Operation Wellbeing

To amplify student voice in the school in relation to student wellbeing. We want students to have a greater say in all the areas of school life that impact our wellbeing.

Our Social Issue

The social issue that we chose was student voice in wellbeing. Our class groups felt that student's in Coláiste na Trócaire should have a greater say in the areas of school life that impact our wellbeing. We wanted to see student voice amplified in our school. We wanted to create a safe space for students to identify the things we believe are important for young people's wellbeing. We wanted to bring together students from both junior cycle and senior cycle.

Who We Worked With

During our project firstly we worked together as a class group. We worked in pairs and groups and as a whole class to brainstorm ideas. The first and second year groups then worked together to delegate the various aspects of the project. We worked with the school management as we proposed our idea to them. We worked with the teachers in the school, informing them of our plans and gaining their support. Finally we worked with students from each year group in the formation of the wellbeing committee made up of two students from each year group.

How We Communicated

We told the whole school about about our project. Two representatives from our class made an announcement over the school intercom informing all student's in the school about our project. We told students that as our action project we had decided to set up Coláiste na Trócaire's first student wellbeing committee. We encouraged students in all year groups to get involved. Members of our YSI class then went around to all the classes in the school with student wellbeing committee application forms. We encouraged students who were interested to fill out a form and drop it into the Student well-being post box. The second year group organised a poster campaign to promote student voice and the wellbeing committee election. They also created a digital survey and surveyed all junior students. They intend to expand on this after Easter through a survey of senior students.

Our Innovative Action and Impact

We updated the wellbeing notice board advertising the creation of a wellbeing committee. We included a suggestion box on the wellbeing notice board. We created a wellbeing committee application form. We composed an announcement to inform all students about our action project over the intercom. We created a wellbeing committee application form where students were asked to state why they want to join and what they could bring to the committee. We organised a poster campaign and displayed our efforts around the school. After the announcement was made over the intercom, students from our YSI group visited all the classes with wellbeing committee application forms. Students who were interested in joining the wellbeing committee took an application form, filled it out and dropped it into the suggestion box on the wellbeing notice board. After the application forms had been collected and analysed, the students who were genuinely interested became apparent and Coláiste na Trócaire's first Student Wellbeing Committee was created. We created a digital survey and the results of same will be presented to the committee. This information will be used to facilitate conversations around wellbeing in our school and the actions they can work on going forward. The students who would make up the committee were brought together for the first committee meeting celebration. Each student was given a student wellbeing committee member badge and both YSI classes involved in the creation and promotion of this action project celebrated its success.