We held a Staff Meeting on Wednesday 30th March 2022 to discuss our application to become a “School of Sanctuary”. We emphasised how much we are already doing along with some new focuses. We even had the Chairperson of our Board of Management, Canon O’Malley present.
Children from our Student Council and Mr O’Byrne attended a webinar on Thursday 31st March. We listened to a refugee telling his story and also spoke with recognised Schools of Sanctuary and also universities who support Sanctuary Scholarships (NUIG).
The Incredible Years (IY) Programme is an international early intervention programme which aims to achieve long-term positive impacts on children’s behaviour. It consists of three types of programmes for parents, children, and teachers. In St Mary’s NS both teachers and SNAs are trained in IY to create a whole school positive approach to behaviour. The programme is designed to have long term reductions in problematic child behaviours, such as aggressive, externalising, hyperactive and oppositional/non-compliant behaviours. We are a proud IY school that wants to make a positive difference in the lives of the children who attend our school. The foundation of this approach is inclusion for all and a willingness from staff to accommodate all needs.
A powerpoint presentation was delivered to all classes to put a strong focus on our application to become a “School of Sanctuary”. This informed all children around what we are trying to achieve and how we will achieve it.
