All classes have been asked to do research on topics relating to the theme. The junior infants to 2nd
classes focused on recycling and used the Repak website and resources to teach
the children how to recycle properly and the importance of recycling and what
happens to our recycled materials. Children from our 3rd and 5th classes monitor the recycling bins each day and record the results on a reward chart for each class. They have found that the children from the junior and senior infant classes are the best recyclers in our school!
The 3rd
to 6th classes took global awareness project titles, such as Fair
Trade, food miles, carbon footprint, plastic in the oceans and UN sustainable
development goals. They will continue to work on these themes next year.
The children of the Green Schools Committee
held two battery recycling events and a clothes recycling event during the
year. The clothes recycling event raised
€1120 which has been used to fund an extension to the school garden, to buy gardening
tools and Bee-Bots and Blue-Bots (small programmable robots).
A
very valuable part of the Green Schools initiative is the involvement with the
local community. The Tidy Towns
committee in Kilcullen is very involved with the Green Schools committee in
Scoil Bhríde. They have organised joint litter
picks, they are coming in to talk to the children about dog soiling and other
litter problems in the town.
They also organised a fantastic project in which a selection of children designed and painted two beehives which will be used for the pollinator project in Kilcullen. The children accompanied the beehives on a float in the St Patrick’s Day parade this year. The Tidy Town's Committee has also asked the children from 3rd and 4th classes to draw some of the creatures that live in the Pinkeen Stream and these images will be used on signs which will be placed along the stream to inform visitors about the biodiversity in the stream.
They also organised a fantastic project in which a selection of children designed and painted two beehives which will be used for the pollinator project in Kilcullen. The children accompanied the beehives on a float in the St Patrick’s Day parade this year. The Tidy Town's Committee has also asked the children from 3rd and 4th classes to draw some of the creatures that live in the Pinkeen Stream and these images will be used on signs which will be placed along the stream to inform visitors about the biodiversity in the stream.
The Green Schools Committee have also been busy maintaining all of the other themes: travel, water, energy, and biodiversity. The children all enjoy Walk on Wednesday, and we now have two Golden Boots (one for the junior infants to second classes and one for the third to sixth classes). Children from each year group have been involved in planting flowers, fruit and vegetables in the school garden. They are busy looking after carrots, potatoes, beetroot, beans, peas, courgettes, pumpkins, leeks, chives, sage, strawberries, spinach, lettuce and are looking forward to harvesting them in the Autumn.
The Green Schools Committee will have another year to promote greater awareness of the theme of Global Citizenship Litter and Waste over the coming year, and will hopefully be successful in gaining their sixth Green Flag next May.