School Projects
There are a number of school projects in place around the country and these are run by the Local Sports Partnersherships and the National Governing Bodies
Local Sports Partnerships offer the following programmes in schools:
Clare LSP - Can sport make a difference to me? - This project aims to enhance the perception of sport as a positive life pathway for women. Workshops/seminars will be held to encourage transition year girls to identify their interests and issues around sport in order to allow the LSP to deliver a targeted after schools programme for students
Cork LSP - Active 8 - Active 8 is a peer mentoring programme designed to promote increased physical activity levels among teenage girls. This project aims to increase the physical activity levels of 20 teenage girls in the Macroom area over an 8 week period
Kerry LSP - Expansion of the Active 8 programme - This project aims to expand the Active 8 pilot programme into a community setting with the chosen centre offering girl friendly activities to encourage the use of the facility over an 8 week period. All attendees would be encouraged to complete an Active 8 journal noting down the activities they participated in over the 8 week period
Kerry LSP - Teen scene - This is a collaborative project between Kerry LSP and the Institute of Technolgy, Tralee aiming to encourage 1,200 females to participate in physical activity over a 16 week period through their schools and youth clubs
Laois LSP - School dance - This project aims to expand a pilot dance programme offered by Laois LSP, targeting teenage girls in secondary schools by encouraging teachers in these schools to undertake a FETAC Level 2 dance course that would allow them to initially assist and later take on the role of dance tutor during PE
Limerick city LSP - Girls physical activity research project - This project aims to collate all information that exists in Ireland on physical activity for girls, and report on this infomration, highlighting examples of good practise and identifying the key characteristics in tackling aspects of physical activity in teenage girls
Mayo LSP - Hip to hop dance project - This project aims to provide an opportunity for girls, who do not normally participate in sport, to take part in a physical activity that they will easily connect with. 5 schools are participating in the project
National Governing Bodies offer the following programmes in schools:
Basketball Ireland - Primary schools basketball - the aim of this programme is to introduce basketball to primary school teachers
Cumann Camogaíochta na nGael - a blitz day will be hosted by Waterford IT, University College Dublin, NUI Maynooth and University of Limerick to which schools will be invited to send 10 students to participate in 7 a side fun games and to learn camogie skills. The aim is to encourage girls to see camogie as a recreational pastime and one that can be continued at third level even if you are not playing at performance level. The relevant third level institutions have committed to the initiative and Camogie will use the LSPs in each area to recruit schools. A support structure will be put in place for teachers to allow them to prepare for the blitz and to follow up on interest afterwards
Cumann Peil Gael na mBan - Gaelic 4 Girls aims to increase participation in counties, which have little underage activity by training and supporting volunteers to deliver a nine-week coaching programme
The Irish Amateur Rowing Union project aims to target 8 schools across the country with a dry rowing programme leading into membership of rowing clubs
The Irish Hockey Association is proposing to introduce and develop mini hockey festivals throughout the provinces to encourage more young girls to take up the sport at primary level. The programme is based around clubs and the six-a-side mini hockey game. The IHA are committed to developing the programme for U13 players and are also looking at taking a more “jamboree” style approach for the festivals
The Irish Rugby Football Union are developing schools rugby for girls in Leinster by providing a small sided soft contact rugby fun league for secondary schools