Healthy Living

Health Promotion in St. Oliver Plunkett’s N.S.

St. Oliver Plunkett’s has been a health promoting school since 1999. In 2011, in recognition of this record of health promotion, the school was awarded a Yellow Flag. The Yellow Flag was presented to the school and raised at a ceremony. The ceremony was part of a full day Festival of events celebrating and highlighting health promotion initiatives in the school. These festivals include Healthy Food Demonstrations using fresh food; physical activity / fitness workshops held throughout the school; and tasting of different fruits / vegetables / foods in all classes.

Now when the pressure of our busy lifestyles demand so much from our physical and mental well being, we resort more and more to the quickest eating option available to us ' take away' and ' ready made meals'. The downside of eating too much of these foods is that they are very high in bad fats and are loaded with sugar and preservatives. Increasing numbers of children in this country are being fed with these quick options, which has lead to a dramatic increase in incidents of diabetes and obesity. As parents we are the carers of our children and it is our responsibility to provide a healthy environment for their emotional and physical health. Despite our busy lifestyles, there are still 24hrs in every day - all we have to do is use our time wisely. Making food from scratch is not only the cheaper option but is so rewarding for you and your family. Don’t decide what you are having for dinner at 5 o clock in the evening, plan the day before and make mealtimes a pleasant experience for all the family by making sure they are eating a balanced nutritious diet. The rewards for you and your family are endless including better health, more energy, less allergies, the list goes on.

Technology

Dissolving Boundaries

Dissolving Boundaries uses Information and Communications Technology to facilitate cross-cultural educational links between schools in the North and South of Ireland.
Fourth class St. Oliver Plunketts has teamed up with primary five Tandragee P. S. Co. Armagh. They have used technology to explore their creative writing and poetry. Podcasts, moodle, wikis, video conferencing, emails, and photographs have all been part of this ICT Project

Music

Sports in St. Olivers

Sport in St Olivers
St Olivers has always had a proud sporting tradition.We believe that sport is extremely important for the overall development of the child. Throughout their schooling each child is exposed to a wide variety of sports.

Autumn term
Our boys and girls football teams take part in the Cumann na mBunscol football competition. Children from 4th -6th class are involved with these teams-Our boys team claimed the division one title this year while our girls were successful in 2010. Training for these teams takes place at lunch and after school. It is a huge commitment for the kids involved but a very rewarding one. This year thanks to the help and support of parents we were able to introduce our infants to football through the nursery programme which was very successful. A big thank you to all involved. During this term our 3rd /4th class have swimming for 6 weeks as part of the aquatics strand of the curriculum.

Spring term
After Christmas the emphasis shifts to Olympic handball, teams from u10 to u13 take part in the Meath league and we have had many successes through the years. Children from 3rd to 6th enjoy this sport and there is always a huge number of kids trying out for the teams. This year our U10 girls won the shield final.
In March our footballers are back in action in the Mini 7s competition-many of our past pupils have played in Croke park on All Ireland finals day as a result of winning this competition.
In this term also our 6th class take part in the FAI- 5 a side soccer competition-always an exciting day for those involved.
This year thanks to Rhonda, a parent and qualified Karate coach, the infants got a taste of the discipline of karate and really enjoyed the experience-thank you Rhonda.
Fourth class pupils had six weeks of soccer coaching while third class had football coaching,thanks to all involved.
Summer term.
The final term is always our busiest one, finishing off the year with our Junior and Senior sports days-these are action packed days of sporting activities with emphasis on participation rather than competition. This is also the Rounders term with boys and girls entering the Cumann na mBunscol competition. It is a sport which all enjoy.
3rd and 4th class children take part in a one day rounders blitz to give them a taste of the sport. The girls basketball team are in action also having won the competition the last three years. This term also sees kids take part in the athletics day in Claremount where our athletics teams have had great success in recent years.
6th class get tennis coaching which they really enjoy for 5 weeks.
In school football Mini Leagues also take place at lunch and there is great competition between teams of 3rd ,4th and 5th class kids to come out victorious.