GREEN SCHOOLS UPDATE
Green school news
It’s the end of another busy year at St. Olaf’s NS and we’ve made lots of progress on our Green Schools Programme.
The Green Schools Programme is about working together to create a sustainable future for our local environment and planet earth something both the children, parents and teachers are passionate about.
This year we are working towards our sixth flag which is incredible. (Flags are awarded by An Taisce when schools show leadership and run programmes to promote a specific environmental issue). The five we have already are the Litter & waste flag, the Energy flag, the Water flag, the Travel flag and the Biodiversity flag and we need to keep working on these throughout the year to ensure we maintain them. This year our ever enthusiastic Green School Committee decided to work on getting another; the Global Citizenship - Litter and Waste Flag.
One of the first items on the agenda is our objective of reducing single use plastic in school. One of the ways we are doing this is by encouraging more eco friendly ways for kids to pack their lunches. We are already seeing more children using reusable water bottles and more eco friendly alternatives to tinfoil e.g. beeswax wraps and paper bags.
The Children are leading the way in lots of other ways. In an effort to cut down on our tissue use we are asking children, if they want to, to bring in a hand towel to dry their hands with. The children really respond when they understand small changes they can take responsibility for can drive environmental change!
5thclass committee members are in the process of designing and creating a ‘Critter Corner’ on the school grounds. This will help the children learn about conservation and biodiversity whilst creating natural habitats for insects, pollinators (specifically our reducing bee population) and amphibians to go and grow!
As we approach Christmas some of us might be tempted to take the environment off the agenda. We are encouraging the children to keep it at the forefront of their minds. Georgia McBride from Miss Ní Ghríofa’s class has shown us one way we can do this with her winning entry to the ‘DLRCC Recycled Christmas decoration competition. We still need to do more. This year during Christmas, millions of rolls of wrapping paper will be binned, platefuls of food will not be eaten and we will go through a huge amount of batteries. Three and a half black bags full of packaging will be thrown out per household. Here is a list of things we can all do to reduce the amount of waste we generate at this time of year and have a greener Christmas.
* Turn leftovers into other meals and buy less food – how much is thrown out
* Buy locally made or ethical gifts
* Get creative and decorate with nature: pine cones, holly, winter greenery.
* Use rechargeable batteries and LED lights
* Reuse Christmas cards as gift tags
* Buy sustainable stocking fillers
* Buy plastic-free toys and toys for outdoors
* Send e-cards or make your own cards.
* Use brown recyclable wrapping paper or paper gift bags
* If you receive wrapping paper, before you recycle, check if it passes the scrunch test.
Simple paper wrap can be recycled but foil or glitter decorated paper cannot.
* Protect the Orangutan’s habitat and do not buy any cosmetics/products that contain palm oil.
If we do any of these things, we will be helping the environment! Happy Green Christmas all!
Miss Conlon and the GSC.
It’s the end of another busy year at St. Olaf’s NS and we’ve made lots of progress on our Green Schools Programme.
The Green Schools Programme is about working together to create a sustainable future for our local environment and planet earth something both the children, parents and teachers are passionate about.
This year we are working towards our sixth flag which is incredible. (Flags are awarded by An Taisce when schools show leadership and run programmes to promote a specific environmental issue). The five we have already are the Litter & waste flag, the Energy flag, the Water flag, the Travel flag and the Biodiversity flag and we need to keep working on these throughout the year to ensure we maintain them. This year our ever enthusiastic Green School Committee decided to work on getting another; the Global Citizenship - Litter and Waste Flag.
One of the first items on the agenda is our objective of reducing single use plastic in school. One of the ways we are doing this is by encouraging more eco friendly ways for kids to pack their lunches. We are already seeing more children using reusable water bottles and more eco friendly alternatives to tinfoil e.g. beeswax wraps and paper bags.
The Children are leading the way in lots of other ways. In an effort to cut down on our tissue use we are asking children, if they want to, to bring in a hand towel to dry their hands with. The children really respond when they understand small changes they can take responsibility for can drive environmental change!
5thclass committee members are in the process of designing and creating a ‘Critter Corner’ on the school grounds. This will help the children learn about conservation and biodiversity whilst creating natural habitats for insects, pollinators (specifically our reducing bee population) and amphibians to go and grow!
As we approach Christmas some of us might be tempted to take the environment off the agenda. We are encouraging the children to keep it at the forefront of their minds. Georgia McBride from Miss Ní Ghríofa’s class has shown us one way we can do this with her winning entry to the ‘DLRCC Recycled Christmas decoration competition. We still need to do more. This year during Christmas, millions of rolls of wrapping paper will be binned, platefuls of food will not be eaten and we will go through a huge amount of batteries. Three and a half black bags full of packaging will be thrown out per household. Here is a list of things we can all do to reduce the amount of waste we generate at this time of year and have a greener Christmas.
* Turn leftovers into other meals and buy less food – how much is thrown out
* Buy locally made or ethical gifts
* Get creative and decorate with nature: pine cones, holly, winter greenery.
* Use rechargeable batteries and LED lights
* Reuse Christmas cards as gift tags
* Buy sustainable stocking fillers
* Buy plastic-free toys and toys for outdoors
* Send e-cards or make your own cards.
* Use brown recyclable wrapping paper or paper gift bags
* If you receive wrapping paper, before you recycle, check if it passes the scrunch test.
Simple paper wrap can be recycled but foil or glitter decorated paper cannot.
* Protect the Orangutan’s habitat and do not buy any cosmetics/products that contain palm oil.
If we do any of these things, we will be helping the environment! Happy Green Christmas all!
Miss Conlon and the GSC.
wELL DONE GEORGIA
Georgia from Miss Ní Ghríofa’s 3rd class with her highly commended recycled Christmas decoration and certificate from the DLRCC Recycled Christmas decoration competition. Well done Georgia!
