Green School News
Global citizenship – Shoebox Appeal
The Green School committee with the boxes collected for the Team Hope Christmas shoebox appeal. Our Green school theme this year is Global Citizenship Thanks to all who contributed to this great cause.
Global Citizenship
Multi-cultural/ Global Citizenship week was a great success. The children participated in African drumming workshops, food tasting, folk dancing , watched dance and costume displays and listened to music from the many cultures that are in our school. The theme of the week was “ All different, all equal” so the children learned about a variety of countries and cultures while fostering a respect for everyone in the world.
There was a fabulous response to the art competition which the parents and children completed at home. The Green School Committee picked out the winners and prizes were awarded after the national costume fashion show. The posters make a beautiful display in the hall and carry the message ‘ All different, all equal.’
The following pictures show a flavour of our interesting week.
Green school news October 2016.
Having been awarded our fifth Green Flag for Biodiversity last June we have now started the two year programme towards our next flag. Our next theme is Global Citizenship with revision also on the Energy and waste issues.
Global Citizenship is about a moral understanding of our rights and responsibilities in a global context. We respect and value diversity while understanding that all people have equal rights. In addition it means that we value the earth as very precious and as a resource upon which we all depend .
In school we had our first Green school meeting and welcomed six new pupils from the first classes .We also have a new teacher member Miss L.Gallagher.
During October the pupils on the committee run the bin competition between the classes. Every Friday the three bins in every class are marked out of ten. The committee are very strict and deduct marks if bread is found in the compost bin or fruit in the recycling bin. It is good fun for the committee members especially when they get a chance to announce the winners over the intercom.
Our gardening committee of Penny, Rose, Claire and Bertie are busy tidying up our planters for use this year.
We had a kindness day during Friendship week which focused the childrens thoughts on the Gllobal need to be kind to one another. The children received Kindness certificates.
Multicultural week is happening November 14th -18th. This week will be a celebration of the different cultures that contribute to life in St.Josephs. We hope to expose the children to music, dance, food, costumes and stories from other countries. There will be drumming workshops also.
Art displayed will be on the theme ‘All different all equal’.
Biodiversity Flag
We were delighted to welcome back our previous Principal Mrs Geraldine Byrne to raise our fifth Green flag for Biodiversity. Her enthusiasm and interest in the environment encouraged Mary Lambe to begin the Green school programme ten years ago. Miss Dowling mentioned and praised the many projects in biodiversity that the students in the school were involved in during the past two years.Special praise and thanks were given to the new gardening committee and the childrens vegetable garden set up with help from Paddy Madden from the Heritage in schools scheme. The children went on many nature trips including seasonal walks in local Charleville forest,Lough Boora parklands.Clara bog and Mount Lucas wind farm. Before the flag raising the second class children sang songs related to minibeasts in keeping with the theme of Biodiversity.
The flag was collected at the award ceremony in Athlone by the committee and parents. Well done to all.
January 2015
St Joseph’s Green School Committee are delighted with all our awards to date. We now have four green flags,
1. Litter and waste
2. Energy conservation
3. Water conservation
4. Travel
For the next two years we will be working on the theme of BIODIVERSITY. This means developing an awareness and appreciation of the variety of plants and animals in our environment. We are very lucky in St Joseph’s to have lovely green areas around the school that help us learn about trees, plants and birds. Awareness of all previous themes will also be maintained.
In the autumn term we had an interestingbiodiversity walk in our local Charleville forest. Every class enjoyed environmental workshops with Paddy Madden. We celebrated National tree day on October 10th. The annual bin competition between the classes brought awareness again on composting and recycling. When planting bulbs in November teachers used water from the school water butt.
We hope to form a parent group with ideas for future biodiversity projects eg butterfly area, raised beds, planting vegetables etc.
Can you work with your child and help us compose a new rap/slogan /motto on a biodiversity theme. You can write on a piece of paper and send it in to your child’s teacher. If you really want to be green, try emailing your rap to info@stjosephstullamore.ie The raps for our previous themes are as follows—
St. Joseph’s school is going green,
We’re trying hard to be so clean,
Recycling paper in the blue bin
Caring for our world and no littering.
At St Josephs we’re proud to say
that we save water every day.
We’re using less on every chore
So come on children let’s save some more.
Shout, shout, let it all out
Saving energy is what it’s all about
Windows closed and doors too
Loving our earth is what we’ll do
Protect our planet and the ozone layer
Don’t drive here and don’t drive there
To save on petrol and diesel fuel
Take the first step and walk to school
Green Schools news
The school was reviewed for its fourth Green flag for travel on February 12th by Mieke Scholte from An Taisce. She came to the school, spoke to the committee, visited a few classes and looked at all our Green activities. Hopefully we will receive good news in March. A big thank you to all the parents who participated in our W.O.W days and who now walk to school, carpool or park and stride. You might like to participate in the new national S.O.W (Scoot on Wednesday) on March 12th or the national W.O.W day on May 14th.