Some of the students from O Fiaich College who took part in the Sky Sports Living for Sport project
O Fiaich College in Dundalk have been announced as the overall winner of the Sky Sports Living For Sport Project of the Year award for Ireland and the UK.
The announcement was made on Sky Sports News yesterday, with students set to collect their awards at a ceremony in London this weekend.
A statement from the school said: “This is an amazing achievement and one which the school are very proud of.
“Considering over 1,700 schools took part in the project, it makes this recognition all the more amazing. The group will now collect their awards on Saturday in London and then meet some world famous athlete mentors. We are all so proud.”
Having noticed an increase in behavioural problems and students lacking motivation and self-belief within school, O’Fiaich College set up a Sky Sports Living for Sport project to encourage goal-setting and raise motivation levels.
At the start of the project, each student set their own goal and outlined how they planned on improving themselves both physically and behaviourally in the coming 10 weeks. Each Wednesday, the group worked on a different sport – from rugby union and football to boxing and tennis – and the students’ involvement and enthusiasm throughout was unprecedented compared with any previous extra-curricular activity the school had carried out.
By the end of the 10 weeks, all 19 students had improved their attendance in school and have since steered clear of any kind of misbehaviour. One student whose attendance was only 20% before getting involved with Sky Sports Living for Sport was particularly affected and did not miss a single day throughout the project.
The valuable like skills which all of the students picked up throughout have been put into practice outside of the project, too, and the whole group now has a more mature outlook on life.
O Fiaich’s Brendan O’Malley was also nominated for the Sky Sports Teacher of the Year award.
