Green Schools Flag 8 Global Citizenship- Marine
Environment.
Holy Family School has been participating in
the Green Schools Programme since the school opened in 2007. To date the school
has achieved 7 flags. We are currently working towards our 8th flag-
Global Citizenship- Marine Environment.
Our Green Schools Committee is made up
of 2 members from each class from 1st to 6th We have
Green Schools meetings where we discuss our plans to keep our school green.
Our code for flag 8 Global Citizenship-
Marine Environment is “Protectors of the sea is what we need to be” The current
2nd class came up with this code and we think it is very catchy. Our
codes for our other flags are displayed on our Green School Notice board.
Our Green Schools Notice Board is
outside Mr. Dineen’s 6th class room. Our principal Mr. Horan also fills the classes
in with any information about the Green Schools through the school intercom. We
really enjoy litter picking. Different classes take part in litter picking in
our school. We have litter pickers and gloves for picking up the litter.
We also have class Litter and Energy
wardens in each class. The Litter wardens job is to remind everyone in the
classes to use the correct bins. Every bin in each class is labelled to make
this as easy as possible for everyone. We also encourage all classes to take
home their own waste and recycle at home. The Energy warden is in charge of
turning off the lights, whiteboard and any other electrical appliance when they
are not in use. There is a ‘LOLO’ poster under each light switch in each
classroom. It stands for ‘Last Out Lights Off’. We also make sure to close the
doors at break times to keep the heat in. We remind everyone to turn off the
taps when finished and not let them running. We learned about the Nasty nine
and Think Before you Flush campaign this year.
Last year, the Green Schools Committee
did an environmental review. Classes did the ‘Marine Awareness Survey’ Classes.
We repeated this survey and were happy to learn that there was a good
improvement in all areas. We also did a plastic survey bottle survey in our
school and we are proud to learn that there has been a great improvement in our
school and more people are using reusable bottles now. 98% of pupils surveyed
use a reusable bottle. The results of both of these surveys are on our Green
Schools noticeboard.
After we did the review we made our
Action Plan which is available on our Green Schools Notice Board. There are
also some interesting facts about marine litter and wildlife on our board, as
well as pictures of some of the activities that we have completed in the last 2
years. 5th class completed projects based on the marine environment
this year such as marine litter, climate change, microplastics and overfishing.
3rd to 6th class
had a guest speaker in October from IRD Duhallow who spoke about our local
River, the River Blackwater. We also got to examine various wildlife found in
the river.
On January the 26th we had our Action Day.
We all wore blue clothing. Each class completed lessons on the marine
environment. Juniors and seniors learned about sea creatures and coloured in
pictures. 1st class coloured chalk drew marine animals on the school
yard and 2nd learned about marine litter and created posters to
encourage others to protect our marine environments. 3rd class learned about
the Mariana Trench and drew some marine animals. 4th class learned
about the Great Garbage Patch and wrote some acrostic poems. 5th and
6th class learned about climate change. 5th class went
around to each class to tell them facts about the breakdown of marine litter. Each
class also made an environmental pledge. In the evening the Green Schools
Committee went litter picking. We had a great day.
We also used
our Action Day as an opportunity to have a Single Use Plastic Free Day.
Students and staff were encouraged to make an effort to ditch the disposables
that day. Well done everyone!
Holy Family school have done a lot of work in class
based on the theme of marine environment over the last two years. Last year our current 2nd class took
part in the Seakeepers Project. They learned about different sea creatures such
as the bask shark .5th class are also taking part in this project
this year. They have learned about the moon jellyfish so far. They were shocked
to learn that it had no brain. All classes watched lots of videos and did
marine lessons during marine week last April. 5th class also took
part in a zoom webinar with a marine zoologist in November.
Last year’s Green Schools Committee planted bulbs
last March. A whole school recycling art competition was held in December. The
decorations were fabulous. Some classes took part in a recycling webinar by
Kerry County Council. They learned about the website www.waste.ie.
On the 7th of February our Green Schools
Committee met with Angela Wall, from an Taisce. We prepared a speech on all the
fantastic work being done in our School. She was very impressed. Well done to
our Green Schools Committee.
Well done to members of the Green Schools Committee
who travelled to Killarney to collect our 8th Green Schools flag. It
was a fantastic day.
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