Bunscoil na Toirbhirte Becomes the First School in Cork to Deploy Skilly Prime

Bunscoil na Toirbhirte in Mitchelstown has become the first primary school in Cork to deploy Skilly Prime, our wellbeing programme built from the ground up for 3rd to 6th Class.

It's a significant moment for us. Skilly has spent years helping post-primary schools deliver, measure and evidence wellbeing. Skilly Prime brings that same support to primary, designed around how a busy class teacher actually teaches, and built to the new NCCA Primary Wellbeing Specification (SPHE and PE).

Why primary schools are looking for this now

The new specification sets out what every school must teach across 3rd to 6th Class. What it doesn't come with is a textbook.

That leaves each teacher building their own wellbeing programme from scratch, which has two consequences. The quality of a child's wellbeing education ends up depending on which class they happen to be in, and how much time that teacher had that week. And all of it still has to be evidenced: the Cuntas Míosúil every month, School Self-Evaluation on its cycle, and DEIS reporting where it applies. Traditionally that evidence gets written up long after the teaching is done, from memory.

Skilly Prime puts the programme and the paperwork in the same place, so the wellbeing curriculum lands the same way in every classroom.

What it does

• Think · Pair · Story · Share lessons. A gentle four-step rhythm made for the primary classroom: think on your own, turn and talk, share a story, then a short reflection. Calmer and warmer than the post-primary structure, because 9 to 12-year-olds aren't small teenagers.
• Every lesson has its own illustration. Tied to the learning outcome, and carried through to the lesson card, the whiteboard slides and a downloadable PowerPoint and PDF.
• One-tap reflections. Pupils answer with a tap and a few words, and drawing counts as reflecting at this age. Low reading load, and no blank-page dread.
• A "Well done!" for every child. Every reflection ends with a celebration and a warm message, so each child finishes having done something good.
• Evidence that builds itself. Every lesson is tagged to its strand and learning outcome, so the record accumulates while the teaching happens rather than afterwards.

Why it's good for teachers

This is the part we care most about, because a wellbeing programme that costs a teacher their evening doesn't get taught.

The prep is already done. The teacher opens the lesson on the whiteboard and presses go. The slides, the talking points, the teacher notes and the illustration are all there. Minutes of preparation, not an evening.

It's all in one place. Lesson delivery, pupil reflection, class progress and the reporting a school has to produce currently live in different places, or in a teacher's head. Skilly Prime holds them together, so a school manages wellbeing in one system instead of assembling it from folders, files and recollection each time somebody asks.

The paperwork stops being a separate job. Because every lesson is tagged as it's taught, the wellbeing line in the monthly Cuntas Míosúil, the SSE evidence under "Looking at Our School" 2022, and DEIS reporting where relevant are ready when they're needed.

The teacher keeps the final word. Skilly drafts warm, formative feedback on a child's reflection. The teacher reads it, changes anything they want, and decides when the child sees it. If something in a reflection suggests a child needs a second look, it's raised for a trained adult in the school to review. Skilly never diagnoses, labels, or acts on its own.

The school controls the sensitive content. Growing and Changing, the fourth strand, is off by default. A school switches it on when its policy and its parents are ready, and not before.

"We need more innovation to stimulate engagement, measurement and accountability. These skills will hold for our students going forward." — Michael McCarthy, Principal, Bunscoil na Toirbhirte

What this means for DEIS Plus schools

Bunscoil na Toirbhirte is not a DEIS school, but what it has put in place matters for those that are. The March 2026 DEIS Plus announcement funds people: Home School Community Liaison coordinators, and a Positive Mental Health and Wellbeing Coordinator in every DEIS Plus school. What it doesn't fund is the structure those people work within, or the evidence base they're expected to report against.

That's the gap Skilly fills, across four pillars: Attendance and Belonging, Parent Connection, Wellbeing and Student Voice, and Evidence and Impact Reporting. DEIS Plus funds the people; Skilly gives them the content, the structure and the evidence. It is a framework, not a counselling tool, and it replaces nobody: not HSCL, not a wellbeing coordinator, not NEPS or the School Completion Programme.

Our thanks

Our thanks to Michael McCarthy and the staff of Bunscoil na Toirbhirte for being the first school in Cork to bring Skilly Prime into their classrooms.

Skilly Prime is live now. Explore it at /prime, or open a working demo of a real primary school at /demo/prime. There's a two-page flyer and an overview deck if you'd like something to bring to a staff meeting or a board of management.

📩 Enquiries: skillycare@skillysolutions.com or +353 87 418 8829