Unpaid sub-contractors – report by Beth Powell (Justice and Peace Group)
As you may remember, many of the sub-contractors who worked on the building of our new school were left unpaid. This is obviously a huge injustice as workers, families, businesses have been burdened with severe losses for the work they did on our school.
The Justice and Peace Group in the school have written a letter to Minister for Education and Skills, Joe McHugh, T.D., calling for action to be taken to ensure this does not happen again in the future.
We have set up a petition to show support for the sub-contractors and for measures to prevent this happening in the future. We are looking for as many signatures as possible and would be very grateful if you could take the time to sign it.
The link is https://www.change.org/p/irish-government-justice-for-unpaid-sub-contractors
Mental Health Awareness Day – Friday, 8 March 2019
This Friday, our Amber Flag committee in Loreto will run its first Mental Health Awareness Day. The aim is to focus on how to promote wellbeing among our school community.
On Tuesday last, all Amber Flag representatives were called down to receive a copy of a Wellness journal to be distributed to each member of the school community. Here, the emphasis is on everyday things that we do that can support or may detract from our wellbeing, e.g. exercise, water or mobile usage. We are encouraging each student and staff member to use this template to record this information for the remainder of the week. Students may wish to add to the template, e.g. how much sleep they are getting.
Reflections will be read out each day on the intercom relating to wellbeing and positive messages will appear on the screens. An Amber Flag notice board has been created on the first floor. Each Amber Flag representative has been asked to get her class to come up with a positive thought/message and place it on this ‘positivity board’ during the week.
On Friday, a number of activities will be taking place in the foyer in the morning to create a positive, fun atmosphere. All students and staff are encouraged to take part in a ‘Drop Everything and Dance’ activity in the Sports Hall at lunch time.
As wellbeing and our mental health are such topical issues, we want students to see how they, as individuals and members of the school community, can be empowered to improve their own wellbeing.
We are using resources provided by St. Patrick’s Mental Health Services with their ‘Walk in my Shoes’ Programme. Anybody who would like to use resources such as mindfulness colouring or mindfulness exercises please click on the link below:
https://www.walkinmyshoes.ie/mindyourselfie/
The mindfulness exercises are really easy to use. Just click play. They are approx. 4 minutes longYou don’t need any prior experience of expert knowledge!
School News
- All Transition Year students will undergo their mock interviews in the school on Monday, 11 March from 19.00 to 21.00. Organised by Ms. Foley and Ms. Kelly (Guidance Counsellors), with invaluable assistance from Barbara Foley, these interviews are an important preparation for the real life situations in which students will find themselves in years to come. This event would not be possible without the wonderful help of the 40 voluntary interviewers on the night to whom the school is most grateful.
- Mock oral examinations are taking place this week and next for our 6th year language students. Sincere thanks are extended to their teachers for organising this important work.
- The last parent-teacher meeting of the current school year takes place in respect of 2nd year students on Wednesday, 13 March from 16.15 to 18.45.