There were celebrations at our end of year whole school assembly when our HSE Healthy Ireland-Health Promoting Schools Flag was officially received.
The flag was the culmination of a three-year project on health and well-being at St. Dominic’s
Some of the many health initiatives which were chosen in order to progress as a ‘Health Promoting’ school included: healthy eating with a review of the school’s healthy eating policy, Cycle Against Suicide Programme, the opening of a sensory room, the development of a mediation garden, introducing mindful to mention a few.
Students also incorporated concerns about oral health, with an examination of the hidden sugars in many of our foods and investigation into the damage it can do.
Physical Activity is obviously a major part of any health initiative, and our students have the opportunity to try out new sports and avail of expert coaching as part of the project. One in particular is our Rugby teams success!
The flag was presented to the School by the HSE’s Health Promotion Officer Joan Crawford who praised our school community on our excellent Health Promoting activities. In particular she commented on the ‘infectious enthusim’ that our coordinator SNA Aisling Mc Kee instills about the programme and her wonderful HPS Committee which consists of students, staff parents and school management.
Aisling said: ‘We are absolutely delighted to receive the Health Promoting flag as an acknowledgement of all the Health Promotion work that we have done over the years.
‘I take this opportunity to thank the students for all their hard work and recognise especially the support of staff and healthy school’s committee who played an integral part ensuring many of our initiatives were successful. Aisling added; ‘At St. Dominic’s we shall endeavour to sustain and build on earlier Health Promotion work utilising a whole school approach.’
