Student Leadership

Student Council
Le Chéile Chaplaincy Council
Class Captains
The Lighthouse Mentors
Coiste Gaeilge
The Amber Flag Initiative
Green Schools Flag Committee
Active School Flag
Digital Champions

Student Council

The Student Council provides students with an exciting opportunity to become involved in a representative structure where they can voice their opinions and propose ideas. The elections were held at the beginning of October and there was an excellent response from the student body. Over the last two months our newly elected Councillors have completed training provided by the Irish Second level Students’ Union. This offered the Council a thorough insight into the roles and responsibilities of Student Councils and the potential for developing team and leadership skills. Inspired by this training, the students were eager to establish key roles in the Council including

Chair

Vice Chair

Secretary

Vice Secretary

ISSU Rep

Public Relations Officer

The Student Council have also been busy helping to roll out StudyClix for the student body, reviewing the school’s Anti Bullying Policy and working on uniform proposals. They have also begun organising International Student Identity cards for all those interested. The Student Council are looking forward to representing their classes and the student body as a whole over the coming year.

Le Chéile Chaplaincy Council

The Le Chéile Chaplaincy Council are the faith leaders in our school. It is a student led faith group that commits to sharing and celebrating the Catholic ethos of our school. Members of this group help to create meaningful services and organise many school events.

Saint Vincent de Paul/ Charity group- The group meet each Tuesday to promote SVP initiatives and other charity initiatives within school. Some initiatives we run include: SVP clothing drive, Book collection, Gifts to the Crib, Knitathon for the Homeless, Send a Girl to School campaign.

Le Chéile- The Le Chéile Council began in our school in 2018. The phrase “le chéile”means ‘together.’ The Le Chéile Council is a faith based group that works together to promote all faiths in our school. We celebrate key festivals and celebrations throughout the year for example Ramadan, Christmas, Advent, Hanukkah, Diwali to name a few.

Class Captains

Being a Class Captain in Our Lady’s School is one of the many opportunities available to our students to become leaders. Significant responsibility comes with being the Form class representative and it is a worthwhile and formative experience for our students.

The Class Captain models our school values of inclusivity and respect. She promotes class spirit by gathering positive news stories and affirmations from the Form class and sharing these with the Form teacher and Year Head on a fortnightly basis. In addition, the Captain assists the Student Council by promoting school activities such as Reading Week, fundraising and Wellbeing Week. Our Class Captains also engage in leadership training at the outset of the year in order to prepare them for their role as student leaders which is integral to daily life in Our Lady’s School.

The Lighthouse Mentors

Lighthouse leaders are a group of Fifth Year students who act as mentors to a small group of Second Year students. The lighthouse is a symbol of hope and Lighthouse mentors promote positivity and support the younger students.

Coiste Gaeilge

Coiste Gaeilge has been a feature of Our Lady’s School since 2014 and is made up of a group of Fifth-Year students who work with Ms. Kinsella and Roinn na Gaeilge to promote the Irish language within the school community. The emphasis is on participation and fun. One of the key objectives this year is to break the link between the language and state exams in the minds of both students and teachers and by doing so develop an awareness of the cultural and social benefits attached to Irish. This year’s Coiste has been very busy organising a variety of entertaining activities from quizzes to art competitions, karaoke and treasure hunts all trí mheán na Gaeilge. The highlight of the year was undoubtedly the Céilí Mór which took place during Seachtain na Gaeilge with all students and staff participating in rince Ghaelach on the hockey pitch.

We have been fortunate enough to attain a Gaelbhratach each year since 2015 as recognition by Conradh na Gaeilge of the great work of the Coiste to promote the Irish language.

The Amber Flag Initiative

The aim of Amber flag is to promote positive mental health in schools. In our school we have focussed on supporting each other through uplifting messages and making sure students are aware of the help that is available within the school community. Our inaugural Amber flag group in 2020/21 undertook the garden project, knowing that connecting with nature really helps our mental health. The key message of our group is that reaching out for help is a sign of strength, not failure. At the moment we have to mask our face, not our feelings.

Green Schools Flag Committee

Here in Our Lady’s School, we aim to develop social responsibility and this is clearly evident in our Green Schools Flag Committee led by our students. The Head of the Green-Schools oversees committee actions and coordinates activities. She liaises with the Principal and Green-Schools Coordinator. Once a week, she runs the meetings during lunch. This year our Head led the Green School Action Day in October; which included a Walk to School Emissions Free Week, First Year Climate Change Poster Competition and monitoring of recycling bins. She is currently organising the Fast Fashion Competition for the Young Environmental Competition. The Green school secretary works closely with the Head of Green-Schools. She records and circulates minutes of the Committee meetings. Finally, the Communication Officers design the Green School Flag notice board and update the notice board regularly to display recent events and news.

Active School Flag

The Active School Flag group is a TY student lead group in Our Lady’s Terenure. The ASF class aims to promote, encourage and support physical activity within the school community. Together the class decided on a group of core values at the start of the year, they will work on developing these throughout the 2021/’22. The group aim to create a positive team dynamic, to motivate others and to be approachable.

In September they completed a whole school survey to find out more about both the students and staff and their hopes for the Active School Flag class this year. They received the survey results back in early November and are creating an action plan to implement after Christmas.

In October, they were divided up into class roles. Some of these include the Media and Reporting team, the Liaison team, the Design team, the Walkway team and the Research team. Each student has a different role and responsibility within their group.

November brought the Active School Flag Launch Week and the class’ very successful whole school event. They chose the event based on the survey results, which said that over 380 students were ‘somewhat likely/very likely’ to participate and enjoy a whole school dodgeball tournament. The ASF class ran the tournament in each PE class and officiated at all the finals. The tournament was a massive success with all students and lots of teachers participating. The teachers played against the winners of each year group, winning against the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Years. However the First and Sixth years were delighted to beat the teachers, with a competitive and exciting atmosphere in the Sports Hall.
With the help of the survey results the ASF class plan to continue to make the school a more active place for both students and teachers and hopefully achieve an Active School Flag for OLS.

Check out our Active School Flag video 2022 to view our work in action:

https://youtu.be/DRsoPBFrrn4

Digital Champions

The Digital Champions are a group of Second Year students who take a proactive approach to promoting positive online behaviour within the student community. They engage in peer to peer teaching with First Years and their own Form classes on topics such as being safe online, having a positive digital footprint and how to report inappropriate content. The Digital Champions stand for respect online and in person.

Student Leadership