Creating positive environments in primary school

At the beginning of the school year, an Amber Flag committee was formed in order to organise activities and events. The committee consisted of student representatives from the junior and senior ends of the school, along with teacher representatives. We decided that our aim would be to organise an event each month to boost positivity and focus on wellbeing. We met once a month to discuss our progress and to plan activities that would be undertaken during that month.

Throughout the year, we organised World Mental Health Day, World Kindness Day, Christmas Jumper Day, Inside Out Day, Lá Glas, Wellbeing Week and Friendship Day. We organised a number of different activities to focus on community involvement: Virtual Christmas Concert, Inside Out Day and a Virtual St Patrick’s Day Parade. We held two fundraisers over the course of the year, one in aid of Pieta, where we raised a total of €636, and one for St Vincent De Paul, where we raised €1,010.

As a result of the pandemic, we felt that many children were missing out on celebrating their birthdays with family and friends. Therefore, we decided to hold a birthday party within each class on the last Friday of each month to celebrate all children who have had their birthdays in that month. The class teachers provided fun games and activities along with a party atmosphere. We also had music playing at break times on the yard.

In order to focus on staff wellbeing, we decided that each staff member would be in charge of bringing in a treat for the staff room on a Friday.

Setting up the Amber Flag committee has been very beneficial to the children and staff in our school. Through our Amber Flag work, we created a safe, positive and healthy attitude towards our physical and mental health and wellbeing. By organising all the activities and events throughout the year, the children received education on how to understand and look after their mental health. The children learned useful strategies to help them cope with their feelings. All the children were encouraged to be bucket fillers and realise that one kind word can change someone’s entire day. We created a positive school climate where all the students and staff felt valued, cared for and respected.

We were delighted to win the Best Programme Activity category in Walk in My Shoes’ Mission Possible school achievement awards for all our hard work and dedication throughout the year.