A school in Galway is celebrating the completion of a sensory walkway after taking up the Department of Education's Active School Flag challenge two years ago.
Parents, teachers and pupils got behind the project at Esker National School in Athenry and it has now grown into a multi-purpose facility.
This small rural school in East Galway nestles amongst the fields of Athenry in East Galway but the area is prone to flooding making the grounds unsuitable for regular, physical activity.
Now though, thanks to the efforts of the local community, there is a walkway in place surrounding the school pitch.
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The Active School Flag now flies proudly over Scoil Padraig Naofa in Esker.
Sean Monaghan, 6th class pupil of Esker National School said: "We get ten minutes every day to get out and run around on the walkway, we count our laps and are more or less competing with one another!"
"We're all about physical health and mental health in this school so the walk is a great initiative."
Siobhan McGillicuddy, teacher at Esker National School said: "It's an absolutely fantastic resource to have here in the school."
"It started 2 years ago when we decided to undertake the Active School Flag initiative and get involved in the daily mile challenge.
"As part of that initiative schools are required to set up a walkway within the school grounds.
"We have a beautiful rural location here with plenty of space but the pitch was liable to flood for a lot of the year so we had no suitable area.
"We put the dilemma to the parents and they got behind the project straight away."
Parents and the school community offered their skills, labour, machinery and spare time to complete the sensory walkway which has become an invaluable resource.
Furniture maker, Daniel Gill, whose children attend Esker National School built an outdoor classroom.
"I was delighted to help. They just needed seating and fencing and a big blackboard!
"I sourced timber locally and popped it together. This was a big community effort.
"Any of the parents who had kids in the school all helped in one way or another. This was a bare field only a year ago. Everyone really got stuck in. It was an amazing effort.
"Being able to give back to the school was really important to all the parents"
What started as a walkway has now become so much more. The school now has a bespoke outdoor classroom, a sand pit, areas of biodiversity and a buddy bench.
The junior infants play happily in the vegetable patches where outdoor movement is being nurtured and seeds planted for future well being.
"It obviously has many physical benefits so we can use it for orienteering, nature trails and our daily mile but also it's fantastic for social interaction so they use it just to have little chatty walks and also it promotes a wonderful sense of positive well being in school," said Paul Connell, Principal of Esker National School.
"Of course during Covid it was an amazing resource to have. When we weren't allowed to teach music and singing in the classroom, it was perfect to do it out her.
"It's a great achievement for the school and the local area, for the children to have a place to play, a place we can use winter and summer and we're very grateful for all the support we received from the local community to help build the project.
"The daily mile is something that we began during Covid and it gave the children a chance to get out, get some exercise, and get some movement into their lives, away from the classroom.
"Our outdoor classroom was invaluable during Covid when we were able to continue our lessons which we wouldn't have been able to continue inside such as singing, music and tin whistle classes."
Esker National School says the world of education has opened up beyond the classroom energising learning both indoors and outdoors.
