We are working towards our very first Active School Flag.
The Active School Flag (ASF) is an initiative from the Department of Education and
Skills supported by Healthy Ireland. The Active School Flag is awarded to schools that strive to achieve a physically educated and physically active school community.
ASF is an ambitious whole school process. In order to succeed, and to ensure that the benefits of ASF reach into every classroom, it is important that staff, students and parents commit to support, promote and actively engage with the process.
November
We have all been taking part in the Active Break Every Day Challenge. Each day, Junior Infants - 6th Class take part in a movement break, lead by an Irish olympic athlete. We've had olympic boxers, swimmers, break-dancers and rugby players showing us the importance of regular movement breaks. Movement breaks can support students in maintaining concentration and attention in the classroom, regulating energy levels and can increase productivity within the classroom. And most importantly, they're lots of fun!
December
We held an Active School Slogan Competition to come up with a brand new slogan that will represent our school. It was so hard to pick a winner as all the children put in such amazing effort!
Well done to Hannea Avelino (1st place) , Jessica Murphy Ly (2nd place) , and Daniel Moffett (3rd place).
January
Congratulations to those who were chosen for our Active School Committee; Moriah (JI), Eliana (SI), Theodore (1st), Holly (2nd), Mason (3rd), Jason (4th), Lisa (5th) and Christina (6th).
The committee will be working hard to come up with lots of fun ways we can keep our school active between now and the summer holidays. We can't wait to see some of their great ideas being put into action!
February
The Active School Committee have been very busy this month organising games for everyone to play during lunch on Fridays. We’ve had a range of games from Duck, Duck, Goose to Banana Split. We’ve had a lot of fun and will continue with these games for the rest of term. Well done to the committee for all their organising and planning! 
April
We were very lucky to have a table tennis coach come into school and teach us how to play. Thank you to Monaghan Sports Partnership for providing us with this opportunity. All of the children really enjoyed it! 
May
We have had a very busy month! We have been keeping active with gymnastics every Wednesday and swimming on Fridays. We also did a cycling workshop with Garda James. He taught us how to cycle our bikes correctly and safely.
June
June has been a fun month for the Active School Committee, with Active School Week from the 10th - 14th of June. On Monday, we went to the playground. On Tuesday we did stations in the yard, which were led by the Active School Committee. On Wednesday we did gymnastics, on Thursday we did dance with Lesley and on Friday we had our school trip to Todd's Leap. What a fun week we had!
September
We started off the year with lots of fun activities! We love to make use of our local park so we were very grateful to Monaghan Sports Partnership and Castleblayney Adventure Centre for taking us Kayaking on Lough Major. We had such a beautiful day for it!
December
We all dressed up in our Christmas clothes and did our annual ‘Christmas Walk to School’. Not only was this a great way to get active first thing in the morning, but we also raised some money for a local charity. Well done everyone!
March
We celebrated ‘Odd Socks Day’ this month so we used this as a great excuse to get active! Well done to the Active School Committee for organising some of our fun activities throughout the day.
April
This month we completed our ‘Skip Around the World Challenge’. Every day, we went outside and skipped for 5 minutes. 1 skip was the equivalent of 1km. By the end of our challenge, we added up everyone’s skip-count, and we had skipped a total of over 7000km, which was the same distance as Ballybay Central to Mount Everest in Nepal! What an achievement! Well done to the Active School Committee for totting up everyone's skips.
June
We held our annual Sports Day this month, and what a beautiful day we got for it! We did relay races, class races, parachute games, stations and so much more! Well done to the Active School Committee for organising some of the activities.
New Year, New Committee and New Slogan!
We held a slogan competition to decide on our new school slogan and our new Active School Committee.
Congratulations to Erin Bann in 5th class who won the slogan competition with her fantastic slogan ‘You Don’t Need a Prize to Exercise’.
Congratulations to our new Active School Committee: Henry (JI), Hannah (SI), Harper (1st Class), Jamilia (2nd Class), Ivy (3rd Class), Daniel (4th Class), Emmanuel (5th Class) and Amelia (6th Class).
October
We have had a very active month in Ballybay Central. We began the month with some rugby coaching from Will Arkell (Monaghan Rugby Club). For some, this was the first time they had played rugby, but the children all really enjoyed it and learned a lot of new skills. We hope to have Will back for more rugby coaching in the New Year.
We also completed a very wet, but nonetheless enjoyable 5km walk around Ballybay. The Active School Committee wore high-vis vests and ensured we were safe when crossing roads. Well done everyone!
February
Children from 4th - 6th Class participated in the Changemakers Cross-Border Schools project with thanks to The Speedwell Trust. This project began with a fun-filled day of activities in Parkanaur forest with the children from St. Mary's PS, Granemore, Armagh, which included orienteering and team-building games.
March
We ended the term with a very active Easter egg hunt around the school. Children had to team up with a child from another class and search all around the school grounds for the Easter egg with their name on it. They couldn't return to base until they found theirs and their partner's egg. The children enjoyed the exercise and they were delighted with their reward at the end! 
