Cloneen NS is, in a nutshell, a hive of activity when it comes to sport and fitness. Our children are so active! We participate in the Daily Mile each day which not only has huge physical benefits, but we see the positive impact on children’s ability to focus and engage in the classroom.
Our children have lots of opportunities to develop their skills in football and hurling and enjoy GAA. The children have GAA training in school each week with Paddy Ivors, a member of our local GAA club, St. Pat’s. Our children are also extremely lucky to have very dedicated teachers, Mr. Kelly and Ms. Leamy, who train them in GAA each Monday after school. This is an extremely popular after-school activity in our school, with a huge proportion of the students getting involved. Our GAA teams do extremely well in the Cumann na mBunscol competition each year. This year, 2022, three of our four teams made the County Final with our U13 boys being crowned County Champions.
The children attend a block of swimming lessons each year in the summer term in Clonmel Swimming Pool. They also engage in the PAWS water safety lessons at school through Irish Water Safety.
Summer term or autumn term see the children do a block of tag rugby lessons with a coach provided by Munster Schools’ Rugby. They absolutely love these lessons!
In June 2022, we replaced our basketball stands with state of the art basketball posts. We surprised the children with this and they were absolutely thrilled with the arrival of new posts! The children love to play basketball and we set up a basketball league annually for a bit of fun.
The children started Zumba Dancing in November 2022 for a block of lessons with Kool Skool Dance School Clonmel. They absolutely love it!
We plan to do some Céilí dance lessons in the Spring Term.
We place a great emphasis on athletics and the children’s techniques in their physical movement. The children do sprinting and distance running as part of their Daily Mile. They also do an annual Athletics competition in Thurles. We have had super success in this competition with many of our individuals and teams winning medals. This year, we brought back a Gold and Bronze team medal, and many individual medals in the boys’ and girls’ races.
Our 5th and 6th Class children participate in the Cycle Right cycle safety programme through Cycle Safety Ireland. These lessons are provided by Dónal Jacob and the children love the experience. It’s a great addition to their education and skills they can carry through their lives.