County Cork’s Ballyhass National School has been crowned Fyffes Ireland’s Fittest School 2025, following an outstanding performance in a nationwide fitness initiative involving hundreds of schools from across Ireland, both north and south.
After successfully progressing through a 10 week competition, Ballyhass National School advanced to the live grand final, where the top performing schools from the Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster provincial finals went head to head. The grand final took place at the Athlone International Arena and was hosted by Olympian David Gillick, alongside Fitness Coach Sharon Flanagan.
The four finalist schools competed for an impressive prize package that included €8,000 worth of sports equipment, designed to support ongoing physical activity and healthy lifestyles within schools.
The competition, now in its fourth year, is supported by Irish fruit importer Fyffes and tracked online. Its core aim is to promote the importance of exercise, fitness and healthy eating among young people. A key element of the programme is a series of structured exercise routines that schools can integrate into their PE curriculum, allowing performance to be measured over time.
Previous winners of the competition include Scoil Na Croise Naofa, Dunfanaghy in County Donegal in 2022, Gilson National School, Oldcastle in County Meath in 2023, and St. Mary’s Touraneena National School in County Waterford in 2024.
Ballyhass teacher Tracey Cremin said:
“We’re absolutely over the moon to be named Fyffes Ireland’s Fittest School 2025. The entire experience has been incredibly beneficial to our school – not just in terms of physical activity, but also in building teamwork and school spirit. We’re delighted our hard work paid off!”
