The Amber Flag Project
Speech given at Whole School Assembly, November 2015.
Happiness is a journey, not a destination.
Like any journey, it has ups and downs, we have the points in our lives during which we feel ecstatic, these are the moments life is about, but we wouldn’t appreciate these moments without the bad parts too.
The Amber Flag is an initiative aiming to encourage schools to promote positive mental health, aiming to help the youth of today enjoy the ups in life and learn how to deal with the downs.
Our School is lucky enough to have a large group of 4th and 5th years that are part of this initiative. Last year Caoimhe and Conor spoke to you about how it is okay not to be okay, and how we, the amber flag committee, hope to help students cope with the struggles of teenage life.
They spoke about the school wide survey we are conducting, the “My World Survey” compiled by Psychology Students at UCD.
While the survey sounds to be a late addition to the November exams, it’s nothing to be worried about. It’s just some very simple questions so we can get a better understanding of the general mental health of students in our school.
We’ve decided to complete this survey with our 1st, 2nd and 5th years. By now most of you will have received your permission slips and we are looking forward to conducting the survey later this month.
Since our amber flag committee last spoke to you, we as a school been awarded the flag which we are all very excited about. But while the bad weather cannot dampen our spirits, it certainly can dampen the flag, so unfortunately we are yet to raise it.
A lot of the time all it takes is a bowl of ice cream or a chat with a friend to pick yourself back up, but sometimes that simply isn’t enough.
A fair few of you have probably already heard of Jigsaw Tallaght, a free and confidential mental health service for youth. it’s a tremendous facility right on our doorstep, but why is it so hard to take those first steps through the door, the first steps to help?
The fear of the unknown is one of the worst, it can prevent us from trying new things, going new places and sometimes doing what’s best for us.
We wanted to get rid of the fear regarding Jigsaw, help overcome the fear of taking those steps through the front door, taking the first steps on a journey to a more positive mental state.
Our schools Amber Flag group wanted to see what was behind that door, so we took a visit to Jigsaw Tallaght.
The greatest journeys in life begin with a single step, turns out this step is not as scary as we once thought.
Like any journey, it has ups and downs, we have the points in our lives during which we feel ecstatic, these are the moments life is about, but we wouldn’t appreciate these moments without the bad parts too.
The Amber Flag is an initiative aiming to encourage schools to promote positive mental health, aiming to help the youth of today enjoy the ups in life and learn how to deal with the downs.
Our School is lucky enough to have a large group of 4th and 5th years that are part of this initiative. Last year Caoimhe and Conor spoke to you about how it is okay not to be okay, and how we, the amber flag committee, hope to help students cope with the struggles of teenage life.
They spoke about the school wide survey we are conducting, the “My World Survey” compiled by Psychology Students at UCD.
While the survey sounds to be a late addition to the November exams, it’s nothing to be worried about. It’s just some very simple questions so we can get a better understanding of the general mental health of students in our school.
We’ve decided to complete this survey with our 1st, 2nd and 5th years. By now most of you will have received your permission slips and we are looking forward to conducting the survey later this month.
Since our amber flag committee last spoke to you, we as a school been awarded the flag which we are all very excited about. But while the bad weather cannot dampen our spirits, it certainly can dampen the flag, so unfortunately we are yet to raise it.
A lot of the time all it takes is a bowl of ice cream or a chat with a friend to pick yourself back up, but sometimes that simply isn’t enough.
A fair few of you have probably already heard of Jigsaw Tallaght, a free and confidential mental health service for youth. it’s a tremendous facility right on our doorstep, but why is it so hard to take those first steps through the door, the first steps to help?
The fear of the unknown is one of the worst, it can prevent us from trying new things, going new places and sometimes doing what’s best for us.
We wanted to get rid of the fear regarding Jigsaw, help overcome the fear of taking those steps through the front door, taking the first steps on a journey to a more positive mental state.
Our schools Amber Flag group wanted to see what was behind that door, so we took a visit to Jigsaw Tallaght.
The greatest journeys in life begin with a single step, turns out this step is not as scary as we once thought.
