Sport

Sport is very important in our school. We take part in lots of competitions and blitzes every year. We also learn the basic skills of other sports.
Each year in our school every child from Junior Infants to Sixth class participates in a wide variety of sports and physical activity for example....

Football:

Paul McManus is our visiting GAA coach and in each term he takes the children from different class groups to teach the fundamentals of football right through to the skills required for the senior teams.

Our infants have great fun becoming more physically literate and seeing how their gross and fine motor skills become more developed with each passing week. The older boys and girls get coached by Paul at a different time of the year which complements the great work being done at Under-age by our club Caulry.  Ambrose Mc Gowan has kindly taken on the training of Boys & Girls football two evenings a week after school. He is being helped by Ms Rooney, Ms Cahalin, Mr Swords and Ms Curran.  Both teams are through to the semi finals in Cumman na mBunscol.

So whether you are in Junior Infants or in Sixth our school gives everyone a chance to experience football.

Rugby: In October, children from 5th & 6th class participated in a World CupTag Rugby Blitz in Buccaneers organised by Connacht Rugby. Our school represented  South Africa! 3rd & 4th Class have just completed a 6 week block of Tag Rugby training with Charlie Cooper from Buccaneers.Every child from 1st class to 6th get the chance to play some form of rugby. Coaches come in from our local rugby clubs every term and teach the boys and girls the basics of non-contact/tag rugby. The older children (with parental consent) get to learn and experience contact rugby which they really enjoy. Both boys and girls have taken part in many Tag-Rugby blitzes over the years.

Basketball: Our basketball coach is Paddy Mullally who is a highly qualified and very experienced coach in Athlone.  Paddy coaches basketball for 2 terms every year to the children from 3rd - 6th. Though we don't take part in competitions the children leave the school with 4 years of top quality coaching which is hugely beneficial for them in Secondary school.

Swimming: Every class group from 2nd to 6th attend swimming classes in Athlone RSC for between 6-8 weeks per year. Our senior classes  go from Hallowe'en to Christmas while the 2nd class go towards the end of the year when they are a little more prepared than earlier. Swimming is on the curriculum so we actively encourage all children to go. It is a life skill...  and great fun!!

Soccer: For the past 3 years we have taken part in the FAI- organised 5-a-side soccer inter - schools tournament which starts out at local level in Athlone then progresses to County level in Mullingar. The winners in Mullingar progress to a North Leinster tournament in Meath before having a tilt at a Leinster and All-Ireland title. Our boys and girls teams continue to take part successfully and have reached stages 2 & 3 on a regular basis.

 

Golf: We are lucky to have an 18-hole championship golf course beside us here in Mount Temple and in 2014 Philip Murphy the local golf pro came to the school on a weekly basis in the last term and introduced us to SNAG (Start New At Golf) Philip worked with all ages from Jun Infants to 6th and proved to be an outstanding success. By using child-friendly equipment and fun games all ages could begin to emulate Rory Mc Ilroy.!! WE have had Philip in our school  for 2 terms every year since 2014.

 

Teachers takes children from all classes for brain gym and/or yoga during the school day . Children from 4th, 5th and 6th have been running up to 10 laps of our playground every day after break and since 2014 we have competed very successfully in the Westmeath Cross Country Schools' Championships. Boys and girls from 1st class to 6th represent our school in this event held in the grounds of Belvedere House Mullingar every September.
Since the London Olympics we have organised an Inter-school athletics meet in the AIT. 7 local schools  Ardnagrath NS , Ballybay NS , Baylin NS , Coosan NS , Cornamaddy NS , Scoil na gCeithre Máistrí , Tubberclaire NS and ourselves take part in races ranging from 100m to 800m for boys and girls from 4th, 5th and 6th. The event starts with a pre-race parade of all the competing schools and each child's (competitor's) name and their school  is announced on the PA before each race which really adds to the atmosphere.

 

 

In 2015 the Taoiseach Enda Keeny opened the Greenway near our school.

This is a cycle track that runs between Mullingar and Athlone and it happens to pass through Moate which is only about 5km from our school .The 6th class pupils along with their teacher and Ms.Kearns and some parents have gone for a 25km cycle twice a year since it opened. They either go east towards Mullingar or west towards Athlone and always have the now traditional  ice-cream at journey's end!! This has become one of the many highlights of our 6th class' final year with us. 

 

 
The real measure of sporting success in our school is the variety of sports we try to offer and the numbers of children having a positive sporting experience whether it's in the hall, on the track, in the pool, on the pitch or wherever. We like to think that on that front we are very successful indeed!