P.E Partnerships

School Slogan

Commit, get fit, don't quit

Active Committee

The Active Committee in MAPS meets once a month and record minutes of meetings.

The committee works through an agenda and ensures our school is an active place to be from September to June each year. Events are planned and organised by the committee alongside a committee of parents who support our active school agenda.

The following is a list of the committee members for 2022/2023.

Parents Committee

We also have a newly formed committee of parents who will liaise with school sports committee on active events, do an equipment inventory each year, provide updates for school website on what’s happening in all things sports in our school and lots more!!!

We look forward to working closely with this group of parents.

Clubs that our students are involved in outside of school time.

Every class from 1st to 6th was surveyed to find out what clubs they are involved in. This information was collated and our 6th class students presented findings in a wonderful range of graphs. These graphs are displayed on our Active Boards throughout the school.

Here is a list of contact details for all of the clubs that were mentioned in our survey. Thank you to the wonderful parents on our sports committee for putting it together!

Sports Club Contact List

Local and National Agencies that we work with.

• Kilmacud Crokes- external coaches from our local GAA club coach the girls football and camogie alongside some teachers in our school. Our school enters the Cumann na nBunscoil competition annually as well as participating in friendly matches with other local schools

• Dún Laoghaire Rathdown (DLR) Cycle Right ran a training course for our 5th class students on how to cycle safety in March 23

• DLR have also provided 10 balance bikes for our junior classes to practise cycling in small groups in May 2023.

Balance Bike Tutorials

• Mount Merrion Soccer Club running training sessions for a variety of class levels.

The document attached has many other initiatives which we may participate in going forward. We are very fortunate to have a well resourced local partnership to support for active work in the school.

DLR Brochure

Sports Inclusion

The school has contacted our local sports inclusion officer, development officers will attend our school and can adapt games to include our students with special educational needs. The active committee will arrange dates in the near future for visits from the following groups:

• Leinster Rugby
• Leinster Cricket
• Soccer FAI Development Officers
• Ultimate Frisbee
• Eike Treanor – yoga

ASF Pupil Surveys

Pupils in 2nd, 4th and 5th classes completed a survey on their thoughts on PE and sports activity in our school. The following findings were made:

During the Year

• The majority of students enjoy PE, at least some of the time. Gymnastics and Games, respectively, were the most popular strands.
• Most of the students enjoy at least some active homework.
• A strong majority of students, 83%, enjoy running laps and 81% feel running laps has made them stronger runners.
• 92% of students enjoy classroom movement breaks
• 100% of students enjoy playing on the yard.
• 11 out of 26 correctly indicated that children should be getting 60 minutes of physical activity daily.
• When asked how we could make PE better, there were a variety of responses. These included more PE outside, a bigger variety of games, more/ less of certain strands and to mix classes together.
• When asked how we could improve yard time, the main response was a larger yard area, and more equipment to play with.

Active Week

• 96% of students enjoy Active Week.
• Students reported their favourite part of active week is the variety of activities; running, dancing and games, as well as the wake up warm up. Students also enjoy Sports visits and the positive active attitude promoted in the school.
• When asked how Active Week could be made better, some students requested an active fortnight and more of everything; games, movement breaks, activities.
• The response from all classes was our Active Flag renewal was going well.

Parent Surveys:

We invited parents from senior infants, second and fifth classes to complete a questionnaire to gather their thoughts and suggestions about PE and extracurricular sports in the school. We chose those class levels to gather a cross-section of feedback across the school. We received results from 26 parents.

Feedback was positive, 81% reported their daughter enjoys PE class. Furthermore, 96% reported their daughter enjoys Active Week. Parents had some suggestions regarding facilities and amenities in the school. A number felt that an all-weather pitch would be beneficial, especially during the winter months.

The overwhelming takeaway is that parents would like more information regarding their daughter’s progression in PE class. 85% would like more feedback. This is something that could be looked at in the future. Active homework may need to be re-explored more explicitly, some parents were unaware it has been assigned this school year.

Lastly, parents have requested a greater choice of extracurricular activities, particularly for the younger classes. Swimming seems to be a very positive addition to the school and parents would like to see it introduced to more class levels. Again, this is something that could be considered in the future.