A new Olympic Breaks initiative has been launched for schools that will see the Olympic Federation of Ireland’s Dare to Believe programme working alongside the Active School Flag Programme in creating opportunities for primary school pupils to be more physically active.
The easy-to-use format is free and available to all schools. It provides a series of short videos led by Olympians and High-Performance athletes demonstrating fun exercises and activities that students of all abilities can do.
Athletics, boxing, rugby sevens, swimming, breakdancing, and para powerlifting will help generate classroom-based movement opportunities as well as discussion and interest around the sports.
With a shared goal of highlighting the many fun benefits of being more active, Dare to Believe and the Active School Flag Programme are using the Olympic Movement Breaks to encourage schools to take part in a four-week ‘Active Break Every Day’ challenge.
Twelve athletes lead easy and fun exercises that range between 3 – 5 minutes and require no additional resources.
Teachers will have access to a challenge chart where they can check off videos that their class completes each day during the 4-week challenge, which runs from Monday, 13th of November through to Friday, 8th of December.
Furthermore, additional resources will be available alongside the videos where children can learn more about the athletes featured in the videos, by reading their bios and information on their respective Olympic sport.
They also will learn about Olympic history and values and have the option of participating in a fun Olympic quiz at the end of each week.
The OFI Dare to Believe programme is supported by PTSB, the official sponsor of Team Ireland at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The Olympic Movement Breaks were created by the Dare to Believe co-founders Roisin Jones and Roisin McGettigan-Dumas with input from the Olympic athletes who participated in the programme, and with input from several teacher consultants.
“Dare to Believe is delighted to partner with Active Flags to deliver this fun but functional initiative for primary schools,” said Jones.
“Promising research indicates that short active movement breaks are shown to help students academically and emotionally as well as physically, so we want to help students to get in their learning zones.”
“That’s why we’ve created over 20 Olympic Movement Breaks. We encourage teachers to use our Olympic Movement Breaks whenever their students need to take 5 to reset and refocus. It will give kids an introduction to Team Ireland Olympic athletes and challenge them to do some sort of sport-related activity.”
“This collaboration and the programme addresses the challenges of decreasing levels of physical activity among our youth,” added Minister of State for Sport and Physical Education, Thomas Byrne.
“It shows what can be done when Government departments and agencies work together for a common goal.”
“The Olympic Movement Breaks have been developed to encourage primary schools to get involved in the Active Break Every Day Challenge, held annually by the Active School Flag Programme.”
“The aim of the Active School Flag Programme is to get more schools, more active, more often, and the Olympic Movement Breaks will certainly support schools in this ambition in a fun and inclusive way.”
“Building movement opportunities, such as these, into the school day creates positive impacts for our primary school pupil’s physical health and mental wellbeing, it also brings benefits to the teaching and learning processes. I would encourage all schools around the country to take part in this initiative and I look forward to hearing about school experiences in this fun and exciting challenge.”
“The promotion of physical activity for health is one of my Department’s priorities and I am particularly pleased to see any initiative which encourages children and young people to get active and stay active,” said Minister of State for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy, Hildegarde Naughton.
“I am very happy to welcome the launch of the Olympic Movement Breaks programme and I encourage everyone to join our Olympic and Paralympic heroes in reaching for a healthy body and mind.”
Registration for the Dare to Believe Olympic Movement Breaks is free of charge and all details can be found on www.daretobelieve.ie
