Horseleap National School win Cycling Ireland’s Active School Week competition





Students of Horseleap National School enjoyed a day full of cycling with Irish rider Lara Gillespie.


Earlier in the week, Horseleap National School received a visit from Cycling Ireland and top Irish rider Lara Gillespie as a reward for creating the most creative obstacle course during Active School Week and winning Cycling Ireland’s competition. As part of the reward, the school also won a free Sprocket Rocket skills taster session with a Cycling Ireland coach. 


The competition ran from May 3-6 where schools could utilise the video resources to create their own obstacle course. Cycling Ireland encouraged schools to get as creative as possible when designing their obstacle course, making use of whatever equipment they had available. 


Róisín Hickey from Cycling Ireland said,

“We were delighted to see so many schools enter our obstacle course competition during Active School Week. We provided schools with video resources on how to set up an obstacle course and set them the challenge of creating the most creative course. Obstacle courses are a great way to help children develop the four fundamental skills of cycling – Balance, Braking, Cornering and Pedalling while also learning bike handling skills. The stations of an obstacle course can be easily adapted depending on child’s level, making them simpler or more challenging. 
“Horseleap National School put in a huge amount of effort in creating their obstacle course and we would like to congratulate the students and teachers on winning our competition.”   


During the visit, the students recreated their winning obstacle course and enjoyed the morning practicing each station of the course under the guidance of Cycling Ireland coach Róisín Hickey and Irish rider Lara Gillespie. Students from junior infants right up to 6th class all got involved with two students learning how to cycle on the day. The teachers even put their skills to the test around the obstacle.



After lunch, the students gathered around for a Q&A session with Lara Gillespie. There was no shortage of questions as the students were keen to find out all about how medals Lara has won, how she got into cycling and much more. Lara has represented Ireland in track, road and cyclocross, and has a Junior World Championship bronze medal and six European Championship medals, one gold and five silver to her. The young rider from Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow has claimed 20 National Championship titles in cycling, four of which are elite titles and has also claimed silver in the 10km Time Trial at the European Youth Olympics Festival. 




Áine Groarke, principal of Horseleap National School said,

“The pupils enjoyed themselves immensely and Róisín and her team were so patient and helpful to them. It was great to see the progress they made over the course of the day. We had a lot of delighted mammies and daddies at hometime!”

Áine added,

“Lara is an inspiration, she interacted so well with all the pupils. We will be following her career closely now.” 


The day finished off with a Sprocket Rocket skills taster session with Róisín Hickey, where the students could work on improving the fundamental skills of cycling – Balance, Braking, Cornering and Pedalling while also learning bike handling skills.