Olympic Games Skerries Educate Together June 2012
Olympic Games – Skerries Educate Together 2012
It all began at 9am on Monday 18th June. Our sports day dawned sunny and bright. 167 happy children arrived into school delighted that their sports day would not be postponed again due to inclement weather.
Our Opening Ceremony was a memorable occasion for the children. We were very honoured to have Gary O’Brien, Ireland’s Special Olympic silver medallist come to lead our parade. Gary was one of the torch bearers for the 2012 Olympic Games in Dublin earlier in the month so it was a great opportunity for all the children to meet a great athlete. They also had the chance to see the Olympic torch and a real Olympic silver medal. Many of our children accompanied Gary holding various Olympic symbols that they made. Then all the children followed waving the flag of their country. All this to the theme music of the Olympic Games and Chariots of Fire. We then gathered around our very own Olympic Village (a decorated bicycle shed!) for the welcoming speech. Lots of parents and friends came to see their children and it was indeed a very touching spectacle.
After the Opening Ceremony the children enjoyed station activities such as puc fada, penalty shoot out, shoot the hoops, parachute games, a race station for sack races, egg and spoon race , skipping/hula hoop stations, tumbling station, obstacle course, construction station, twister, coconut shy and hoops, javelin and discus throw, and the very popular limbo dancing disco area. Other highlights included the mam’s, dad’s and pre-schoolers races, and the soccer match between senior children and staff.
This was a non-competitive fun day and would not have been possible without the wonderful support of parents and friends. From the early hours of Monday morning parents and teachers could be spotted hanging bunting, hammering in a coconut shy, pitching gazabos, setting up sound systems, dragging out gym mats, benches and goal posts, chopping apples and oranges and of course setting up the ever popular face painting area.
The children left school excited, happy and extremely tired. Tuesday was a very quiet day in our school!