Hello, and welcome to the Sligo Education Centre Virtual Sports Day Resource.

My name is Daragh McDaid, and I’m the director of Sligo Education Centre. Our tutor team, Eanna Casey and Adrian Ormsby, have developed this resource as part of a Live Webinar Series, which is being rolled out across the Education Centre network during the school closure period. As we near the end of the final term, we all know that Sports Day is a day that many children look forward to at the end of the school year. Sadly, this year they will not get the opportunity to enjoy this day. We wanted to provide schools with a way of bringing the fun and excitement of sports day to the homes of children.

By attending our Virtual Sports Day Live Webinar, the teacher will get access to a step by step guide, on how you can host a Virtual Sports Day in your school. Eanna and Adrian have put together a suite of resources including detailed explanations with downloads, explainer videos, music playlists and lists of household items which can be substituted for the normal equipment you might find in your school. A number of the activities we have used reference the Move Well Move Often Resource, and I would like to thank the Professional Development Service for Teachers for giving us permission to use their resource for some of the activities.

We want to make this resource accessible to every school and family, hopefully turning that end of year sports day in to a reality for the children, and bringing some well needed happiness to children in these challenging times.

About the Tutors

Éanna Casey is a primary school teacher in Rehins National School, Ballina, Co. Mayo. He teaches 5th class and has worked as a PE associate with the PDST Wellbeing team since 2015. Éanna has played a central role in the role out of the Move Well Move Often Programme focused on the importance fundamental movement skills to schools over recent years.

Adrian Ormsby is a primary teacher and teaching principal of Holy Angels NS, Clogher, Claremorris, Co. Mayo. Adrian has worked with the PDST Technology in Education team in recent years delivering summer courses and creating term time courses for teachers in conjunction with Sligo Education Centre.

Together during lockdown they both combined their various skill sets to create this resource to be used by schools, families and children nationwide.