On Thursday 23^rd of June we had a celebration to raise our Amber Flag.

The Amber Flag Committee was made up of pupils from 4^th, 5^th and 6^th classes along with Mrs. Cronolly. Chairperson and Vice chairperson were Grace Meares and Emma Byrne from 6^th class.

Secretaries were Isabelle O’Toole and Margarita Zubkova from 6^th class. The Treasurers were Ruth Byrne and Mya O’Toole from 5^th class. Evan Mimnagh Reilly and Oisin Cooney from 5^th class were PROs. Jack Sherlock from 4^th class was our poster designer and he designed all of the posters you saw around the school this year advertising the various Amber Flag events.

As an inclusive school, we want everybody to feel able to talk about anything that is bothering them, openly and without any judgement. The Amber Flag programme is all about promoting positive mental health strategies and allowing children to feel comfortable and happy or if they are not feeling happy, knowing that it’s ok to talk to somebody they trust.

There are lots of things already going on in Cloonakilla School to promote mental health strategies, like the Stay Safe programme, Yoga, Mindfulness, our gorgeous Sensory Room, Sensory Garden and Outdoor Classroom created by Mrs McCabe and Gerry, and all of the great things you do in your classrooms. The Amber Flag just supplements all of these.

The Amber Flag is all about promoting positive mental health here at Cloonakilla National School.

Some things that the Amber Flag Committee have organised this year to promote mental health are:

1. We held our annual Christmas Joke Day with jokes every hour to put a smile on everyone’s faces during the week before Christmas.
2. We held a big Christmas Quiz for the whole school on Zoom

• We held Wellbeing Wednesdays during Lent where we had guided meditations every Wednesday morning on the intercom led by a member of the Amber Flag Committee.
• In April we held our Easter Raffle where we sold tickets to raise money for Wellbeing Spaces in classrooms.

This raffle raised €1527.45 towards wellbeing spaces. Lots of local businesses donated amazing prizes towards this great cause. We now have Wellbeing Spaces in 3 classrooms upstairs, and there will be more to follow. We are waiting on the orders to arrive.

• In May, we held our annual ‘Change Your Perspective’ photography competition. We had lots of creative entries and we put them together in a video which all class teachers showed to their classes. The winners were Tom Lynham from Ms. Donnelly’s 1^st class in 3^rd place, Nicole Daly from Ms Finnegan’s 3^rd with her brother Josh from Mr Connolly’s 4^th class came 2^nd.  The overall winners were Evelyn Alves Passes and Beth Buckley from 5^th class.

We asked our wonderful caretaker Gerry Doyle to raise this year’s Amber Flag, which will fly high for the next 2 years outside Cloonakilla National School.