Sports and Horticulture

Gardens 2022

Our School Environment

We have developed suitable indoor and outdoor physical environments which offer a rich and varied learning experience for each child. We have both quiet and active multisensory rooms and spaces. We have specialised home economics and music rooms as well as space for construction and art projects. Our outdoor spaces feature swings and a wheelchair friendly roundabout. Each class has its own dedicated garden space which is refreshed each year to provide fun opportunities for students.

Physical Education

Class teachers adapt the Physical Education programme to suit students with physical and complex disabilities. We teach a range of PE skillls and focus on the rules of a wide variety of games with a special focus on Boccia. We encourage all students to play and participate in games as well as encouraging them to follow sporting activities as spectators. A part time teacher of Physical Education makes links with organisations in our community such as Cork Sports Partnership.

Horticulture

In our school, we teach pupils that gardening is fun and we tailor tasks to suit individuals and groups. We participate in a number of programmes which focus on horticulture and the environment and encourage our students to taste the wide variety of plants that we grow.

We have a number of garden spaces. Our rockery, renovated by Mainport Holdings, is used for fun and games but also for mobility projects. Our four raised beds (provided by Novartis), are used for class projects and by our Home Economics teacher when teaching students about growing foods to eat. We have a specially planted sensory garden at our back wall and a number of pots with seasonal plants are scattered throughout our garden. Our students love feeding the birds.