Karl Gilligan: Fit for Fun programme manager, sets up fitness schedules in primary schools to encourage movement skills and health eating.
My working day is split between time spent in the office writing to schools about the Irish Rugby Football Union/Vhi Fit for Fun programme, carrying out the programme in schools and putting together feedback reports for these schools.
The programme - which is free for participating schools - first started in primary schools in Leinster in 2003.
One of the key objectives is to give children a sense of confidence in the movement ability and to encourage a more positive attitude towards exercise and sport.
The Vhi has been central in driving this programme and just recently, we have extended it to Connacht and soon we hope to extend it to Munster as well.
My job is to explain the programme to interested schools and then set it in motion. We run it specifically for fifth and sixth class pupils.
I give the first session of the programme, give teachers lesson plans for the following four and return for the sixth session. Each session lasts one hour per class.
In my first session, I introduce the pupils to movement skills and give them a series of fitness tests. For many boys and girls, it is their first time to have a fitness test. The boys enjoy the competitive element of being checked for fitness and the girls enjoy testing their flexibility.
The tests look at their height, their weight, their sit and reach abilities (sometimes we compare them to those of rugby international players such as Brian O'Driscoll and Paul O'Connell and this really gets them interested!) and their vertical jump capabilities.
The lesson plans for the teachers involve developing movement skills in children through hopping, jumping, catching, skipping and side-stepping.
Many children nowadays may be good at operating teletext without even looking at a television but not that many of them can play hopscotch. Of over 60 schools I have visited so far, I have only seen a few that have hopscotch marked out in the yard.
When I return for the last session of six, I do all the tests again so that we can compare the results. At the end of the six sessions, all the participants get a certificate.
Recently, we have also developed a nutritional booklet for parents with both healthy eating suggestions and lunchbox suggestions. In this, we also use the rugby international players as role models for healthy eating.
In the future, we hope to develop a programme so that children can practise the movement skills they learn on the programme at home.
After a morning working with pupils at a school, I return to the office to put the results together and explain in writing their significance to the teachers.
I enjoy the variety of my job and the feedback I get from the children. Studies show that by introducing exercise in a fun way, the children are more likely to continue to be involved in sport throughout their teenage years and adulthood, which is our overall aim.
Children are quite honest about what they do and what they eat so it's a great opportunity to encourage them to eat more fruit, drink enough of the right fluids, exercise more and at the same time have great fun.
(- Interview by Sylvia Thompson)