Ulster President Martin McAviney presented recently accredited clubs with their Club Maith certificates at a recent event in Ceannaras Uladh, Armagh.

Receiving their certificates are representatives from Augher St Macartans (Co. Tyrone), St Marys Burren (Co. Down), St Peters Warrenpoint (Co. Down), Tullylish (Co. Down), and St Treas Ballymaguigan (Co. Derry).

Martin congratulated the clubs for their efforts in “raising the standards within their clubs to a level of excellence”, and spoke of the importance of highlighting clubs in this way in order to encourage other clubs to also become accredited.

Clubs wishing to become involved in Club Maith should visit the Club Maith website on www.ulster.gaa.ie/club-maith for all the information they need to begin the process.

Tyrone Key Stage 1 Coaches recently ran a number of Successful Christmas Activity Days to help enter the children and Teachers of Tyrone into the Christmas spirit.

The days were ran in five locations throughout Tyrone, namely Sacred Heart College Omagh, Holy Cross School Strabane, St Ciarans College Ballygawley, Trillick Leisure Centre and Torrent Leisure Centre Donaghmore. The days were a great success and catered for over 630 children over the different areas.

At each venue the children took part in Christmas themed stations such as Snowmen Dodge, Christmas Shopping, Christmas puzzles and present pile up. While doing the stations the children were able to listen along to their favourite Christmas song which helped them know when to start and finish their station. Each of the stations were fun but also helped practice the skills they had been learning in our PE lessons.

These days were able to be a success as we enlisted the help of GCSE Students at the Secondary School venues and P5, 6 and 7 pupils from St Scires Trillick and St Patricks Donaghmore at the Leisure Centre venues. This helped give the Primary school pupils some responsibility but also some valuable experience for the Secondary School pupils as they go forward in their chosen path of sport.

At each venue we invited Local photographers to come along and help highlight the great work being done in their local area through the KS1 Curriculum Sports Programme.

Over 700 children from schools across Co. Down participated in Christmas Fun Days as part of the Curriculum Sports Programme.

To the tune of some suitably festive music, the children from St Patricks PS, St Ronans PS and St Claires Abbey PS in Newry as well as St Marys PS in Killyleagh had the opportunity to enjoy some special Christmas themed activities working on some of their Fundamental Movement Skills.

For some of the Primary 4 children it was the culmination of a homework project whereby they had to design their own activity using some of the fundamentals equipment frequently used in PE. Indeed, some of these activities made it into our fun days.

Both the children and teachers enjoyed the events and it was an ideal way to get into the Christmas spirit with fabulous sportsmanship on display. A huge thank you to the children who took part and the teachers and schools for making the events possible.

Ulster GAA recently purchased a number of sports wheelchairs to assist the development of the Wheelchair Hurling initiative.

There are currently four training hubs in Belfast, Craigavon, Enniskillen & Derry. The Ulster inter-provincial wheelchair hurling team, recently crowned 2015 National League champions, is made up of players selected from these hubs.

From Monday 7th December to Friday 11th December Ulster GAA Active club coordinators will be delivering a wheelchair hurling road-show around a number of secondary schools across the province to allow able bodied participants the opportunity to try out the game and experience sport in a wheelchair.

Some of the schools include, St Marys Clady, St Aidans Derrylin, Holy Family Cootehill, St Catherines Armagh, St Pauls Bessbrook, St Malachys Belfast and Aquinas Belfast.

The road-show leads up to the All-Ireland Championship event that will be held on Saturday 12th December at IT Blanchardstown where the Ulster squad will compete.

For more information on the Ulster GAA Wheelchair Hurling initiative, contact Shane McCann (shane.mccann.ulster@gaa.ie)

Ulster GAA, Ulster Camogie and Ulster Ladies Gaelic in conjunction with The Northern Ireland Anti-Bullying Forum (NIABF) and the Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU), called on all units of the Association to take part in Anti-Bullying Week between 16th and 22nd November 2015. This year’s theme for the campaign was “What Bullying Means to Me” which looks at the definition of bullying, helping us to understand it as a ‘repeated use of power, intentionally to harm, hurt and adversely affect the rights and needs of another or others.’

The GAA Tackling Bullying Programme is a resource developed by the GAA to provide assistance at club level in dealing with incidents of Bullying. It consists of a two-hour training workshop suitable for Coaches, Parents, Players and other Club personnel and also includes a range of publicity materials for Clubs. It is a fantastic resource available to all clubs, and during the workshop, participants will be equipped with tools that will enable them to identify, prevent and resolve incidents of Bullying that may occur in their clubs. Bullying is an issue that causes many problems within our clubs and communities, and we encourage all clubs to formally adopt the Anti Bullying Policy at Club Executive, and to help create a culture within the association where this type of behavior is not acceptable, and is regarded as serious breaches of the Code of Behaviour and shall be dealt with accordingly.

<strong>Cyber Bullying</strong> – This is bullying behaviour that takes place via mobile phone or through the internet via email/instant messaging/social networking sites/Texts/messages or images that are sent or posted on sites, which hurt, intimidate or embarrass another person. Cyber Bullying is no different from any other forms of bullying in that the behaviour is the same and the impact no less devastating, and therefore incidents of cyber bullying should be treated as though they happened in real time.

If you are aware of someone being cyberbullied, please consider the following:
• Listen and learn about what has been going on, for how long, where it has been taking place and what exactly has been happening. If you are not their parent/guardian ensure you make them aware of the situation.
• Suggest that they do not open messages from the addresses/numbers but allow you/parent/guardian to open them instead.
• Consider changing their mobile number and restrict access to the number.
• Changing online profile log in and passwords, and using the ‘reporting’ feature that is available on most social media sites asking for offending messages and photos to be removed. Ensure that online profiles are made private and only shared with friends. Restrict what can be posted to your profile until after you have given permission.
• Involve other agencies if necessary, including PSNI/Childline or NSPCC.
• Support the young person, your initial reaction is vital – Listen, Learn, Involve and Resolve.

<strong>Our Games – Our Code</strong>, the Code of Best Practice in Youth Sport for the GAA includes the Anti- Bullying Policy, which aims to adopt a whole organisational approach to addressing bullying and provides advice and support to clubs in the area of Safeguarding. We remind all clubs to implement the Code of Behaviour with all relevant personnel in your club including players/coaches/committee members/parents/referees and supporters at the start of each season. It is also appropriate at this time of year to remind you to make sure that all those working with children and young people in your club have been appropriately trained and adequately vetted prior to commencing work in the club.

For more information or to organise a workshop in your area or club, please contact (028) 3752 1900 / bernie.fox.ulster@gaa.ie

This campaign was very successfully implemented across Ulster, with Counties, Clubs and members getting behind and supporting Anti-Bullying week. We thank you for your continued work and support in this area and encourage you to keep the Anti-Bullying message going throughout the year.