Above: A drone captures some blue paint messing on the run at Sandymount Strand!
Drone picture courtesy of Sean Conway, Lorcan O’Colmain Murray, Roc Mehigan and John Gilsenan.
In the first semester of the school year, we have seen disputes between the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) and the Department of Education resulting in a strike action that saw schools being closed and teachers, staff and students staying at home.
With all this divide on the horizon,the Health Promoting Schools Committee at St Michael’s College, which is comprised of the staff, parents and students, organised a Health and Sports week, October 3rd to 9th to bring the school community together.
“As part of being a health-promoting school, the week consisted of running, yoga, meditation, nutrition talks, wellness talks and mindfulness colouring involving students and staff,” said Gavin Duffy, teacher at St. Michael’s.
To finish out the week, the Health Promoting Schools Committee held a 5km Fun Run for the school community on the Sunday morning that began at Clanna Gael Fontenoy GAA Club, Irishtown and went through Sean Moore Park out on to Sandymount Strand for another 2km to turn and end back at the GAA club.
“It’s called a ‘run’ as opposed to a ‘race’ as we want people engaging in activity rather than feeling that they might not be able to win,” said Duffy. However, there was chip-timing at the event for those who wanted to beat their personal best or be the first to cross the line. Fastest male on the day was Michael Smurfit completing the 5km in 18 mins 55 secs and fastest female was Nikki Kroon in at 22 mins 58 secs.
NewsFour attended and completed the run and with the aid of our photographer and the drone camera filming the participants overhead, we were able to capture the spirit of the community on the day with the backdrop of the peaceful, clear blue surroundings that rounded the week off for the participants, who no doubt enjoyed the week due to the sheer size in numbers that turned up for the run.
By Paul Carton
