Mullingar ET pupils earn 4th Amber Flag

Mullingar Educate Together NS marked the renewal of their Amber Flag for a fourth year last week, as principal Róisín Ni Tighernain pointed out that it is awarded to schools that understand education is not only about learning, but also the development of the mind.

“If you have a healthy mind and healthy body, the world is your oyster,” the principal told the pupils, who had gathered in the sunshine for the occasion last Wednesday.

“We might have challenges, things that annoy us, we mightn’t be so happy, and what you want to do is share those thoughts. The Amber Flag is about being healthy in mind and body, but especially in mind,” said Róisín.

“Helping one another, having a sense of gratitude – and you know, when you go out running to the Harriers, and if you fall, what do you do? You get back up, and this is what life is about.”

The Amber Flag Committee said a few words about what it meant to achieve a fourth flag for the school. “The Amber Flag is all about building awareness of mental health and taking action to support our school community’s mental health, and of course having fun and connecting with each other along the way,” said Victoria.

“Our Amber Flag Committee have been working hard to meet our school goals this year,” said Kai. Those included daily gratitude reflections, and the achievement of 1,000 acts of kindness in a month.

“Our final goal was achieved with our school celebration of Children’s Mental Health Week,” said Elizabeth. “We took time during the week to decorate our Amber Flag Notice Board with bees, flowers and butterflies that represent things we do every day that support and improve our mental health.”

Zuzanna said each class decided on a class activity to celebrate the week. “Some classes did baking, skipping, art, sports, having ice-cream or hot chocolate, colouring and so much more,” she said.

Tiernan gave thanks to Amber awareness officers, who “work hard to show kindness in the school”; while Holly thanked the students: “We would also like to say thank you to all the children in our school whose ideas, creativity, teamwork made all of our goals possible,” said Holly.

“Finally, we would like to say a very big thank to all our school staff who every day finds ways to support our mental health in school. We are so grateful to have adults around us who care so much and listen to our voices.”

• The Amber flag goals were decided by the student council and Amber Flag committee. In October, the children took part in CLANG week supported by Jigsaw, and celebrated ways we connect, take notice, stay active, learn new skills and give back to others. The week finished with a visit from grandparents to the school, the first grandparents day since Covid regulations were lifted. The second goal was to mark Children’s Mental Health Week in February, and classes chose nature walks, dancing, PE games, baking, having ice-cream or hot chocolate as a class or colouring.

The final goal was friendship month, in February. The children added up their acts of kindness and when they reached 1000, they celebrated with a find your friend on yard day and a no homework night.