Scoil Fionntáin Naofa, Shanahoe has been awarded their first ‘Amber Flag’ from Pieta House for promoting positive mental health and wellbeing across the school in 2024-2025.
The Board of Management, staff, pupils and parents of the school all fully acknowledge that wellbeing is both an enabler of learning and an outcome of learning, and to that end all of the different stakeholder groups, as aforementioned, work in collaboration to ensure that mental health and wellbeing promotion is given a central focus in and across the school.
Scoil Fionntáin Naofa’s hardworking and proactive Student Council which is comprised of representatives from Infants to 6th Class, had a dual role to play this year.
They also assumed the role of the Amber Flag Committee, known as ‘the wellbeing warriors’, and to that end, pupil participation and pupil voice was front and centre in the promotion of positive mental health and wellbeing across the school and in turn in achieving the school’s first ‘Amber Flag’.
The ‘Amber Flag’ initiative at school level was coordinated by school Principal, Mr Barry Whelan, Deputy Principal.
Mr Johnny Watson, has responsibility for School Self-Evaluation (SSE) for Wellbeing together with ‘Active Schools’, and his work in these domains dovetailed very nicely with the school’s goal of achieving an ‘Amber Flag’ this year.
Sports, fitness and daily activity are all prioritised within the school as being enablers of wellbeing, as espoused in the new ‘Primary Curriculum Framework’ (2023), in which Physical Education rightly falls under the umbrella of ‘Wellbeing’ in the new subject specifications therein.
The ‘Amber Flag’ committee in consultation and collaboration with other pupils and staff set key targets in and for their application for an ‘Amber Flag’ in the school year 2024-2025.
Target 1 centred around practising mindfulness and meditation on a daily basis across all classes in the school.
All teachers and SNA staff availed of continuous professional development as part of Croke Park Hours in the school year 2023-2024 in the practice of ‘Christian Meditation’ with Dr Noel Keating.
Over the course of this school year (2024-2025), all classes have been implementing ‘Christian Mediation’ to great effect.
Every class practises it directly after ‘big lunch’ each day on return from the yard.
It has a positive and calming effect on the pupils and in turn helps them to focus and self-regulate for the last block of the day.
The school plans to maintain and build on this very worthwhile practice going forward, as it is really paying dividends in terms of enhancing pupil personal wellbeing.
Target 2 was to hold a fundraiser to support Pieta House and the excellent work that they do in promoting and supporting positive mental health and wellbeing across the country.
This fundraiser took the form of an ‘Amber Awareness Day’ at whole school level on ‘Blue Monday’ (January 20).
‘Amber Awareness Day’ also had a dual purpose of dispelling the Winter blues and injecting light, on what is universally acknowledged as being one of the lowest and darkest days of the calendar year.
On the day in question, all pupils came to school dressed in Amber clothing and in turn made a donation to Pieta House.
To this end, €182.50 was collected on the day in support of the excellent work that Pieta House does.
Target 3 of the ‘Amber Flag’ application for the school year 2024-2025 was based on having a common daily wellbeing focus across all classes.
The Amber Flag committee, the ‘wellbeing warriors’, themselves devised the focus of/for each day to include, ‘Mindful Monday’, ‘Thoughtful Tuesday’, ‘Wellbeing Wednesday’, ‘Talk about it Thursday’ and ‘Friendly Feelings Friday’.
The Amber Flag committee actively promoted this daily focus across all classes on a weekly basis and also at the school’s monthly ‘Teacht le Chéiles’ in which all classes were in attendance.
As the year progressed, both pupils and staff alike came to internalise the daily focus and in turn ensured that adequate time and space was given to fulfil its core purpose in their respective classes and settings.
Target 4 focused on facilitating daily movement breaks across all classes in the school to improve general wellbeing, focus and attention.
This target was predicated on the old adage ‘a healthy body is a healthy mind’.
The target also integrated seamlessly with one of the goals promoted on an ongoing basis by the school’s ‘Amber Flag’ committee in terms of reducing sedentary time in all classes on a daily basis.
For the most part, these daily movement breaks took place ‘al fresco’ (even during the Winter months), capitalising on the school’s spacious grounds and features therein such as the natural play area, soft playground area and ‘Active Walkway’.
In addition to this, the ‘Active Schools’ committee under the guidance and direction of Mr Johnny Watson (Deputy Principal and Active Schools Coordinator) organised the ‘Skip Around Europe Challenge’ for two weeks before Easter this year and two weeks after, and all classes used this challenge to great effect as their daily movement break during this period.
The school’s participation in this challenge culminated in Scoil Fionntáin Naofa being the Laois school to be awarded a climbing wall in a national competition organised by the ‘Active Schools’ initiative which saw one school in each county in Ireland being selected as the lucky recipients of a climbing wall for their school grounds.
This climbing wall will be installed over the Summer months and will be a fantastic ‘active addition’ to the school grounds for the pupils on their return to school in the Autumn.
On very wet days (which were few and far between), daily movement breaks were facilitated indoors using platforms such as ‘Go Noodle’. Owing to the inherent benefits of the daily movement breaks, the school has every intention of maintaining the practice going forward.
Target 5 was to hold an inaugural whole school ‘Wellbeing and Mental Health Week’ at the end of March 2025.
Each of the school’s five teachers took responsibility for organising a wellbeing related day across the week to include:
- Monday: Mindfulness and Meditation
- Tuesday: Physical Activity to promote wellbeing
- Wednesday: Giving Compliments & ‘Compliment Circles’
- Thursday: ‘Finding Our Happy Place’
- Friday: Yoga, Mindfulness and Meditation activities with an external tutor namely, Ms. Áine Loveland of the ‘Yoga Fairy’.
The inaugural ‘Wellbeing and Mental Health Week’ was a great success and a very positive experience for the entire school community and to that end the school plans to make it an annual event in their school calendar.
Owing to the very positive impact of the mindfulness, meditation and yoga sessions provided on the Friday of wellbeing week, Ms Áine Loveland of the ‘Yoga Fairy’ will be returning to do a five week block of sessions for all classes at the beginning of the new school year (2025-2026) to help the pupils to reintegrate to school life following the Summer holidays.
Target 6 was to implement in full the ‘Friends for Life’ wellbeing and resilience building and anxiety prevention programme in 5th and 6th Classes in the school in terms 2 and 3 of the school year 2024-2025.
Mr Barry Whelan (Principal/5th & 6th Class teacher) was trained in the delivery of this programme in the school year 2023-2024 by the National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS).
Mr Whelan feels that participation in the ‘Friends for Life’ programme sets the senior room pupils up for success in terms of being able to manage and express their own emotions and this will hopefully stand them in good stead as they prepare to make the transition to post-primary where the educational landscape will be quite different to that in primary school.
Mr Whelan also received training in the ‘Fun Friends’ programme last year, and this was implemented in full in Infants and 1st class in term 3 of the school year 2023-2024.
The plan going forward is to upskill additional teachers in the delivery of the aforementioned programmes and to deliver them on a biennial basis at both the junior and senior ends of the school, to equip the pupils with the knowledge and skillset to manage and navigate emotional challenges if and when they present.
Pupil and parent feedback on both of the ‘Friends’ programmes has been very positive.
In addition to the above targets, wellbeing and positive mental health is also promoted across the school through the following means:
- An annual Anti-Bullying Week in November each year;
- Safer Internet Day in February each year;
- Participation in the ‘Food Dudes’ healthy eating programme on an annual basis. The school’s ‘Healthy Eating Policy’ was developed in consultation and collaboration with pupils, parents, staff and the Board of Management in the school year 2023-2024;
- A fortnightly or monthly wellbeing focus at whole school level i.e ‘Strength Spotting’, ‘Positive Affirmations’, ‘Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude’ , ‘Random Acts of Kindness’, ‘Fostering Empathy’ and ‘Positive Emotion Potions’, all of which were introduced and explained by the Amber Flag Committee at the monthly whole school ‘Teacht le Chéiles’ in Shanahoe Community Hall;
- Participation in the ‘Rock Your Socks Day’ in March to promote awareness and appreciation of Down Syndrome;
Celebration of ‘International Day of Happiness’ on 20th March; - Participation in ‘Rainbow Day’ activities in April to promote awareness and appreciation of Autism across the school;
- Inclusion and integration from the Sonas Autism Class which is mutually beneficial for both pupils in Sonas and those in the mainstream classes into which they integrate;
- Regular whole school ‘Teacht le Chéiles’ at which pupil successes and achievements are celebrated.
Furthermore, the school implements Restorative Practices approaches to dealing with conflict at school level.
All teaching staff in the school have now been trained in Restorative Practices (RP) approaches in conjunction with Laois Education Support Centre.
This training was availed of in the school years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, respectively. The pupils have been fully briefed on the ‘Restorative Questions to Address Harm’ which include:
- What happened?
- What were you thinking of at the time?;
- What have your thought about it since?;
- Who has been affected and in what way?;
- How could things have been done differently?;
- What do you think needs to happen next?
These questions are displayed throughout the school and are regularly revised and reinforced in class and at whole school ‘Teacht le Chéiles’.
‘Geraldine the Giraffe’ is the mascot for RP at school level. The giraffe is the mascot for RP on account of its long neck which affords it the ability to see things from the perspective of others (empathy) and its big heart which gives it the capacity to forgive if someone is truly sorry for their wrongdoings.
All of the pupils in the school are very familiar with Geraldine and what she espouses.
The school have formally adopted Restorative Practice (RP) approaches as a means of resolving issues and restoring relationships should incidences of bullying occur and this is set out in the school’s new ‘Bí Cineálta Anti-Bullying Policy’ which will come into effect from the beginning of the new school year 2025-2026.
Commenting on the ‘Amber Flag’ initiative at school level, Mr Barry Whelan said: “Participating in the Amber Flag initiative was a very worthwhile endeavour this year.
“Essentially, it gave wellbeing development and promotion a central focus in our school community.
“The formulation of specific targets together with associated actions for achieving them, made the pursuit of wellbeing across the school something collaborative, manageable, achievable, meaningful and purposeful for all concerned.
“The formulation of the Amber Flag committee ensured that pupil voice and participation was to the forefront at all times and to all intents and purposes the pupils led out on achieving the Amber Flag Award this year and they are to be highly commended in that regard.”
