Everyone in our school completed many different activities throughout Clean Air Week:
Learning about air pollution and its impact on our environment
Creating posters to inform people about idling and its negative impact on the air we breath
Conducting surveys on the number of vehicles idling close to our school
Researching the sources of air pollution in our local area
Beginning a 'No Idling!' campaign to encourage people to pledge to turn off their engines outside our school, where possible
Updating our Green-Schools notice board with information about idling and results of idling surveys conducted around our school
We have learned a lot of new information this week and found the following information from Green-Schools Ireland to be of particular interest:
Green-Schools Committee
Our Green-Schools committee for 2020/2021:
Josh
Louise
Ella
Caitlin T.
Emma
Romy
Aisha
Dylan
Ms Scott
Green Flag Award
In May 2020 we were delighted to be informed that we were successful in our application for our 3rd Green-School's flag - 'Water'. Well done to all of the children who worked hard to achieve this flag, and to our committee who worked tirelessly to coordinate all of our activities. We look forward to holding a flag raising ceremony soon.
Green-Schools Slogan
We recently held a competition to select a new Green-Schools slogan. Everybody thought of a slogan that would raise awareness of the need for water conservation and submitted them to the Green-Schools committee anonymously. The committee then select their favourite ones and held a vote to decide on the overall winner. The winning slogan was:
Water is a precious jewel. To waste it would be cruel.
Green-Schools Activities 2019/2020
Install water displacement devices into all cisterns in the school to save 250ml of water per flush
No Energy Day
Climate Action Week
2 Minute Clean
Creation of water awareness videos
Entries to Irish Water poster competition
Participation in Spring Clean
Collection of WEEE appliances, light bulbs and batteries for recycling
Water Awareness Day
'Walk for Water' event
Toilet leak tests
Make Eco-friendly cleaning products for our cleaner to use
Ensure that 100% of water used for watering plants comes from our water butt
Concern Water Workshop
Speakers on the topic of energy from local secondary school
Planting of fruits, vegetables and flowers
Making labels for bins listing items that can be recycled and those that cannot be recycled
Competition to select new Green-Schools slogan for 'Water'
Talk by Irish Water
Green-Schools Committee
Our Green-Schools committee for 2019/2020:
Lachlan
Tristan
Bridie
Conor
Michelle
Aoibhe
Jonathan
Rachel
Ms Scott
Committee Announcement
This year our green school committee includes Ms.Scott, Lucy Pollard, Lucia Jorge, Jonathan Lowe, Aoibhe Tobin, Michelle Maher, Connor Cuddy, Bridie Fitzpatrick and Tristan Cleere. Currently, we are trying to work towards our Water Flag but also maintain our other 2 flags {Energy and waste}.
At the moment we are doing a lot of work to make people more aware of saving water like making posters, having tips of the month and Green School announcements. Each member of the committee has a particular job like light guards {Checking lights are turned off going to other places}. We have 2 light guards for each room so that makes sure we are saving energy. We do a spring clean also to make sure our surroundings are safer and a cleaner place.
Just outside of Ms. Scott’s room we have a suggestion box and in the Senior Classroom we have a suggestion cup. If you have any ideas on how to save water, you write it down on a piece of paper and put it in. Every day after big break we do Water Warriors. Water Warriors is when a certain group of children go to check taps if they are turned off or if they have leaks. If there is a bathroom or classroom with a tap running that isn’t leaking we make sure it improves. At the moment we are also doing litter picking after big break so, like Water Warriors, a group of people has an allocated week. Basically, they go around the school for about 5 minutes making sure there is no litter and if there is they pick it up.
The committee are also making posters for each tap to make sure they are turned off and for the posters there is a group of 2 making the posters and to make it fair we grouped up a child from the Junior Room with a child from the Senior Room. We have a tip of the month and a reflection of the month too. At the start of the year we did a survey of how many taps we have and how many were left running. Some of them were running so we are trying to improve. Ms.Scott is also collecting any electrical appliances, light bulbs and batteries so they can be recycled.
Our Tip of the month is: Don’t turn on the dishwasher if it’s not full.
By Lucy Pollard.
Green-Schools Activities 2018/2019
Water audit
Tap survey
Leak survey
Daily water usage survey
Clean Ireland recycling workshop
No Energy Day
Climate Action Week
2 Minute Clean
Creation of water awareness videos
Entries to Irish Water poster competition
Fixing leaking taps
Participation in Spring Clean
Collection of WEEE appliances, light bulbs and batteries for recycling
Ban all single-use plastic bottles
Request water coolers from our lunch providers to replace single-use bottles we receive with our lunches every day
Establish Water Warrior timetable
Establish Litter Picking rota
Create posters to remind people to turn off taps
Allocate a 'Light Guard' to each classroom
Planting of fruits, vegetables and flowers
Entry into the Tidy Schools competition
Green-Schools Committee
Our Green-Schools committee for 2018/2019:
Tristan
Bridie
Conor
Michelle
Aoibhe
Jonathan
Lucia
Lucy
Ms Scott
Water
We have begun work on our 3rd Green-Schools flag - Water.
Frequent updates on activities can be found on the 'Home' page of our website and on our Twitter feed.
Energy Flag
In June 2018 we were awarded our 2nd Green flag, for our work around energy.
Well done to our Green-Schools committe for 2017/2018, and to all of the children who made an excellent effort to reduce our energy use and raise awareness of the need for saving energy.
Our Green-Schools notice board.
Our Green-Schools Notice Board
Green-Schools Slogan
The committee held a competition to select a new Green-Schools slogan. Everybody thought of a slogan that would raise awareness of the need for energy conservation and submitted them to the Green-Schools committee anonymously. The committee then select their favourite ones and held a vote to decide on the overall winner. The winning slogan was:
Keep it clean and be green. Stop global warming; it's your last warning.
Our school garden and polytunnel
We are very proud of our school garden and polytunnel in Slieveardagh N.S. The children learn about sustainable living through active learning in the school garden. We plant and harvest a variety of fruit and veg each year. The addition of a polytunnel has enabled us to grow and harvest tomatoes.