Wellbeing- The Amber Flag Initiative

‘Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day’    Dalai Lama

Following numerous years of success with initiatives such as the Green Flag and the Active Flag, within our school, we have decided to focus on promoting positive Mental Wellbeing over the next number of years.

In order to promote positive mental health and well-being  we have decided to take part in the Amber Flag Initiative. This involves the whole school community coming together in other to create a safe, positive and healthy attitude towards our general physical and mental health and well-being

It is recognised in studies that positive mental health and well-being enables young people to lead fulfilling lives.

Home and family are recognised as the primary source of nurturing and support for children. However, mental health and well-being are recognised as everyone’s concern and involves the whole school community, parents/guardians and others involved in day to day school life.

Positive mental health for children is part of their overall health and is inextricably linked with Wellbeing.

Please see below helpful documents on

How to calm and support your child

And

Anxiety and Stress in Children

 

Wellbeing Poster Competition October 2021

Check out all the wonderful posters the children of Inver N.S. designed to show their understanding of Mental Health and Wellbeing. Well done boys and girls!

Introducing our Amber Committee

  • Erin Mills 6th Class
  • Kayla Ginnelly 5th class
  • Rhían King McGrath  4th class
  • Lorcán Keenaghan 3rd class
  • Peyton O Donnell 3rd class
  • Feagan Cullotty  2nd class
  • Paddy Doocey 1st class
  • Abbie Bourne Senior Infants

These children will be the ‘voices’ of the children in their classrooms and will also inform their class of decisions made by the committee, in the future.

They will help organise the timetable for Wellbeing week and a fundraiser (involving the whole community) both of which will  happen in Springtime when weather is better.

An Amber noticeboard has been set up in school and the winning posters have been displayed.

To commence the  Wellbeing initiative, each class will take part in the Fyffesfitsquad challenge, in school time, between now and April. Exercise and movement breaks have a significant  impact on mental wellbeing and we look forward to getting in some extra movement breaks between now and April. You can check out the site to read more information about it …there are some lovely recipies on there also! https://www.fyffesfitsquad.ie/

 

Positivity Pebbles

The children have done the most amazing job in decorating their Positivity Pebbles. Check out the wonderful words of encouragement below. These words will be placed by each family in different locations, spreading positivity throughout our community. Well done to all the boys and girls!!! Thank you to the wellbeing team for varnishing the pebbles.

 

Recipe Book 

As part of our Wellbeing promotion we decided to ask each family to contribute a recipe of choice to a school book of healthy recipes. Each family has received a copy of the book and we hope you have lots of fun cooking the delicious meals.

Please click on link to view book Recipe Book 1

Thank you to everyone who has contributed and to our Wellbeing team also for the lovely posters featured in the book.

Compliment Chain

To promote self positivity amongst the children, each child has been writing a compliment about themselves every Friday in class. This will continue up to Easter when each child will link their strips of paper to create a chain of self compliments. We look forward to seeing how many positive things we can say about ourselves. This exercise encourages children to reflect on their positive thoughts and actions and instil in them, hopefully, the habit of looking at their positive traits and perhaps set goals for future weeks.

 

Well-being Days March 14th-16th

To celebrate our wellbeing in school and raise money for Pieta House, the following activities took place:

Thank you most sincerely for your very generous donations to such a worthy cause.

Mindful Monday 14th  March take place: ·  Each class teacher incorporated mindfulness into their regular timetable through a PE lesson / Art / Colouring or sensory play.

·       Seed Planting

·       Mindful Music

  • Kinetic Sand
  • Rock painting
  • Walk to beach
 

Together Tuesday 15th

March

 

·   Wholeschool Céilí to mark Seachtain na Gaeilge

·    ‘Together we Stand’ song – all children singing together (a few Irish songs for Seachtain na Gaeilge)

·     Kahoot Quiz Mixed teams (combination of Irish /English questions)

     * Mindful Drawing/colouring

  • Mindfulness Powerpoint

Mfitness  Exercise Class

Junior Room 12:45- 1.10pm

Free Parent Mfitness class 1.20pm – 1.50 pm

Middle Room 1:50pm – 2.20pm

Senior Room 2.20pm – 2.50pm

 

Wellbeing Wednesday 16th March March4Mental Health Fundraiser * & A surprise

The whole school took  a trip to Bellinaboy Woods for a walk. Children were encouraged to wear green to represent green thoughts. We are trying to encourage children to change red thoughts (negative) to green thoughts (positive) when possible. Red thoughts are ok to have but not helpful to us. Green thoughts are helpful. Eg I can’t do this (red) . I can try my best (green).

Ice cream Van treat for everyone

Below is a little snapshot of some of the activities.

 

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