Wellbeing Week 2026
Despite its best efforts Storm Chandra didn’t dampen the spirits in St Abban’s this week as we celebrated Wellbeing Week as part of our Amber Flag Initiative.
Our school hosted Luna the Elephant sponsored by Solar Volt (www.solarvolt.ie) for the week. The ‘Elephant in the Room’ is an initiative from Carlow Mental Health Association (www.carlowmentalhealth.ie) to promote positive mental health awareness and discussion. The theme for our Wellbeing week was ‘Together we are Stronger‘ as elephants are strong and stick together in their herd, looking out for each other.
The week was full of different activities to support our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. We also had wellbeing homework to do each evening.
Monday was a Mindful Movement Day, which included lots of Movement Breaks and some yoga and guided meditation in the hall. Pupils also had the opportunity to do some lovely art including DEAC (Drop Everything and Colour) and we created a Mini Luna. Every child created their own clay elephant with clay sponsored by Solar Volt. We plan to paint them in colourful colours when they dry and keep them as a memento of Luna’s visit to St Abban’s.
Tuesday was Thankful Day. Pupils wrote one thing they were thankful for and we posted it on our Wellbeing Wall. We also had our regular GAA session with Jason to focus on our physical health and fitness.
Wednesday was ‘Wacky and Wonderful’. Everyone wore something wacky, weird and wonderful to school to celebrate our uniqueness and individuality. We had mismatched clothes, odd socks and some very interesting hairstyles. Local Pilates instructor Rabea (AnnaRabea Fitness) hosted a Pilates session with each class which was a great opportunity to stretch and work on our core strength.
Triumphant Thursday allowed us to focus on our strengths, hopes and dreams. All the pupils wrote down one thing they wanted to achieve and we displayed it on our Wellbeing Wall. We had hoped to try out a new challenge at break time such as try improve a skill but the weather had other ideas! Instead we tried something completely different in the form of a sound bath. Niamh O’Brien (aunt of some of our pupils) offered the pupils a sound bath facilitated by Kenny, to promote deep relaxation, nervous system regulation and an overall health reset. It was a wonderful experience and everyone really enjoyed the session. Check out Niamh’s website (https://biofieldwithniamh.com) or The Kenny Method on Instagram if you want to give it a try too!!
Niamh and Kenny also continued our elephant theme, as you can see from the photo below.
Our week concluded on Friday with a Feel Fantastic day. The Parents Association kindly donated fruit for all the pupils to make fruit skewers and one of our parents, Darren Nolan sponsored bottles of water for each pupil. There were watermelons, strawberries, oranges, apples, pineapples as well as the different fruits the children brought in too. This was a big hit in all the classes as we fuelled our bodies to participate in the Friday flash mob finale, when the whole school assembled in the yard after lunch on Friday to perform a group dance to Shakira’s Waka Waka.
Overall it was a wonderful week of wellness (despite the weather) and we would like to say a very special thank you to Ms. Geoghegan for organising the week and all the different activities each day.
Preparing for Christmas 2025
Today was an exciting day in St Abban’s NS, as every class decorated their classroom in preparation for Christmas 2025. Thanks to Matthew and Mr Forde who put up the lights outside the school and Eoin who made sure all the classrooms had their supply of decorations and batteries! We spoke about Advent and the meaning of the Advent Wreath. We wish all our pupils and their families an enjoyable lead into the Christmas season.
Halloween 2025
We had lots of spooky costumes in St Abban’s today as our students dressed up for Halloween. This year the student council ran the dress-up day as a fundraiser and they raised €176. This money will go towards new equipment for the yard at playtime. Happy Halloween everyone!
