Wellbeing

At St. Francis Xavier Junior School, the wellbeing of every child is at the heart of what we do. Through our SPHE and Stay Safe lessons, we help students develop important life skills such as empathy, resilience, and self-awareness. Our wellbeing programmes, including Zippy’s Friends and Fun Friends, support children in understanding and managing their feelings, building positive relationships, and developing effective coping strategies. Wellbeing has been our School Self Evaluation focus for a number of years and as such, wellbeing promotion is at ‘the core of the ethos of our school’ and we endeavour to embed whole school practices which promote a culture of wellbeing.

The concept of nurture in education recognises that students’ wellbeing is as important as their academic achievements. Through nurture, the school addresses the social, emotional and learning needs of individual students and tries to remove barriers to learning.

We are proud to have been awarded the ISPCC Blue Shield status, recognising our ongoing commitment to promoting kindness and preventing bullying behaviour across our school community. Our Kindness Monitors play an important role on yard each day, encouraging inclusion, friendship, and respect among all pupils.

As part of our approach, we use Restorative Practice to help children resolve conflicts, repair relationships, and reflect on their actions in a supportive way. This helps to build empathy, responsibility, and stronger connections within our school community.

This year, we introduced our new student-friendly Bí Cineálta (Be Kind) policy, which encourages children to take an active role in creating a positive, caring school environment where everyone feels safe and respected.

We also focus on healthy lifestyles, encouraging healthy eating, regular PE lessons, and active play through our Active school initiatives helping students stay fit, energetic, and ready to learn.

Each year, we celebrate Wellbeing Week in January — a special time dedicated to activities that promote happiness, gratitude, and connection throughout the school.

Together, we create a caring, inclusive environment where every child feels safe, valued, and ready to thrive.