Category Archives: Events

Amber Flag Celebration at Cloonakilla NS

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:

We held our annual Christmas Joke Day with jokes every hour to put a smile on everyone’s faces during the week before Christmas.
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.

Sports Activities

Active Flag

Cloonakilla Champions League is currently taking place. Classes from downstairs were paired with a class from upstairs during a recent Zoom draw. They are working together to be as active as they can to win the first ever such competition here at Cloonakilla. Winners will be announced on February 23^rd!

Gaelic coaching has commenced with Alan Fitzpatrick from Clann na nGael for 4^th, 5^th & 6^th classes for a block of 4 weeks. All other classes will receive coaching in the coming months.

We would like to acknowledge all sporting success in our school. If your child participates in competitions outside of school in any discipline please send or email in their photo for our ASF board.

Christmas 2021!

We had an Advent Prayer Service. We had our Christmas tree lighting ceremony outside the school. The Junior and Senior Infant classes wrote letters to Santa. The Special Education teachers read Christmas stories to all the classes. All the classes had Christmas Arts and Crafts Days. Mrs. Cronnolly and Miss Kelly organised “Guess the tune” Christmas Quiz. The children from the Amber Flag Committee read jokes over the intercom. The School Council organised a Children’s Fund Raiser Raffle. We watched online the Christmas Pantomime and enjoyed hot chocolate. The children and staff wore very festive Christmas jumpers. Happy Christmas everyone from all the staff and pupils at Cloonakilla N.S.!

Halloween Costumes Cloonakilla N.S..

Active and Amber Flags Ceremony!

Active and Amber Flags Ceremony! Friday, October 15th 2021.

Raising of flags by Amber and Active Flag committees.

Run with an Olympian!

All classes ran a lap of the school with Aoife O Rourke.

Children enjoying ice-cream after their lap of the school with an Olympian Aoife O Rourke .

Aoife O Rourke answers the pupils questions about Boxing and taking part in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games.

Boxing with an Olympian !

European Schools Sports Day!

European schools sports day took place last Friday 24^th September. It was a huge success. All day long people were outside getting active. We had three challenges, plank burpees and star jumps. We brought in some scooters , footballs, mats and trampoline and helmets. We had a mini soccer blitz. While doing these three challenges we were tested but had fun too. We had so much and hope we do it next year!

The Amber Flag Easter News!

The children from the Amber Flag Committee have been very busy this term!

During school closures we held our Amber Flag meetings on Zoom with Mrs Cronolly…we met on Fridays and discussed our plans for promoting mental health and wellbeing at Cloonakilla NS and each week we finished off with a Guided Mindfulness activity.
We have been planning for whole-school wellbeing “Change Your Perspective” photography competition for senior classes. This has been sent out on SeeSaw and the closing date for entries is Friday the 16th of April.
The Board of Management has bought us a new Buddy Bench, so we now have two fabulous Buddy Benches in the junior yards. The Amber Flag Committee recorded a video to show children from Junior Infants to 2^nd class how to use the Buddy Benches appropriately.
We have put a poster in each junior classroom about the Buddy Benches
We finished our application and sent to it to Pieta for new Amber Flag award.
Stay positive!
The Amber Flag Committee 2020/2021

6th Green Flag Global Citizenship & Energy

We celebrated and raised our 6th Green Flag Global Citizenship & Energy on Thursday 22nd of October. Our caretaker, Gerry Doyle, Ms Gately and the Green Schools Committee raised the flag and all classes had an opportunity to visit the site of our new flag, in their own class bubbles, where one child tied a green balloon around the flag pole to symbolise their cooperation and help over the last two years. All classes watched a production by the Green Schools Committee and 4th Class created a video called ” A Trip Down Memory Lane” showcasing all the themes of our Green Flag. Our current 5th class project work was on display in the hall. A big well done to the Green Schools Committee for all their hard work over the past two years.

Click on the slideshow below to see our Infant classes participation in the 6th Green Flag celebrations!

The Green Schools Committee raising the 6th Green flag Global Citizenship & Energy!

Children representing their classes tying a green balloon around the flag pole to symbolise their cooperation and help over the last two years.

Cloonakilla N.S. awarded 7th Flag for Global Citizenship and Energy.

We have been awarded our 7th Green Flag for Global Citizenship and Energy. A huge well done to everyone in Cloonakilla NS who worked so hard to achieve this flag. All our pupils and teachers hard work over the last two years means we will have a new flag to celebrate when we get back to school. A big thank you to our fantastic Green Schools Committee for all their Trojan work in achieving this flag for our school. We are very proud of you all!