Green Schools

September 2022

We are working towards our next Green Flag. A Green- Schools Committee has been formed and they are making a plan.

Monday 9th March 2020

The Green School’s Committee have met and discusses the findings from the trip to Powerstown Recycling Centre. The children have decided to have an Eco Monitor in each classroom and for a separate bin to be placed in each room for materials that can’t be put into our recycling bins but can be recycled in Powerstown Recycling Centre.

Friday 6th March 2020

1st, 2nd and 3rd Class had a great day in Powerstown Recycling Centre. Mary and Sinéad were brilliant with the children and gave them an interesting and engaging guide around the centre. The children and teachers learned about the facilities in the centre and will relay this information back to the Green School’s Committee so it can be put in the Action Plan.

Wednesday 4th March 2020

In class, we are all discussing the goal of Good Health and Wellbeing in our classrooms this week. The children are learning about ways to stop the spread of infections/ viruses and how to keep ourselves healthy. We realised that the goal of Clean water and Sanitation is linked to the goal of Good Health and Wellbeing.

Friday 21st February 2020

As part of work in gaining the next Green School’s Flag, the children are learning about the Sustainable Development Goals. These are 17 goals which were created by the United Nations General Assembly and are intended to be achieved by 2030.

Image result for un nations goals

We are learning about the goal of No Poverty at the moment. We are learning about what people need in order to live and how we can help people that are living in Poverty. The Senior Room are discussing famine in different countries, in particular Somalia and how this effects the lives of the people living in the area. The Senior Room also talked about the importance of Quality Education for children living in under developed countries and the effect a lack of education has on their lives.

This is an updated version of our Green School’s Display.

Wednesday 19th February 2020

In the Senior Room, we have planted some seeds into our flower beds in the garden. We have planted some flowers and some vegetables. We look forward to seeing how they grow over the coming weeks.

Friday 31st January 2020

We are working hard in order to achieve the next Green Flag. Before the Christmas Holidays, the Green Schools team were investigating recycling in the school. They assessed the amount of waste, recycling and compost produced by each classroom. Each of the classrooms are working hard to produce as little waste as possible and recycle as much as we can. The Senior Room are currently making Famine houses out of cardboard that Ms Brownrigg and the children collected from home.

We are focusing on Fairtrade this term as part of the work for this flag. Mr Tobin talked about Fair Trade with the children in assembly and the children are doing activities based on the topic. The children are being encouraged to purchase FairTrade products when they are shopping as the farmer that produced the product, gets a fair price for his work.

Friday 24th May 2019

School Grounds Clean Up

This term, we have decided to do some work on our school grounds.

First, we looked at the front of the school. The children in the Junior and Senior Room weeded the area. The children in 3rd to 6th class placed their ‘Bee Barn’ here and planted some wild flowers near it.

Next we are working on the school garden. The children in the Senior Room have weeded the space, painted the fence and the back wall. The children in the Middle Room are going to finish the wall and paint the raised beds.

We look forward to sharing the end results!

Thursday 19th June, 2014

Today was a very special day at St. Columba’s N.S. as we raised our fifth green flag. The pupils read prayers and spoke about some of the highlights of our work over the last few years on the theme of ‘Biodiversity.’ We were delighted to welcome Mr. Caldbeck to raise our green flag. Many thanks to Mr. Caldbeck for all his help and support over the years. It was a very proud day for us all. Thank you to the staff, pupils and Green Schools Committee on their wonderful achievement. Many thanks to the Board of Management and parents for their continued support. We look forward to beginning work on our sixth theme of ‘Global Citizenship.’

Wednesday, 21st May, 2014

Today was a very special day for the Green Schools Committee. Representatives of the Committee attended a ceremony in Kilkenny to collect our fifth Green Flag under the theme of Biodiversity. It was a very proud day for our school. We are looking forward to raising our flag over the coming weeks. Many thanks to all the pupils and staff on their wonderful work over the past number of years.

We are very proud of our green school.  We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded our fifth green flag on the theme of Biodiversity. Many thanks to the wonderful and dedicated work of our Green School Committee. Thanks also to the staff and pupils on their continued hard work over the previous number of years. We will continue to promote and improve the biodiversity in our school. Biodiversity is defined as the variation of living organisms from all sources and the habitats of which they are part of. Our Green School Committee continue to develop and promote our work under the first four themes. These themes are ‘Litter & Waste,’ ‘Energy,’ ‘Water’ and ‘Travel’.

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Our School Garden & Vegetable Plot

We are very proud of our school garden. The pupils and teachers have transformed the school garden into a bright, relaxing and creative area for the pupils to enjoy. The garden walls were painted by 4th, 5th and 6th class pupils in bright colours using the theme of biodiversity as inspiration. Over the past number of years, the pupils have planted a wide variety of bulbs. A vegetable plot has been recently added to our school garden. The pupils plant vegetable seeds and take responsibility for watering the vegetables. We look forward to watching the vegetables grow over the coming weeks. The pupils have also painted stones in bright colours and placed them around the garden path to brighten up the garden. Thank you to the staff and pupils on their continued hard work. The garden has become a favourite break time place to relax. The pupils are captivated by the biodiversity in our garden. All our hard work has fostered a love of nature in our school.

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