Green Schools Update - June 2023
Our work was ongoing throughout the year working on our current theme Global Citizenship and Energy trying to save energy in school and learning about the Global Development Goal No.7 Clean energy. Some of the highlights of the year included our trip to the windmills and our Energy Saving Week. The following pieces were written by our Fifth Class.
A day trip to the windmills
On Wednesday 19-04-2023 we went to see the Windmills in Letterbarrow. First we got on the bus, then drove there. When we stopped, we met John McGrory and we started to walk up the path on the mountain. The windmills are located in the Bluestack Mountains. He talked to us about the local area and the names of the mountains.
On the walk we saw a building that uses water to create electricity. This is called Hydro-electric power. Eventually, after a long walk up a steep hill, we got to one of the windmills and had our lunches, on a breezy hilltop. We learned that it was very windy beside the windmills because they are so high up. John told us some interesting facts about the windmills. The first windmills were installed around 1998/1999. They are about 50m high. There were newer more modern windmills installed more recently and these produce more electricity than the older ones. We then walked over to one of the more modern windmills and it was even windier over at it.Then we walked back down the mountain and met a few lambs along the way. It was such a fun day and I hope to do it again someday.
Energy Saving Week
We held energy saving week between the 6th of June until the 9th of June. We tried to use as little energy as possible. Every morning a different class went out and took a picture of the meter. We watched a video about energy saving and it showed us how to save energy. We learned about energy safety and had some energy saving homework. We had an energy saving day on Wednesday the 7th of June. We were very successful and used nearly half as much of what we used on all of the other days. We took advantage of the lovely weather and sat outside on the benches to eat our lunches instead of being inside with the lights on. Although we used less energy there are some things we need to improve on like making sure to turn off the whiteboard and lights at lunch and only having one set of lights on inside when it’s bright.
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Green Flag
This term we have started work on our next green flag. The theme is Global Citizenship Energy.
We started by holding our first meeting and organising our committee. We decided the committee should be 2nd - 6th class and would be known as “The Green Team”. We enlisted the help of 2nd class to inform the junior room of our progress and actions to date. We discussed the priorities that should be done and we carried out our energy audit. 5th class carried out the survey and 6th class displayed the results using graphs. These are displayed on the notice board.
4th class recorded the amount of electricity used each day for a week and recorded this in a table - also displayed on the notice board. All classes completed a lesson on what energy means and the seniors discussed global citizenship and the global goals. We picked global goal no7 which is affordable and clean energy to learn more about and complete a project on it next term.
We continue to work on our other flags by:
monitoring the playground for litter, checking the bins for misplaced litter (2nd class are in charge of the junior room bins) and encouraging recycling throughout the whole school. We made bug hotels and replanted the flowers in the tyres we reused for planting. We continue to remind people to turn off the taps to conserve water and to turn off lights and screens when not in use. Some of the pupils cycle to school when the weather is suitable.
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Action Day
On the 25th March we held our Green Schools Action Day. In the morning we did some work on Fairtrade. The Senior Room presented some projects on chocolate and Fairtrade to the Junior Room and everyone sampled some fairtrade chocolage. Then we decided to make our own lemonade using Fairtrade ingredients. It was a big success! We decided to use this opportunity to take part in An Taisce's National Spring Clean. So in the afternoon we headed off towards Inver Beach and gathered lots of litter along the route. We had lots of fun and were joined by some parents and past pupils. We are so grateful for everyone's help.
Green Flag Ceremony
On the 29th April we were thrilled to receive news that we had been awarded our sixth green flag. Due to Covid restrictions our Green Flag Ceremony was going to be a virtual ceremony. We received our flag and certificate in the post. We were invited to attend the ceremony on zoom on the 25th May. We all gathered in the Senior Room at 11am. We enjoyed listening to the different speakers and hearing about the work other schools and organisations had been doing. We were very excited to hear our name called out and see it on screen. We all cheered. We then took some photographs with our new flag and certificate. We are really looking forward to having a flag raising day next term.
Our next flag will be on the theme of Global Citizenship Energy. We are looking forward to beginning work on this in the new term.
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