Active Schools Flag 2014-2015

In September 2014, Villiers School launched the Active Schools Flag programme. It is a nationwide initiative supported by the Department of Education in recognising schools that promote a broad and varied Physical Education curriculum as well as encourage physical activity in all aspects of school life.

We at Villiers are extremely proud of our Physical Education curriculum and our extra-curricular programme as we strive to include a wide range of activities for our students.  Many of the students are involved in our team games such as hockey, rugby, soccer and basketball.  New additions to our schedule include Ultimate Frisbee, Self-defence, Pilates, Golf, Orienteering,  Rowing, Tennis and Spikeball. We have also updated our gym facility which allows the students to train before and after school.  The gym provides a range of equipment which helps students to perform cardiovascular and strength and conditioning workouts.  This keeps them in tip-top condition and boosts energy levels for their academic workouts!

In our quest for the Flag, a committee of 13 students from Transition Year have been working diligently planning, designing, organising and of course implementing new initiatives and activities.  Our big focus is running an Active Week in the school on the 23^rd – 27^th of March.  This will incorporate games, tournaments, recreational activities, talks, debates and presentations and we are taking a cross-curricular approach as all of our enthusiastic teachers will be supporting the event by promoting physical activity through their subject. 

On Friday the 20^th of March, the school will be visited by the Elvery’s Sports Power Team who will spend the day putting students through their paces in a series of fun and fitness activities.  This is part of another nationwide programme called the Schools Fitness Challenge sponsored by Aviva which is looking at fitness levels of secondary school students.  All students took part in the beep test earlier in the year and will be hoping to improve on their score in the next round.

We have also linked in with Limerick Sports Partnership this year.  They will be collaborating with us on our Junior Leadership Programme which will roll out for our Transition Year students.  This programme will teach students the skills necessary to become coaches in a particular activity and they will then use these skills to teach First Years.  This is the first time this programme has been run in Villiers but we have full confidence in our students as we have seen them excel in the Spikeball programme that has been in action for the last number of years.  These students dedicated their time to learning the game and then were deployed to local primary schools to teach the children the skills. This project culminated in two large and exciting primary school tournaments held in the Sports Hall in January.  We received excellent feedback from all schools involved and we are very proud of our students who acted as ambassadors for their school.

We are very grateful to all the teachers and students who have given their time and their creativity to this project.  We are always open and accepting to help, support and advice during this busy period.