Well-being is a term that is branded around quite regularly in modern discourse but what exactly does it mean, and more importantly, how can one increase their sense of well-being in their day to day lives? These are questions that CBS Secondary School Mitchelstown takes seriously, where the school has been working consistently over the last few years to not only contemplate the nature of these questions but to also ensure their realisation. For the school, well-being is omnipresent: it exists in the positive student-teacher relationships, in the culture of inclusion and in the belief that each child should and will reach their own potential, in an atmosphere of support and care. However, the school also believes that a specific focus on well-being must also be explicitly visible, and was the driving force behind ‘Well-being Week’ and ‘Inclusion, Community and Friendship Week’ over the last few years, and more recently, in 2022, the introduction of the whole-school Wellbeing Day. Last Tuesday, 12th September saw the school’s second Wellbeing Day, another example of how the CBS is ensuring that well-being is to the fore in the school, with focus in this instance, on physical exercise and team building.
As the school day broke all year groups set off on their respective trips, with First Years and TYs heading to Ballyhass, Coachford; Second Years to The Greenway in Dungarvan, followed by a dip in Clonea beach; Third Years to the Surf School in Tramore; Fifth Years/LCA1s to Funkytown in Fountainstown, and Sixth Years/LCA2s to Bogathon in Co. Laois. Each group had an activity full day, packed with fun, laughter and exertion. To say each student came home with a few sore muscles in their limbs, (and in their faces from smiling!) is somewhat of an understatement.
A whole school activity like this is no easy undertaking and was in the pipeline, organisational wise, since the end of the last school year. To this end, huge thanks must be given to Ms Sinead Ryan, and every single staff member who organised the trips, who supervised and travelled with the students on the day, and who, on a few occasions, joined in! The day was a resounding success and the whole school community cannot but be thankful for the facilitation and execution of such a big endeavour…. Here’s to 2024!!