March/April e-newsletter
The Green Schools Committee have spent the last few weeks planning their Action Day which took place just before the Easter holidays. We decided to take part in the National Spring Clean Project in conjunction with An Taisce. Everyone in the school was involved in tidying areas around the school, schools grounds and the village. Incredible work was done in the area and the place is looking spotless. It was a fantastic community effort with so many people getting involved and helping out. Thank you to everyone who gave their time to help out, we really appreciated it. A special thank you to the Tidy Towns committee who work so hard and organised a fabulous treat for all the children after their busy day picking up all the litter. Photos from the day are on the Twitter account.
Monitoring of the Litter Less campaign is showing really positive results for our school grounds. Our bar chart, displayed on the G.S. notice board shows that the litter is consistently much lower than it was at the start of the year. We are thrilled with this outcome and hope it continues. Thanks everyone for being conscious of not bringing wrappers out to the yard and for disposing of litter in a responsible way.
We ended the term on a very positive note by discovering we have been awarded the Green Flag for Litter and Waste. The Committee have worked hard all year, coming up with brilliant ideas, working so well together and showing great leadership qualities and the children deserve this fantastic affirmation and recognition of a job well done! We look forward to the awards ceremony and most importantly raising the Green Flag in our school soon.
Thanks everyone!
The Green School Committee
February e-newsletter
Spring has Sprung!
The Green Schools Committee were busy in February planting bulbs. Every child in the school got to plant a bulb and we have been watching them grow over the last few months. We planted onions, tulips, crocus’s and borage to name a few. These plants were minded so well by the Green Schools Committee and we couldn’t believe how much they grew in a few short weeks! Before the Easter holidays they will be relocated and eventually will be re-planted by the water tower to encourage bees to pollenate the area. It was such a fun project to work on and thank you so much to Michelle and Pascal for their guidance, help and hard work.
A big thank you to Lucas and Finley who are keeping a really close eye on the bin systems in all the classrooms. Please remember to put clean, dry recyclables in the red bin, dirty rubbish in the green and then compostable items in the brown bin. As always, if you’re not sure check the Green Schools Notice board for lists of items suitable for each bin. A few classes are earning stickers every single week and are in the running for the prize at the end of the year.
In February we also had our Green Schools assessment visit from Helen Cahill from the Tipperary County Council. The committee have worked so hard this year and had lots of fantastic work to show and plenty of ideas to tell Helen all about. Fingers crossed we get good news soon!
Thanks everyone!
The Green School Committee
January e-newsletter
The Student’s Council and Green School’s Committee would like to extend a massive thank you to everyone who helped us and came to our bake sale before the Christmas holidays.
Thank you to everyone who worked at a stall, everyone who donated baked goods for sale, everyone who donated prizes for the raffle, everyone who sang in the choir, everyone who donated decorations and lights, everyone who helped set up and clean up afterwards and everyone who attended with such good cheer on the day. We all had such a wonderful time and we really appreciate all the donations and custom.
We are thrilled to inform you all that we raised €965 on the day. As previously mentioned, half of this amount is going to the Green Schools committee and will be used for resources and activities organised towards earning our first green flag for Litter and Waste. The second half will be used to purchase toys which will be donated to Crumlin Children’s Hospital. We will keep you all updated with these two initiatives as they progress.
We would also just like to remind people that there were some containers left behind on the day of the bake sale which can be collected from the school any day.
Our Green Schools board has been updated with our Litter Less campaign results showing the decrease we have seen in the amount of litter in the yard and garden since we started. Monitoring of the litter in these blackspots will continue until the end of the school year.
The junior and senior infant class representatives are doing random bin checks in all the classrooms and keeping everyone on their toes with the recycling! Keep up the good work everyone and remember there are reminders on the green schools notice board and on your class bins as to what goes into each bin.
If anyone wants to send in a Tip of the Week for reducing litter and waste please feel free to let your class rep know. There have been some very informative tips this year so far like:
Use your scrap paper for notes and art in school
Bring any left over wrapping paper in to school for art
Give toys to a charity shop
Buy fruit and veg without any wrapping
Thanks everyone!
Welcome to our December issue of the Green Schools e-newsletter!
Thanks again to everyone who brought in all the batteries. As we reached our first target of 10 shoeboxes full we have applied for our collection in the New Year. We are still collecting them so feel free to keep sending in your used batteries.
We have finished the first part of the Litter Less Campaign and submitted our final measurements to the Environmental Education Unit in An Taisce. We are thrilled with the decrease in litter on the yard and garden and we are putting our results on a graph to show the results. This will be displayed on the Green Schools Notice Board.
The Student Council are holding a Bake Sale in the school Hall on Friday 21st December. Classes will be scheduled during the day to go down to the hall and buy some treats if they wish. There will be complimentary tea and coffee for anyone who would like to pop down at 9.30 am that morning to sample some of the delights! If you are bringing money to school that morning please keep it somewhere safe like in a zipped pocket or purse. Proceeds will be going to Crumlin Children’s Hospital and will also be used to fund further projects that the Student Council are working on, including the Green Schools initiative. Donations of any kind of buns, cakes, biscuits and treats would be greatly appreciated and can be dropped into the school hall at 9am on the morning of the bake sale. Please write your name on any plates, bowls boxes or trays that you send in so everything can be returned efficiently. There will also be a raffle and games to take part in with plenty of festive prizes up for grabs. Your custom would be greatly welcomed.
Christmas can be the most wonderful time of the year, but it can also be the most wasteful. Here are some of the top tips (adapted from Journal.ie) for having a more environmentally friendly Christmas. You might find one or two things you could do this Christmas to make a difference to our environment.
- Give people experiences instead of items. Maybe you could give someone the gift of a day out or a trip instead of a toy.
- Check charity shops for presents or make your own. There are fantastic ideas on sites like Pinterest for DIY presents and charity shops can be great places to get good as new books, ornaments, antiques and much more.
- But local produce for your Christmas meals. Purchasing your goods from local suppliers will decrease their food miles as well as support local business and our economy. Buy un-packaged, loose fruit and vegetables when possible.
- Try to unwrap your presents carefully so wrapping paper or gift bags can be re-used. Wrapping paper is very useful for art. Old Christmas cards can be cut into shapes to make festive gift tags.
- Know where to put your rubbish. Don’t contaminate dry clean recyclables with dirty waste. Know your collection points for Christmas trees when it’s time to dispose of them. Dispose of your glass at the bottle bank.
- Buy rechargeable batteries for toys. If you are finished with any batteries keep them to bring them into school after the holidays to dispose of.
As this is our last e-newsletter before Christmas we would like to finish by wishing you all a peaceful and happy Christmas and a fantastic (and green!) new year. We would like to thank everyone for helping and supporting us this year and look forward to telling you about all our new ventures in 2019.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
Welcome to our first edition of the Green Schools E-Newsletter, we hope you enjoy it!
The Green School Committee have been doing incredible work around the school as we work towards our first Green School flag for litter and waste.
Every Wednesday morning we have been picking up the litter in the yard and garden as part of the Litter Less Campaign. The Litter Less Campaign is an international litter awareness programme. It aims to change littering behaviours among young people around the world, to raise awareness of where our waste goes and to involve communities in reducing litter in their locality. We weigh the rubbish each week and are very happy to see a decrease in the amount of litter in this area since October. Everyone has been really helpful in remembering not to bring wrappers on to the yard. We hope this continues.
The Green school Committee have designed a noticeboard beside the staff room displaying Green Schools news, facts about litter and waste and competition entries and winners. This will be updated every few weeks so always keep an eye on it to see the latest installment in our Green Schools journey.
The infant classrooms are doing great work with recycling. Thanks to everyone who has sent in clean, dry recyclable materials for junk art, which is used during Aistear time. Things like egg boxes, cardboard boxes, old wrapping paper, are all extremely useful.
Thank you to everyone who dropped in their batteries for disposal. Batteries for disposal can be dropped into the school any day and will be collected from the school once we have reached the target of 10 shoeboxes full.
The Student council ran a competition for children in the school to come up with a Green School Code. This could have been a slogan, short poem or rhyme or caption. All the entries were excellent and we really appreciate the hard work children went to in creating and designing their codes. The winning entry came from Evie Kennedy and it was “Don’t sin, put it in the bin” which will now be displayed on our noticeboard and will be used as our Green Schools catch phrase for the year ahead. Congratulations and thank you Evie. All entries will be displayed around the school.
A few things coming up:
We are working on lots of new and exciting projects while working towards our Litter and Waste Green Flag. Some things coming up are introducing a 3 bin system to the classrooms and familiarising everyone with composting in the school, a bake sale in December, tree planting and much more. We will be updating you all through our notice board, e-newsletter and the committee will be updating the classes as things progress. Thanks for all your help so far.
We are working on lots of new and exciting projects while working towards our Litter and Waste Green Flag. Some things coming up are introducing a 3 bin system to the classrooms and familiarising everyone with composting in the school, a bake sale in December, tree planting and much more. We will be updating you all through our notice board, e-newsletter and the committee will be updating the classes as things progress. Thanks for all your help so far.