Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, as the Oireachtas Friends of Science, we had the pleasure of engaging with the winners of the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, Shane O'Connor and Liam Carew, on their deep research into the relationship between exercise and student resilience in schools. Essentially, they found that a DEIS school they looked at which implemented half an hour of informal activity three days a week, including basketball, badminton and tag football, was brought from the bottom quadrant to the top quadrant in the survey results and research findings. Children felt they were being more included, that it was improving school culture and that they had better relationships with their teachers. I know they are engaging with the Minister, Deputy Foley, but there is definitely a policy which could be implemented on this in all our schools because there is a significant fall-off in exercise, particularly in the junior and senior cycles, among kids not involved in school sports formally.

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