County Galway’s Caltra National School has been crowned ‘Ireland’s Fittest School 2026’.
Following its participation in a two-month competition, in which hundreds of schools from all over Ireland, north and south, took part, Caltra National School went on to win the live ‘grand final’ in which the top school from each of the Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster provincial finals featured.
The grand final, which took place at the Athlone International Arena, was hosted by one of Ireland’s best-known Olympians – sprinter David Gillick – and saw the four schools contest for a prize package which included €8,000 worth of sports equipment.
Supported by Irish fruit importer Fyffes and tracked online, the purpose of the competition, launched last December and now in its fifth year, was to promote the importance of exercise, fitness and healthy eating amongst young people. A central feature of the programme was a series of exercise routines which competing schools could adopt as part of their PE curriculum and against which performance could be measured. Previous competition winners were Donegal’s Scoil Na Croise Naofa, Dunfanaghy (2022); Meath’s Gilson National School, Oldcastle (2023); County Waterford’s St. Mary’s Touraneena National School (2024) and Cork’s Ballyhass National School (2025).
Congratulating the pupils, teachers and staff of all the schools, throughout the island, who took part in this year’s competition, Fyffes head of marketing UK and Ireland, Emma Hunt-Duffy thanked all involved for their ‘commitment, enthusiasm and support’, adding “it was wonderful to see so many teachers and young pupils incorporate the exercises into their PE classes as a means to keep fit, but more so, we really enjoyed seeing them having so much fun doing it”.
Details at www.fyffesfittestschool.ie
