Such a mature message from a group so young...
Hats off to Mr Alan White, JOE reader and teacher of 5th class in Bunscoil Mhuire Primary School in Cork, and his excellent pupils.
Soundtracked to the perfectly poignant lyrics of Rudimental's 'Lay It All On Me', the class have created the below video highlighting the various aspects of mental health, including sadness, loneliness, fear, positivity, friendship and happiness.
Alan got in touch with the following message...
"Hi there, my name is Alan White. I'm a primary school teacher from Youghal. You may want to share this video that I made with my class on the issue of mental health awareness. The kids absolutely loved it and had a great time making it.
But I think they also realised that this was very important and they picked the song themselves because they thought it fitted perfectly with the message.
We wanted to have a strong message and we had covered some lessons in detail on mental health in the class. We decided to make the video to highlight the fact that its OK to be upset sometimes, but more importantly that there is always a way back and that even as a child these feelings are so normal. Talking about them and not being afraid to bring them up is critical.
The very last shot of the video is of Izzy O'Connell from Youghal who is currently battling a brain tumour over the last few years.
Her holding the banner 'Brave' is basically what we are looking for everyone else to be when it comes to mental health."
In a week when
we've listened to speakers like Bressie, Blindboy Boatclub, Philly McMahon, Brian Higgins, Cat O Broin and Carl Kinsella, this video is yet another sign that Mental Health is something that Irish people really do care deeply about.
Let's keep the conversation going.
Interestingly, there is one more very special thing about the video too...
Alan explains, "they also have me plagued that if it gets to 10000 views on YouTube that I'll give them 2 days off homework. Haha. I had no choice."
So let's help them out and get this video watched and shared, yeah?
Great work from all involved. Comhghairdeas!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8SPUs-E3l4
Clip via Bunscoil Mhuire
