physical activity.
Our Focus on RECREATIONAL Physical Activity
Our Principal and the Senior Leadership team actively endorse the impoprtance of PE in the
school and as a result we have high participation rates in PE. However, our problems arise
in engaging our girls in physical activity outside of PE. Over the last 10 years there has been
a sharp decline in the number of students wanting to participate in competitive sport. So in
consultation with our parents in 2015, we decided to greatly reduce our involvement in
competitive school sport and focus our time and energy on extra-curricular physical activity
for recreation. We now have a well-attended fit club and games club but our greatest
success has been with cheerleading.
CHEER Leading – As voted for by the STUDENTS
One of the key things we did in 2015 when we set about improving physical activity levels
among our students was to make contact with Paula Swayne, one of the Sport and
Recreation officers in South Dublin County Council. Paula herself is passionate about
improving teenage girls’ physical activity levels and she has been so supportive over the last
few years. As we were looking to move away from competitive sport, Paula suggested
boxercise and SDCC organised and funded an afterschool boxercise class for 8 weeks. The
students themselves, supplemented by the school then continued to pay for the class for
the remainder of the year. This year Paula asked that we run a new initiative but this time
one that was decided upon and organised by the students. Our Active Committee carried
out some research and decided that cheerleading would be very popular…….and it has been
very, very popular. Over 150 students arrived for the first class with even more coming to
the second class. As we near the end of the school year numbers have reduced but there
are still about 80 students dancing, jumping, lifting and flipping every Wednesday
afternoon!
ACTIVE SCHOOL Week – WELL BEING Week
We held our first Active School Week in Colaiste Bride in 2008. This year our focus was on
physical wellbeing and spreading the 60 MINUTES of physical activity a day message. The
week was a great success with both staff and students putting in a lot of extra time and
effort.
Over the years we have had great fun with activities such as the CB Mile, our Cycle to India
to another Presentation school (on stationary bikes), our Teachers vs Local Guards match,
our Drop Everything and Dance as well as our annual class challenges and tournaments.
TRACKSUIT Tuesdays Initiative – Term 3
Our Well Being Week took place in March. Following on from this we didn’t feel that we
could hold another ASW during the National ASW (April 24th – 28th) just a few weeks later!
We decided that we would have five days of activities on five consecutive Tuesdays instead.
Since we’ve come back after Easter, every Tuesday has been “Tracksuit Tuesday”. We focus
on one particular year group each Tuesday for activities but the whole school community is
allowed to wear tracksuits, thus encouraging everyone’s participation in physical activity
throughout the day. We have a Morning Mile for all and lots of lunch time and after school
activities.