On Thursday January 21^st, Coláiste Chathail Naofa hosted the inaugural Multi School Sports Festival for the five local secondary schools in Dungarvan. The festival is part of a Multi School Sports Programme being led by sixteen Post Leaving Certificate (PLC) students at Coláiste Chathail Naofa and coordinated by Jason Ryan, PE teacher at the College. The Programme is being supported by Waterford Sports Partnership.

The aim of the Multi Sport Programme is to encourage first year students to experience a wide range of physical activities, the Programme focuses on seven main sports, Badminton, Basketball, Olympic Handball, Rounder’s, Tag Rugby, Table Tennis and Volleyball. The PLC students having received training from local development officers from the sports National governing bodies are responsible for organising and delivering the coaching for each of the seven sports.

Male and female first year students from Ard Scoil Na nDeise, Meanscoil San Nioclás, Christian Brothers, St Augustine’s and Coláiste Chathail Naofa took part in the Festival. Angela Walsh, PE teacher at St Augustine’s said ‘the Festival was very well organised and the students were kept active all day and really enjoyed the event. They are looking forward to the next phase already’.

Jason Ryan said, ‘The Multi Sports Schools Programme’ aims to provide a taste of various sports for first year pupils in the schools of Dungarvan. The sports are being led by the National Governing Bodies of each sport in conjunction with the Sport and Recreation PLC students from Coláiste Chathail Naofa. Training sessions are structured to be fun, enjoyable and educational’.

The second phase of the programme had the PLC students visiting each of the five secondary schools weekly to deliver training session in the seven sports to first year students. The programme has huge potential and whilst fostering great camaraderie between the local schools, it also has the benefit of showing students who may not enjoy team sports, different activities they can do to help them reach the recommended daily guideline for young people of sixty minutes of exercise per day. The programme concluded on Thursday 11^th March with the five schools taking part in a competition day run by the PLC students.