GREEN SCHOOLS 2022-05-06T11:33:32+00:00

 

 

 

 

Our Spring Clean.

On Wednesday the 4th of May we did a spring clean up with the green school. We wore high visibility vests and we had a litter picker each for picking up the rubbish. We had green bags for general waste and clear bags for recycling. This is the type of litter we found-  bottles, general rubbish and sweet wrappers. We went around our school, down the Roslea road and the back of St.Tiernach’s Park. There was a lot of rubbish at the back of St.Tiernach’s Park after the football the game on Saturday. Some of us went on each footpath. We found ladybugs on our way there and we put them on our hands. Myself and the rest of the Green Schools Committee really enjoyed keeping Clones clean!!

 

Save the Bees Wildflower Garden 

On Thursday the 28th April we planted the flowerbeds outside the school. Ciaran had created two lovely beds over the Easter holidays. The Green School Committe planted the flowers in these beds. To begin with, we watered the flowerbeds after we raked it. We then used our fingers to create little holes to plant the flowers in. Next we watered it again to soak them in and allow them to germinate.

We will continue to water them each day to make sure the flowers grow and stay alive. However, you will not see the flowers for almost a year but in some other cases it will only take 14 to 21 days to begin to grow.

We thought this wildflower garden would save our bees and other insects but it would also brighten up our school environment. Múinteoir Olivia, Mary and Maura helped us to do the planting. It was fun to do this activity. I enjoyed getting my hands dirty and participating.

 

 

 

National Tree Week

We, here in St. Tiarnach’s, have been very lucky to receive 14 native trees to plant here in our school environment! We have 4 different types of trees which are planted throughout the school grounds- Maple, Birch, Wild Cherry and Hazel.

ABP Food Group have been kind enough to donate these trees to us as part of their sustainable living initiative.

Each tree represents a different classroom in our school- which means each class will be able to enjoy watching their very own tree grow and mature as they progress through the school and, indeed, beyond!!

                

 

An Taisce Competition

 

 All the children, from Junior Infants up to sixth class, took part in a competition from An Taisce. The competition was aimed at encouraging people to become more aware of their use of water. The title of the competition was “Let’s Take Climate Action for Water”. Each child was told to create a poster with a catchy slogan and a bright eye catching picture.

We had some amazing entries to be sent off, so much so that we decided to hold our own presentation. We chose a winner from both the senior and junior end of the school and some runners up- their posters were amazing- we have some great artists here in St. Tiarnach’s!! Well done to those children and all who took part!!!

 

 

        

 

Here are some lovely examples of the beautiful artwork from the An Taisce competition. 

“Let’s Take Climate Action for Water”

 

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Our “Busy Bees Use LEDs” Presentation

Since our 6th class members of the Green School Committee worked so hard over the last 6 weeks we wanted our parents to see exactly what we have done in our campaign and what we have learned- we hoped to convert a few parents to LED bulbs too!!

Zach, Sophie, Rachel and Ceara were excellent- they explained exactly what we did throughout our campaign- we wanted to make parents and our local community aware of the benefits of using LED bulbs instead of the traditional bulb. To do this we researched the advantages of LED bulbs and put this information on fliers and posters before distributing them around our school and different shops and businesses throughout Clones. We also invited a guest speaker form the ESB to come in and teach the children in 5th and 6th class about sustainable energy. This was very beneficial to our campaign.

The last big event in our campaign was our presentation about LED bulbs- we invited parents into the school and the children on the team gave a wonderful presentation, in it they explained exactly what renewable and non- renewable energy was. They then explained the differences between LED bulbs and incandescent bulbs and also gave a run down on the cost savings people will have if they change all bulbs to LED bulbs. The photos above are a few snaps from the presentation- well done to our Busy Bees!! Our entry to The One Good Idea competition has been submitted and we will hear the results at the end of March.

 

SEAi- Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland Competition- One Good Idea

“Bright Bees Use LEDs”

We at St. Tiarnach’s would like to congratulate our 6th class members of the Green Schools Committee, who have fought very tough competition throughout Ireland to make it to the second round of the SEAi (Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland) competition for “One Good Idea”. They are one of the 30 primary schools nationally and the only school in Ulster to make it to this stage… A massive achievement already!!!

The competition’s aim is to allow children to run a campaign designed to encourage parents/members of the community to change one simple thing in their life style which will help save energy in our environment.

The children came up with the very clever and simple idea of using LED lights as opposed to the traditional bulb. They also came up with a very effective slogan “Bright Bees Use LEDS”. The focus of the campaign will be on the ‘Use Less, Use Clean’ idea which is so important in today’s world!

They will be activating the campaign in the coming weeks- using posters, fliers, logos, slogans and social media to advertise their ideas. Please keep an eye out and support the campaign in any way possible!!!

 

 

We have a newly reformed green school committee in St. Tiarnach’s. Over the years we have worked very hard at various ‘green’ initiatives and earned 6 green flag awards. The themes we worked on were

  1. Litter & Waste
  2. Energy
  3. Water
  4. Transport/Travel
  5. Biodiversity
  6. Global citizenship

Our new Green School committee’s job is to maintain these 6 green flags which is no mean feat! At the moment we are really concentrating on

  1. The reduction of Litter & Waste
  2. Reducing our energy & water bills

We have a very enthusiastic committee made up of children from 3rd, 4th, & 5th class. We have bin monitors who regularly patrol the corridors and check the bins, lights, switches & taps in each classroom….and they are very strict!

If anyone has used batteries, we are collecting them to support Barretstown (who help rebuild lives affected by Childhood Cancer)

NATIONAL SPRING CLEAN MONTH OF APRIL

It’s been a very busy couple weeks for our Green Schools Committee. Since it’s National Spring Clean month we’ve been doing our own cleaning. We did some litter picking in and around the school, hoping to encourage the rest of the children in the school to learn from our example. So much work was done by the committee which emphasised their strong commitment to keeping our environment safe and healthy.

Along with our own spring cleaning we went down and helped out with Clones Tidy Towns; something that was greatly appreciated by all involved!

 

Spring Clean Poetry/Poster Competition

 

In order to promote the ethos of keeping our environment clean both in school and at home the Green Schools Committee decided to hold a competition; one that encouraged children to think about what we need to do as a team to keep our environment clean.

 

After careful consideration, it was decided that 2nd class up to 6th class would write a poem inspired by the environment while the Junior Infants to 1st class created posters. There was a great response to the competition and it was very difficult to choose from the many entrants.

 

Four winners were chosen and they received some great prizes!!

PLANTING

 

Since it’s coming into the summer term here in St. Tiarnach’s (or what is supposed to be summer!!!) we decided to do some planting in the polytunnel. It has been a great success, giving children from throughout the school an opportunity to ‘get their hands dirty’ and learn about the various plants, flowers, vegetables and fruit that can be planted this time of year. The Green Schools Committee have also been busy helping the Junior Infants with their “Incredible Edibles” project. This project involves the Junior Infants planting their own vegetables in the polytunnel and looking after them over the next few weeks.

 

The polytunnel has only gotten up and running in the last couple of weeks but we hope to see great results by the end of the summer term!! It gives the children a chance to see where the veg on their dinner plates really comes from!!! It also highlights the responsibility and care that needs to be taken in order to allow the veg/plants to grow in a healthy environment…. A great learning experience.