Leading School Well-being

Finnian Moriarty

Christian Brothers Grammar School, Omagh

Omagh CBS educates boys between the ages of 11 and 19 years who live in its large catchment area, which extends across most of West Tyrone. It has almost 1,000 pupils and over 100 staff.

Finnian Moriarty is the Head of PE and Sport and also has responsibility for extra-curricular activities. He teaches all the year groups.

Finnian ran Strava for staff and this was greatly appreciated. In this clip he tells us how as difficult times arrived with the lockdowns leading to a change in routines and social interaction, the school started a well-being bulletin.

Key Learning

  • With the recent lockdown the PE Department wanted to look into more ways to help our pupils at home

  • PE is about Physical Education first and foremost but it is also able to teach us so much more and cultivates and builds the character to deal with setbacks like this pandemic

  • We targeted three main areas; Physical Health, Emotional & Mental Wellbeing and Social Wellbeing

  • Each strand is addressed each week through different ideas, activities and guidance

  • Post-Covid times it is definitely something we look at continuing going forward to create a sense of school community and reinforce to pupils that school is not just about academic advancement but the opportunity to grow in many different ways

Points to Consider

  • If undertaking something of this nature don’t do it alone, share the workload and get help from other willing members of your Department or School.

Further Resources

  • Here is a link to an example WellBeing Bulletin - https://tinyurl.com/auv2yrz9

  • Here is the twitter address where the latest initiative ‘#MotivationMonday’ is currently going viral - @cbsomagh