Physical Activity Policy

/Physical Activity Policy
Physical Activity Policy 2017-11-28T09:38:38+00:00

Physical Activity Policy for Scoil an Spioraid Naoimh Boys School

Scope: This policy applies to the entire school, junior infants to sixth class inclusive.

Rationale:

●      The national target encourages a minimum of one-hour physical activity per day aside from the curriculum set time.

●      Currently one in four Irish children being classified as obese or overweight (Heinen et al 2014).

●      Only 19% of primary school children are meeting the daily recommendation of physical activity (Harrington et al, 2014).

Goals:

●      Educate the parents on recommended physical activity guidelines

●      Develop an alternative physical activity programme for inclement weather conditions

●      Provide advice to both teachers and children on activity bursts exercises that can help them throughout the day to keep them physically active

●      Provide the school with cross curricular learning examples from subjects like Maths, English, Art and geography which will link games and learning together

Content:

●      Provide parents with and information sheet through e-mail. This infographic will be available on the school website and a hard copy will be distributed to all stakeholders.

●      The group will give suggestions to the teachers on what to do when the weather is bad and outside play is not feasible. These exercises can be performed in the halla or in class.

●      A key finding in the survey suggested children were strongly in favour of exercise breaks and activity bursts. The group has included an exercise programme which will facilitate these breaks in a time efficient manner.

●      Provide examples of combining other subjects with physical activity which will allow teachers to practice this idea in other subjects. With these games a supplementary information sheet will be provided.

Roles and Responsibility:

The teachers have a responsibility of providing an environment for physical activity when outdoor play is not available which can be done though rainy day games. They must try to provide more physical activity with learning through cross curricular games. Parents have the responsibility to try and encourage and provide as much physical activity as possible to their child when they are not in school.

Success Criteria:

The policy will be reviewed and parents, teachers and children’s thoughts about the policy will be evaluated. If all stakeholders are happy with the policy and feel it has brought benefits, the policy will be deemed a success.

Monitoring Implementation:

●      Implementation of the policy will be trusted to the teachers and principal of the school.

●      The responsibility of monitoring the policy will be entrusted to the principal and individual teachers and any issues that arise can be delivered back to the working group.

Review and Evaluation:

Review and evaluation of the policy will be carried out by next year’s 4th Year Sport & Exercise students who will consult with the school on the implementation process and if it met all the stakeholders’ needs and wants.

 

Legislation and Equity Proofing:

The working group undertook a rigorous consultation process to ensure that all stakeholders’ inputs were incorporated in the document. The working group cannot guarantee the success of this policy but all the research carried leads to this policy enhancing and improving the school environment through physical activity.