During the month of June our theme is ‘Celebrating Success’ and this is a very special ‘Wellbeing Wednesday’ as we reach the end of this particular academic year and look forward to our summer holidays.
At this time, we want to celebrate a very special and trusted colleague, friend and teacher, Mrs Mullan. Mrs Mullan has had a positive influence on the lives of so many people in Portaferry and we would like to wish her every blessing and enjoyment as she embarks upon her retirement from Saint Mary’s Primary School. Also we want to wish Miss Green good luck and best wishes as she is getting married during the summer holidays.
During this particular ‘Wellbeing Wednesday’ we want to reflect on the wonderful progress, opportunities, experiences, images and thoughts we as a school community have provided through our 'Wellbeing, Resilience, Action Project (WRAP)’' during this particular academic year. It must be acknowledged that the ‘WRAP’ programme was borne out of many years of continually striving to improve the opportunities for our schooling community. Through discussions with our ever-supportive Parent’s Support Group and numerous internal discussions with staff, pupils and parents, we were able to put forward a successful funding application through Comic Relief and the Community Foundation. Our funding allowed us to provide training for all staff within our school, pupils from Nursery to Primary 7 and for parents through Parenting NI. We were also able to provide ‘Mindfulness and Gentle Exercise’ sessions, purchase a large screen and projector for our main hall, purchase additional interactive computer devices, gratitude diaries, yoga mats, story cubes, mindfulness cards, many downloadable resources. We were also extremely thankful to be able to provide 'Wellbeing Packs' containing everything from pedometers to skipping ropes to arts and crafts for all primary school aged children in the Portaferry community during the most recent period of school closures.
Last year during our school closures in May 2020 we developed ‘real’ classroom learning to ‘virtual’ learning through our weekly virtual challenges and especially our focused virtual ‘Make, Bake and Grow’ theme. During this most recent period of school closures after Christmas 2020 we introduced our weekly virtual ‘Wellbeing Wednesday’ with an aim of trying to increase motivation, positive mental health and wellbeing support for all during some very uncertain times. Each month we focused on specific themes from ‘Gratitude’ to ‘Health & Fitness’, ‘Growing & Growth Mindset’, ‘Coping with Challenges’, ‘Resilience’ to now ‘Celebrating Success’. These themes were also covered when we all safely returned to school.
During this year in school we also developed and fostered initiatives such as The Daily Mile, ‘Go Noodle’ mindfulness, Birdwatching Week, ‘Staying Connected Christmas Cards’, sports events, uplifting songs, Mental Health Week, Catholic Schools Weeks as a well as promoting our local maritime heritage and visits to places of local interest. Valued connections were made and continue to be developed especially within the parish, partner schools, Portaferry in Bloom, Portaferry Community Collective, PAST, County Down Rural Community Network, Comic Relief and The Community Foundation.
On our return to school in 2021, we were able to complete our Motivational sessions with Hip Psychology’ and our ‘Relaxation/Mindfulness sessions with Ruth’ for all pupils from Nursery through to Primary Seven. We also experienced the wonderful effects of lots of outdoor learning on pupil wellbeing and resilience as we eased back to schooling life.
We hope that what we have provided through all these elements will give our pupils the skills and strategies in dealing with many situations not only in the ‘Covid Years’ but throughout their school journey and beyond in their future pathways. All this has been made possible by pupils, parents and staff working together for the benefit of all, leaving a wonderful legacy now and for years to come.
We would like to thank our schooling community, in particular our pupils and staff for their participation in this project but a special word of appreciation must go to our Parent’s Support Group and in particular Mrs O’Neill and our WRAP Project team for their hard work and dedication in making this project possible. This journey is not at an end and the legacy of our WRAP project will live for many years to come as we seek to develop and grow these initiatives in the future.
We hope you all have an enjoyable summer and we look forward to seeing you all again on 31st August.
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