We have just finished celebrating another very successful ‘Minding Me Week’ in Ard Scoil na nDéise. Our focus throughout the duration of this event was to give our students strategies and techniques to look after themselves physically and mentally. There was a focus on skill development in these areas over a number of weeks in the hopes that at the end of this timeframe our students would be better equipped to take care of their physical and mental wellbeing. The event was organised by Transition Year students under the guidance of Ms. Gleeson and Ms. O’Shea. Here is what some of our Transition Year students had to say about their involvement in the activities.
Our group created a “Guess the teacher” quiz. There were seven people in the group. We made a list of questions for the teachers. Then we gathered their answers and created a poster for both the Junior and Senior building. This was an enjoyable activity for us and our fellow students. It was a good way to get to know our teachers better. We made regular announcements on the intercom and we also had to correct the answer slips and give the prizes to the winners.
Our group organised a quiz for First and Second years. The main aim was to promote mental health awareness and educate them in a fun and active way through the quiz. The quiz questions were mostly based around mental health along with an upbeat music round to bring some enthusiasm into the activity. We tried to ensure they learned something about mental health without having to read about it in a book. We got positive feedback from the First and Second years who took part and we were happy to know they enjoyed it. We also organised a daily quiz which encouraged people to participate and educate themselves on mental health issues.
We chose to create Mental Illness Awareness posters as a project for Minding Me Week. We chose this because we believe it is an important issue to inform people properly on these mental illnesses. Rather than focusing on positive aspects of Minding Me Week, we decided to raise awareness to the lifestyles of someone suffering with a mental illness, such as OCD, Depression, Anxiety, DID, Schizophrenia, Paranoia, Bipolar, PTSD and Addiction. We focused on symptoms, misconceptions, tips, defining what the mental illness means, and helplines.
For minding me week, our group organised a non-uniform day for Blue Monday. Therefore, we made posters and made an announcement over our school intercom to raise awareness of the day and to notify people about Blue Monday and that they were allowed to wear their own clothes. Then we collected the money for the charity ‘Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland’. Following this, we arranged different activities linked to mindfulness and exercise for the first and second years to show them how exercise can improve your mood. These activities included ‘Just Dance’, a walk, a group game and a sense awareness exercise.
Our group put positive quotes on student lockers and classroom doors. The reason behind putting positive quotes on the lockers was to inspire students and teachers to try to be positive throughout the week and for it to be a constant reminder to be happy throughout each day. Each individual quote had a different meaning but they all still sent the same message of positivity. We used bright coloured paper to brighten up the classrooms. We waited until the school was empty on Friday afternoon to stick up the quotes so it would be a surprise to everyone Monday morning.
Our group had the task of researching quotes regarding mental health and reading them aloud on the intercom. Another part of our task was to play around 30 seconds of a happy song to cheer people up. The purpose of our task was to cheer people up in the morning, and give them something to think about throughout the day. Especially for students who have exams, it was important for us to cheer them up. Our quotes were short and snappy so we could get our messages across, without boring people. We enjoyed doing this task as part of minding me week.
For Minding Me Week our group was in charge of setting up the Gratitude Tree. We made two posters and we cut out pieces of paper and threaded string through them to hang them on the tree. We would like to thank Ed for sourcing two trees for the junior and senior side of the school. We went around to all the classes in the school and asked them to write down something they’re grateful for on the paper and then hang it on the tree. The idea of this exercise was to allow people to be thankful for everything that they have and to help them to remember that although not every day is a good day there is something good in every day.
Our group organised time out for exam classes. We decided on a coffee morning for Third and Sixth years on Wednesday, 29th January. We wanted to do this to allow them to relax before their pres. We came up with what we would need to purchase for the coffee morning. We then went to the Principal to organise funding. This was our preparation done. On Tuesday we went shopping for what we needed and purchased our supplies. The next day we set up the hall for the students, made the tea and coffee and put out biscuits. We also put on music to help them relax. We were very busy throughout but we really enjoyed it and hope they did too!
Thank you to everyone who participated in Minding Me Week in Ard Scoil na nDéise. It was a great success and we are already looking forward to another successful Minding Me Week next year!!!