Wellbeing in Catholic schools is forming in ‘image and likeness of God’

Speaking in the aftermath of the ‘Wellbeing and the Catholic School’ document published by the Council for Education in partnership with the Council for Catechetics, the National Director for Catechetics said that the document offers an opportunity for Catholic schools to “recognise what’s distinctive about Catholic education” by seeing wellbeing in Catholic schools as forming students “in the image and likeness of God”.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Dr Alex O’Hara said that the document reaffirms the Catholic understanding of wellbeing in schools.

“The key thing about the document is that we’re emphasising the wellbeing in Catholic schools, we’re talking about the holistic education of the whole person in the image and likeness of God,” he said.

“The Catholic understanding of wellbeing is much broader. It encompasses the community and the importance of community. We’re giving guidance on how you might structure the 400 hours of wellbeing that students have to do at junior cycle and ensuring that the mandatory two hours of religious education in primary and in post-primary a week are not further eroded.

“We’re really emphasising that this is an opportunity for Catholic educators to actually recognise what’s distinctive about Catholic education.”

The document also touches on some of the more sensitive issues that have emerged among young people, namely anxiety and suicide, and how to respond to them.

“It also acknowledges the challenges, particularly for young people in terms of anxiety and it’s responding to that,” he said.

“It’s worth remembering that significant research in Ireland and other countries has demonstrated that religious belief and practise are positively associated with good mental health and reduced depression and other aspects of wellbeing.”