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- Mental Health Awareness - Amber Flag: The Amber Flag was presented to St. Farnan's Post Primary in 2016 for the work the school has done in promoting positive mental health. There has been many events run each year in the school. Each year there is a Wellbeing Week which has many events to promote mental health including; breakfast clubs, competitions, targeted SPHE classes, dance classes, etc. In addition, we have had Christmas door decorating by tutor classes. In the academic year 2018-19, the school is benefiting from the Pieta House Resilience Academy for all second year students. This programme is building skills in resilience for young people in the school. Many more events are planned for the year and there is always a big empahsis placed on the positive mental health of our students and staff here in St. Farnan's.
- Healthy Lifestyle Programme: The Healthy Lifestyle Program is a unique Health & Wellbeing program running in schools nationwide and it is being introduced in St. Farnan's in September 2018. The program is both classroom and activity based. The facilitators are qualified in Life Coaching, Fitness Instructor, Sports Therapy & Nutritional Therapy and also Irish Special Forces making this program unique in the set of life skills, attitudes, knowledge and values presented to students. The program aims to teach students how to be more resilient and more self-aware in order to take responsibility and control of their lives. The program helps them improve their performance, mental, physical & social wellbeing as well as their fitness and health by providing them with tools for greater understanding of themselves and their environment in a relaxed and fun two day program that is both highly enjoyable and motivating at the same time. The multi game event is fun, motivational and all inclusive giving all students an opportunity to exercise in a different way that is team based and safe. The material is introduced to the students through a variety of teaching styles such as class discussions, power point presentations, chats, demonstrations and physical activities. All students in the school will participate in this innovative program on September 4th and 5th.
- Environmental Awareness - Green Flag: St. Farnan's Post Primary has had a long established Green Schools Committee. It was first established by Mr. Sean Clarke and he was ably supported by many of our now past students. Following Mr. Clarke's retirement, Mr. Andrew Little took over the committee with the support of Ms. Sheila Walsh (who also sits on the Prosperous Tidy Towns Committee). The committee is made up of student representatives from all years and also Ms. Mag Mc Nammee and Mr. Jim Kelly who make up the schools maintenance team. The first theme the school examined and worked to improve was litter. This involved many litter picks, establishing a green code, fundraising and raising awareness, purchasing new bins, poster competitions, changing our bag colours in bins to represent the type of waste they hold and reducing waste produced by the school through reuse of materials. The school achieved the first green flag in 2014. Since then, a new committee has been established and we are working on the theme of energy. This theme involves the reduction in energy consumption by the school. It is hoped we will be awarded the next flag in 2019. We are always looking for new committee members; so any existing or prospective students are welcome. Contact Mr. Little, Sheila or any of our committee members if you would like to join.
- Asthma Awareness: For their CSPE Action Project, 3rd year Class Connolly worked on the important issue of Asthma Awareness throughout the whole school community. They researched Asthma, carried out student and staff surveys and designed information leaflets and posters about Asthma for the school. Thanks to their efforts, St. Farnan's was awarded a Silver Asthma Awareness Award by the Asthma Association of Ireland in November 2017 - Click here for more info.
- School Branch of the Croí Laighean Credit Union: In December 2017 our Transition Year students took it upon themselves to take the Irish League of Credit Unions CluedIn Module, and following their successful completion of the course, it was agreed to establish a School Branch so as to be able to offer the services of a Credit Union to the school community. St Farnan’s is one of the first schools in Ireland to have its own school dedicated Credit Union offering a safe and easy means of saving and learning of prudent money management. The Transition year students recognised that a Credit Union differed in many ways to all other financial service providers in the sense that it held a more cooperative philosophy.
The students wanted to foster the value of Financial Literacy within the school. Every nation places a great emphasis on basic literacy skills. The ability to read and write is rightly viewed as being integral to an individual’s ability to get on in life and take an active part in society. However, the area of financial literacy is one which receives insufficient attention. Financial literacy is a distinct skill from those of maths and reading. It is the ability to understand how money works and make informed and effective decisions about using and managing it. People with low levels of financial literacy suffer from that lack of knowledge at every stage of their lives. Financial capability is essential in today’s world. For young people especially, the ability to oversee their finances has never been more important: from learning how to budget to managing their borrowing; from understanding the forms and sources of credit to understanding how to have a positive relationship with money... above all, if money skills are learned at an early stage, it is likely that they will be retained for life.
- Skills@Work Programme: Since 2014, St. Farnan's Post Primary has had the privilege of being part of the Skills@Work Programme which is organised by Business in the Community Ireland. This innovative and extremely sought after initiative pairs post-primary schools with businesses and through these partnerships, selected 5th year students are supported on a journey which gives them an insight into the world of work. St. Farnan's is partnered with the German mulitnational SAP Ireland, which has its Irish headquarters in Citywest. As part of the Programme, our students participate in specialised workshops which focus on CV and Interview skills, confidence, team work and problem solving as well as having the opportunity to visit the SAP offices, meet with SAP staff and undergo interviews and receive feedback. The feedback and statistical data collated on the partnership to date have been overwhelmingly positive, with satisfaction with the programme significantly ahead of national averages. Planning is already underway for our 5th year of the partnership and we look forward to another fruitful and rewarding year of collaboration with our partner company, SAP Ireland - Click here for more info.
- European Ambassador Schools Programme: During the academic year 2018/2019, the Transition Year students in St. Farnan's will participate in this innovative programme organised by the European Parliament Offices in Dublin. The programme encourages young people to learn more about the European Union and to become Junior Ambassadors in their school - we have lots of plans for this project and on successful completion of the course, we will hopefully receive a Certificate for our school - Click here for more info.
