Fermanagh coaches put new angle on PE lessons

St. Columban’s Primary School, Belcoo young scholars have been bringing their classroom skills into their PE lessons.  The pupils of Primary 3/4 class headed by their teacher Mrs Anne Murray were given the opportunity to use their creative skills to develop their own game while working in groups.  These fun games were specially designed by the children from start to finish.  Demonstrating great team working skills, the children had access to a variety of equipment for example, skipping ropes, footballs, huala hoops, bean bags, cones etc.

Before starting to design the games the children were giving only a few instructions which would guide them in the development stages, these included; What are the rules?, Have a scoring system, How to make the game harder and easier.

Class teacher Mrs Murray along with classroom assistant Paula Colton encouraged the pupils to discuss different ideas; these had a positive effect and lead to lots of decision making and problem solving.  In particular some of the names thought up for their games were very creative, for example ‘Cowboys Capturing Crathers’ and ‘Hoop Spree’.

Mrs Murray commend on the whole process stating “It was a very enjoyable session which the children got so much out of it designing and playing each others games”.

The DENI Minister’s ‘Sports in Schools Programme’ facilitated this valuable experience. DENI Coach Teresa McGirr from Ulster Council GAA has been working closely with the St. Columban’s Primary School teachers and principal during 2009 and 2010, to achieve the main objective of this programme, which are to develop the generic physical literacy skills of our youngest pupils through participation in enjoyable P.E. activities.  Help raise pupils’ confidence and self-esteem, their motivation to learn and their achievements in other curricular areas, particularly literacy and numeracy and to raise the confidence of, and provide support to, primary teachers in delivering P.E.

Coach Teresa McGirr formatted the games for the pupils and when they each received a copy of their game they where amazed to see what they had designed and then each group got to try out all the other games designed by their classmates.  DENI Coach Teresa McGirr stated that “it was personally rewarding to see the pupils reaction of pride and self-esteem upon receiving their finished designed game and their mutual admiration for their fellow pupils games”.