Amber Flag

What is the Amber Flag?

“The Pieta Amber Flag Initiative recognises the individual efforts of primary and secondary schools, youth reach, third level institutions, community groups, clubs and companies to create healthy, inclusive environments that support mental well-being.

Uniting these groups in their efforts, working toward a happier, healthier Ireland and eradicate the stigmas associated with mental health issues.

The Pieta Amber Flag initiative enables schools and youth groups across the country to raise awareness of the stigmas which exist in their environments, and the stressors on the mental and emotional wellbeing of those within them”.

https://www.pieta.ie/how-we-can-help/prevention-programmes/amber-flag-initiative/

Our Amber Flag Journey 2022/23

Term 3

Wellness Week marks a special week in our School Year. This year Wellness Week took place from 2/5/23 - 5/5/23. We had a busy week planned;

We completed the Barnardos Big Active Challenge, by engaging in the Daily Mile Challenge from JI - 6th Class.
Pupils from 1st - 6th Class participated in Mindfulness Sessions, which will continue to take place for 6 weeks. These will be held by Marie Cronnelly, a registered practitioner with the Mindful Heart Curriculum.
Pupils in Junior and Senior Infants took part in Yoga Sessions with their Class Teachers.
All pupils completed a number of Mindfulness tasks with their Teachers and looked at videos and posters which promoted discussion around Mental Health and Wellbeing.

Senior Infants practiced Yoga on our Astro Turf.

1st and 2nd Class made some healthy smoothies!

4th Class took their learning outdoors during Wellness Week.

5th Class enjoyed taking part in the Daily Mile.

Term 2

This Term, we focused on the ‘body’ component of the Barnardos ‘Big Active’ Campaign. This followed on from Term 1, where pupils turned their attention to their ‘mind’ and completed their own wellness journals. In January we kicked off the ‘body’ element of the campaign, with Drop Everything and Dance, every Friday. See below a selection of songs and videos that were used. Click on the time of each song to play.

00:21-03:50 KIDZ BOP Shuffle
03:51-07:00 Fight Song
07:01-10:11 Best Day Of My Life
10:12-13:45 Want U Back
13:36-17:13 Good Feeling
17:14-19:36 Make Some Noise!
19:37-23:08 Break Free
23:09-26:49 Love Runs Out
26:50-30:27 Summer
30:28-34:07 Feel So Close

Press play on the video below if you would like to see all songs and dances in full.

In March, the whole school walked a Million Steps in a Month. Pupils from JI - 4th Class walked 3x laps around the school, while pupils in 5th and 6th Class walked 6x laps around the School. Well done everyone!

Term 1

We began the Term by establishing a new Amber Flag Committee. They will play an important role in celebrating the Amber Flag and sharing its message around the school community, over the next academic year. Below are some of our Committee, showcasing our Amber Flag bibs.

Next, we embarked on a number of activities which help in promoting positive mental health across the school.

Pupils in Ms. Beecher’s and Ms. O’ Connor’s Classes participated in Fun2BeFit sessions, to promote their physical and mental health.

Pupils in 3^rd – 6^th Class participated in in-class online webinars, titled ‘Believe in Yourself’. These were aimed at building pupil’s confidence, wellbeing and resilience. The Amber Flag Committee registered pupils with the Galway Education Centre, who ran these workshops. Below are some of Ms. Comer’s and Mr. O’ Callaghan’s Classes participating in the sessions.

We created a welcome board in the school reception, celebrating the different languages and nationalities in our school community.

This year the Amber Flag registered the school to take part in the Barnardos ‘Big Active’ Campaign. This initiative helps pupils to “focus on their own health and wellbeing, all while helping others.”

“It takes a holistic approach to supporting students’ wellbeing and promotes three different kinds of activities we call;

Body - Physical challenges that take care of your body
Mind - Mindfulness exercises that look after your mental health; and
Heart - Activities that promote the importance of charity and helping others”

https://www.barnardos.ie/how-you-can-help/fundraising/fundraising-events/big-active

This term, all pupils were given Wellness Journals, distributed by Barnardos, for them to focus on the ‘mind’ component of the campaign. The mindfulness exercises in the journals, will be explored in class and aim at helping us to look after our mental health.

The last focus for the Term was our annual food appeal for St. Vincent de Paul. All donations, big and small were so appreciated. Thank you.

Our Amber Flag Journey 2021/22

With the help of last years committee, we secured the school’s first ever Amber Flag. We are so proud to now showcase this flag outside our school. This year, we hope to organise more initiatives and events, which further promote our commitment to the Amber Flag.

A new academic year brings about a new Amber Flag Committee!

This year our committee will be even more visible around the school, with the addition of our Amber Flag Committee Bibs. All committee members have been given a bib to wear on the school yard. This allows peers to quickly identify someone they can talk to or someone they can ask for help, if the need arises.

Wellness Week 4th-8th April

Pictures from Wellness Week

Thank you to all the teachers who facilitated meditations on Mindful Monday, dancing on Tuesday Tunes and Circle Time as part of Wow Wednesday. Thank you also to Paul Walsh for running fitness sessions on Thoughtful Thursday. Everyone had a super week, topped off with Friday Favourites where pupils wore their favourite clothes, brought in their favourite treat and watched their favourite movie to mark the Easter Break. Well done everyone!

Tuesday Tunes

Milkshake Song

Can’t Stop the Feeling

Dance Monkey

Save Your Tears

Stay

Mindful Monday

The Body Scanner

Rainbow Relaxation

Learn to bring down stress

Grow your strength and confidence

How to be kind to yourself

Heartbeat mindfulness

MarathonKids Ireland

Congratulations to 5th and 6th Class who completed the MarathonKids Ireland 8 week programme, running 26.2 miles. Each child was presented with a medal, when they passed the finish line. What a fantastic achievement, promoting positive Physical and Mental Health.

SVP Food Appeal

Thank you to everyone who donated to our SVP Food Appeal. A car full of food was donated to St Vincent de Paul in Galway, who were absolutely delighted with such a large donation.

St. Vincent de Paul Food Appeal

We are delighted to announce that once again, we will be participating in the St. Vincent de Paul Food Appeal, as part of our Amber Flag initiative. After the huge success of last year’s fundraiser, we again welcome donations big or small to contribute to the appeal. Please see the image below for suitable food items.

Please note that the last date for food collections is Monday December 20^th. Our sincere thanks as always for your continued support.

The Amber and Active Flag Unite!

Taking care of our physical and mental health sometimes requires effort, especially over the winter months! To make things a little easier for pupils (and staff!), the school will run two initiatives to promote both physical and mental health, over November and December. The two initiatives are MarathonKids Ireland and the Daily Mile.

MarathonKids Ireland

MarathonKids Ireland is an 8 week programme, targeted towards 5^th and 6^th Class students. We were extremely fortunate to be picked to participate in this year’s programme.

Over the 8 weeks our pupils will:

· Run for 4 sessions weekly, running 26.2 miles over the 8 weeks!

· Learn about the benefits of sport

· Learn about health and wellbeing

Each pupil participating in the programme has received a scarf, t-shirt and personal booklet detailing the 8 weekly lessons. These lessons will explore the importance of having a healthy heart, the mental, social and physical benefits of exercise, community benefits of exercise, the role of hydration and nutrition and the educational benefits of exercise.

The Daily Mile

The Daily Mile will also be running for the next few weeks. This will be targeted towards the remaining pupils in the school. The Daily Mile sees pupils walk, jog or run for 15 minutes, every day, in addition to their usual break times. It is a simple way for children to achieve improved health and wellbeing through daily physical activity. Keep an eye on class pages for how our pupils are getting on!

World Mental Health Day

To mark World Mental Health Day on October 10th, the Amber Flag committee organised a poster competition. Children from 2nd to 6th Class were tasked with creating a poster, which showcased what the Amber Flag means to them.

Posters illustrated

Pupil’s interests
What makes them happy
How to be kind to themselves and to one another
The importance of asking for help, by talking to someone

The committee was inundated with posters, so they found it very hard to pick only a few winners. Instead, they voted to create a display which celebrated the theme of kindness, with the words ‘Be Kind’.

Thank you to everyone who contributed their artwork and to teachers who kindly supported the initiative. Have a look at a sample of our wonderful posters below:

Our Amber Flag Journey 2020/21

In June, the school was awarded its first ever Amber Flag. This was a great honour for our school and an accomplishment we are extremely proud of. Our committee worked so hard to promote positive mental health across our student body, as was acknowledged by the Tuam Herald when they came to visit.

Pieta House also recognised the hard work carried out by the committee, by awarding them a certificate each. Well done everyone!

Initiatives carried out in 2020/2021

Gratitude Month

In December we promoted kindness and gratitude by organising a food collection for St. Vincent de Paul. We were overwhelmed by the generosity of the school community who so kindly donated such an enormous amount of food. Thank you to all who contributed.

Spreading Awareness

As a school, we spread awareness of kindness. This included kindness for others, but also the importance of being kind to ourselves. Have a look at our Amber Flag Board and our Motivational Stairwells!

Rainbow Day

To further promote awareness of the Amber Flag and the work of Pieta House, we organised a Rainbow Day on March 24th. Everyone was encouraged to wear their favourite colours to school and to bring a small donation. It was a fabulous day of colour and fun! Thank you to everyone who contributed and for your continued support and generosity.