St. Mary's College Naas is Ireland's fittest school

A Naas second level school has been adjudged the fittest in Ireland.

St. Mary’s College is the overall winner of ‘Ireland’s fittest school’ in the Irish Life health schools’ fitness challenge and was  also been named ‘Ireland’s fittest girls’ school’ in an awards ceremony held in Dublin yesterday Monday, February 11.

Now in its eighth year, over 200,000 students have participated in the event, making it the largest national multi-year surveillance study on the fitness of secondary school children in Ireland.

It focuses on preventive and proactive healthcare and shows that small steps through a six-week fitness programme can make real, impactful changes through increasing fitness levels by an average of 10%.

According to Irish Live participation in the fitness challenge drops by over 80% after third-year and the fitness levels among girls decreases dramatically from first to sixth year.

The challenge demonstrates that a six-week fitness programme improves children’s fitness levels by an average of 10%.