Carnaross NS achieves first Health Flag in county

There was great excitement at Carnaross National School on Friday when it became the first school in Meath - and just the second in Leinster - to receive a Health Promotion School Flag. Dr Nazih Eldin, head of the HSE"s health promotion unit, and Anne Walsh, the HSE schools co-ordinator, attended the event which celebrated the school"s Trojan efforts over the past few years to promote healthy living. The school earned the flag following a three-year project, which saw children and staff at the school adopt a series of healthy living practices. School principal Bríd McGowan said the project had been the most amazing example of the whole school community working together. 'The parents were amazing and very supportive and the teachers, staff, parents and children all worked together,' she said. Teacher Elizabeth Maloney, who co-ordinated the project, said in the first year of the project, the students drank water rather than fizzy drinks or juices at school. 'They had water bottles beside them all day,' she said. This initiative was so successful the school dentist noted a huge improvement in the children"s teeth. The school then focused on lunches and the children only brought healthy food to school and didn"t have anything containing sugar in their lunchboxes. Children at the school are all very involved in sport and play Olympic handball, GAA, soccer, basketball and athletics and there is even a walking track around the school for pupils who don"t like competitive sports. Ms Maloney explains that they also took a holistic approach to health and put an emphasis on mental, social and spiritual health. 'A lot of work was done on bullying and raising self-esteen and we got outside agencies involved,' she said. At Friday"s celebrations, Dr Eldin said that Carnaross was one of just a very few schools in the country to achieve the flag. There was a comprehensive display of the work carried out by children on the project over the years and SuperValu in Kells provided healthy snacks for the children. The local sports clubs and dancing classes set up stands in the school promoting their activities and children from sixth class provided recipes for healthy lunches, while fifth class pupils demonstrated their recipe for a healthy soup.