Wellbeing Committee:
Introducing our Wellbeing Committee members and their roles:
Let’s take a look at what we mean by Wellbeing:
The aim of Cloonakilla NS Wellbeing Committee is to support the overall wellbeing of students, staff and the school community – with an emphasis on mental, physical and emotional health.
Throughout December, the wellbeing committee designed and organised a Wellbeing Advent Calendar for the whole school. This included lots of different activities to support the wellbeing of both students and staff at Cloonakilla NS – Campfire Shared Reading with Junior Classes, Christmas Jumper Day, Secret Santa, Pass the Parcel and The Great Christmas Joke Off to name but a few!
Here is our Advent Wellbeing Calendar:
We have developed a Wellbeing display board in the school corridor also:
Term 1 2024/25-Amber Flag Updates
Gerard Tiernan, Pieta House, joined the Amber Flag Committee in raising their 2nd Amber Flag. This is a Pieta House initiative which promotes and develops positive mental health in our schools. Mr Tiernan urged the pupils to take some time in their daily lives to get some exercise and to take a break from their phones and social media platforms.
A new Amber Flag Committee was elected in October. The committee comprises of Mary Kate Kinneavy, Ellen Curley, Matthew Brydone, Kai Costello McCormack, Lauren Dully, Rachael Sammon Egan, Dylan Connolly, Mollie Rafferty, Sarah Brennan & Alicia Lapa. So far this year they have updated the Wellbeing Noticeboard and spun the Wellbeing Wheel each Wednesday. They have also visited the Junior Classes to explain how the Buddy Benches work. The Amber Flag Committee will soon organise a Christmas Calendar and intend to use our Christmas Concerts as a part fundraiser for Pieta House. Other monies will go towards enhancing wellbeing resources in each classroom.
Amber Flag
Mental health education is extremely important for our children. At Cloonakilla NS we participate annually in the Amber Flag initiative.
The Amber Flag is a mental health initiative designed to help schools and clubs promote positive mental health within the educational system.
This is our 6th year of participation in the Amber Flag initiative at Cloonakilla NS. We received our first Amber Flag in 2017/18…we were the first school in Roscommon to receive one! We renewed our flag in 2018/19 and began the process again in 2019/20 but we had to roll the planned goals over into this year, 2020/21, due to the Covid 19 school closures from March to June.
We have created an Amber Flag notice-board in the school which is kept up to date by the pupils on the committee. We have hosted debates relating to mental health topics, had positive messages posted on the school intercom and in the library and we have created the Wellbeing section on the school website. We have held mindfulness and wellbeing sessions in the library and had colouring competitions for the younger children. We had speakers into the school from Pieta. We put a new Buddy Bench in the junior infant yard.