Green Schools

WATER ACTION DAY:

On November 26th last, the Green School Committee organised an Action Day in our school. Every class in the school participated. Before the Halloween break, every class was given notice of the day so that they had plenty of time to prepare and to get working! Parents were invited to visit the sports hall, where classes had set up their stands and experiments. We had a judging panel who visited each stand and awarded prizes to the outstanding classes. They also had the very difficult job of deciding on which class had the best WATER MOTTO.The boys all dressed in blue for the day, to reflect the colour associated with water. There were ‘reporters’ and ‘photographers’ circulating during the day, capturing pictures and comments from all that visited. The day was a huge success and the Green Schools’ Committee would like to thank everybody who was involved. a big ‘Congratulations’ to 2/3rd and 5th Class, who won prizes for ‘Best Presentation’ and to Ms. Moore’s 1st Class, who’s motto was the overall winner….‘Save water, save water. Never, ever waste water!’

IMG_2552Welcome everybody….IMG_2702Our judges….

IMG_2709Judge Conroy and Judge Hicks

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Recycling Day 2015:

November 6th saw us hold a big recycling day in the school. Everything from clothes to teddies to bed linen could be recycled. We spread the word from far and wide for all to hear. Everybody in the school community contributed and it was a great excuse to do a tidy out be fore Christmas. Over 500 kgs was recycled in total, raising over 200E for the school.

A big ‘Go raibh maith agat’ goes to all who recycled with us 🙂

The G.S Committee.

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Meath Co.Co Art Competiton:

All the classes participated in the Meath Co.Co Anti-Litter poster competition. The competition was for 1st-6th Class, but Junior and Senior Infants did a fantastic job for our in-school colouring competition too!! Each class teacher was asked to choose 3 top entries for their class. Unfortunately, only 6 entries could be put forward from the WHOLE school but the other top entries can be seen at our Green Schools’ Noticeboard. Well done to the 6 overall entries: Daniel, Mikey, Cormac, Elliot, Sean and Francoise….Good Luck boys!

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WATER AUDIT WEEK/Green School’s Noticeboard:

Our Green Schools’ noticeboard has found a new home!!We have a lovely spot in our new school, where our board can be seen daily by passing pupils and teachers!! It’s really starting to take shape, but we still have a bit more information to add!  Next week sees us enter our WATER AUDIT WEEK, where the committee will be carrying out audits on different things. These include counting lights, taps, blinds, toilets etc., figuring out how much water teachers use for cups of tea (YIKES!!), looking at the amount of water different appliances use, seeing how much water is wasted by leaving the taps running, recording how many times the toilets are flushed each day, monitoring how much photocopying is done by teachers (DOUBLE YIKES!!!) and monitoring the water meter to compare to last year! It’s going to be a busy week……we can’t wait!!:-)

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DULEEK BOYS’ N.S

FUNDRAISING EVENT

There will be a clothing recycling drive in aid of DULEEK BOYS’ N.S on  Friday, November 6th 2015

 

PLEASE DROP OFF ALL ITEMS BEFORE THIS DATE OR BEFORE 9.30AM ON THE MORNING OF NOV. 6TH

Please donate all your clean unwanted clothes also bed linen, towels, curtains, shoes, bags, belts and soft toys.

Wearable clothes will be recycled and re-used and other items will be recycled for items, such as, industrial wipes or soundproofing.

LAPTOPS (must be intact with power lead) AND MOBILE PHONES ARE ACCEPTED BUT PLEASE KEEP SEPARATE

NO HOUSEHOLD BRIC A BRAC

MORE BAGS = MORE WEIGHT = MORE FUNDRAISING

Thank you for your support and taking the time and effort to support our fundraising drive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5th Class GBGs (Green Bin Galacticos)!! September 2015:

This year Ms McManus’ boys have become special Galacticos!!2 galacticos have been assigned to each class and room in the school to monitor and empty the recycling bins. They check the bins every Tuesday and empty when required but ALWAYS empty them on a Thursday, as the green bins tend to be collected every 2nd Friday. We have 3 black bins and 6 green bins at present. We are monitoring the volume of each closely and hope to see more in the green than in the black bins!Fingers crossed…. 🙂

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September 2015:

Welcome back to a new school year which sees us in our lovely new school. This is the 2nd year of our Green Schools’ application for our 3rd Green Flag (Water). We have carried out a lot of tasks in the old school building but we still have some things to do in our new building. We are very fortunate that our new building is eco-efficient but there’s always room for improvement!!

We have welcomed a brand new committee on board this year. It consists of representatives from 1st to 6th Class and they appear to be every bit as eager and enthusiastic as last year’s committee! We look forward to getting stuck into all that is to be done!:)

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Ethan  and Jack                                                                  Aaron  and Tomás

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Sean  and Callum                                                Callum  and Michael

 

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Arion and Evan                                                                           Jon  and Jamie

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Ivan  and Conor                                                        Emmanuel and Glen

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Davies and Tom                                                             Michael  and David

 

 

 

12/3/15: Water Meters

Today, during our Green Schools’ meeting, Ms McManus arranged with Peter, our caretaker, to go out to see the water meter. Pater had attended last week’s meeting to tell us all about our meter readings and to talk to us about water wastage in the school; and so today he brought us out to show us how it actually works. He had been keeping a record of the units used over 5 weeks. I t showed that our usage had in general gone down but there was a week where our consumption rose for no apparent reason. Peter had also been monitoring the water wastage in the boys’ bottom toilets. we carried out an experiment whereby we read the meter on a Friday evening, left the supply on over the weekend and then read the meter again on Monday morning. 107 units had been used. Then we did the same thing the following weekend, only we turned the supply off over Saturday and Sunday. On Monday morning, it showed that 46 units had been used. This saw a saving of 61 units. Although it is not practical to constantly twist the old valve that controls the supply on and off, we have become more aware of things we can do to save water. A big ‘THANK YOU’ goes to Peter for all his hard work in helping us carry out these audits!

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27/2/15: ‘Water’ Forum, St Oliver Plunkett N.S., Navan:

On Friday last (Feb 27th), members of our Green Schools’ Committee were invited to attend St. Oliver Plunkett’s for a brainstorming session on the ‘Water’ flag. Committee members’ names were put into a hat and were chosen. Elliot Lenehan, Luke Harrison, Robert Duff and Ryan Jones set off with Ms McManus to see what was in store! When we arrived, we  signed in and shown to our station. The morning was action packed, with the host school sharing their ideas that they had done when applying for their Water flag. Experiments were demonstrated and some classes even came down to the hall to perform their musical interpretations of Water. Each attending school got to share what they are currently doing in their application. This was a great chance for each school to pick up some tips and new ideas. We were provided with lunch too….mmmmm!!Each school were also given the chance to design their dream Water school….our boys were very creative…we  had sharks , zip-lines and water slides!!!Overall, the boys had a very enjoyable morning and picked up lots of ideas to work on over the next few months. They did an excellent job representing the school and should be very proud of themselves…well done boys 🙂

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Compost Captains:

The boys in Ms McManus’ 5th Class are doing a great job in their new roles as Compost Captains. 2 captains are assigned to each class and their jobs include talking to their classes about compostable items, checking the food bins that each class have been given, emptying them (twice weekly checks) and replacing the food bags. All the boys and teachers in the school have been so co-operative with our efforts to get a composter up and running at school….thanks to everyone and keep up the good work!! Once again,  special thanks goes to Peter for setting the composters up!!:-)

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Rain Harvester:

The rain harvesters are up running since before the Christmas break! With our lovely weather here in Ireland, they are already full to the brim! They will be ready for use by the gardeners soon and the Compost Captains rinse out the foods bins on a weekly basis with the water! Good job everyone and thanks to Peter for installing them 🙂

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Ms McManus’ Class Elections:

5th class ran elections to decide on who would be the class reps on the Green School’s Committee. We had 5 candidates who each had a week to prepare their speech and present themselves to the class. Each of the candidates did a super job so well done to you all. Unfortunately, we could only vote for 2 so congratulations to Luke and Elliot who were elected to the committee.

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Welcome back to a new school year!

September saw us get stuck straight back into working towards our 3rd Green Flag (Water). We have 2 years to carry out different tasks in order for our school to be seen as ‘water’ aware. We have lots of jobs to do and we are very eager and excited. Our first job was to establish a new committee. There were lots of boys willing to volunteer, which was fantastic to see. Each class has 2 representatives. Some classes chose volunteers, picked names out of a hat and Ms McManus’ 5th class even ran elections!!! The following is the committee for 2014/2015:

Ms McManus

Ms Kelleher

Ms Fagan

Peter Hamilton (Caretaker)

Carol Saurin (Parents’ Rep.)

1st Class: Christopher Byrne, Charlie O’Rielly, Cillian Keelan Whearty

2nd Class: Eamonn Armstrong, Alex McKenna, Jamie McCormack

3rd Class: Steven Martin, Kyle Doherty, Dominic Murphy

4th Class: Joey Kavanagh, Ben Cullen, Jamie Cooney

5th Class: Luke Harrison, Elliot Lenahan Robert Duff, Ryan Jones

6th Class: Luke Russell, Sean O’Brien

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On Friday last, March 7th, we ran a ‘Low Energy Day’ at school. Interactive whiteboards, laptops and the photocopier were out of use for the day. The purpose of the day was to see how much energy could be save if things like the photocopier, laptops and Interactive Whiteboards were NOT in use. We read the meters the day before to see how many units were used on an average day. We then read them at the beginning/end of the Low Energy Day. We also read them AGAIN on Monday just to make sure a difference was noticed!  Here’s what we found:

Thurs (day before): 225 units used

Fri (Low Energy Day): 80 units used

Mon: 184 units used.

Well done to all in the school who got involved and participated in the day 🙂

 

 

Today (Wed. 26/2/14) we had an assessment visit from Peter Brady. Peter works with Meath Co. Co. and the purpose of his visit was to assess all the work that has been carried out in school in relation to our  2nd Green Flag. Peter met with the Green Schools’ Committee members and teachers; asking them questions, discussing our work and looking at the wonderful projects that the boys completed. He seemed very impressed with our efforts and we now await the outcome of his report. This should be made known to us by April so……FINGERS CROSSED!!:-)

 

Dear Parent(s)

The Green Schools’ Committee have been working hard at making our school a greener place to be. We have been successfully awarded our 1st green flag for Litter and Waste and are currently working towards our 2nd flag for Energy. We want to share with you the work that we have already done and also some goals that we are working towards. We also encourage you all to do whatever you can to make YOUR HOME a greener one too. We have included to helpful hints and a lot of them cost nothing but mean everything to the environment!

Some goals that we have achieved:

  • Continue collecting mobile phones
  • Continue to collect used batteries
  • Continue collecting used ink cartridges
  • Keep working on our school garden, using recycled materials where possible
  • Run a poster competition
  • Compare heating bills over our 2 year period of work
  • Run a Green Schools’ motto competition
  • Campaign to keep doors closed tightly
  • Run a ‘Switch it off’ campaign
  • Run a ‘Switch off the Whiteboard’ campaign
  • Begin using our school website as a means of informing the wider community
  • Carry out an audit of lights, taps, plugs and windows
  • Appoint  ‘Light Sheriffs’ in Infant classes
  • Conduct a Blinds/Radiator survey
  • Undertake projects to study the different sources of renewable energy

Some goals that we are working towards:

  • Make draught stoppers
  • Hold an open day
  • Read the meters
  • Run a Low Energy Day

 

Green Flag Committee Members 2013/2014

The committee is made up of teachers, parents and students. The following are the committee members for this year:

  • Ms McManus
  • Ms Fagan
  • Ms Kelleher
  • Mrs Levins
  • Carol Saurin (parents’ representative)
  • Tony Mc Donald (caretaker)

 

1st Class:                                                  4th Class:

Jake Meehan                                            Leon Noonan

Conaill Deehan                                        Brógan McGaghey

Chukwudike Kpaduwa                           Ciarán Connor

Cian Coleman

2nd Class:                                                  5th Class:

Cillian Ratchford                                       Harry Caffrey

Aaron Droney                                            Callum Agnew

Shane Hamilton

3rd Class:                                                  6th Class:

Shane Sears                                                  Luke Kelly

Steven Murray                                             Daniel Rielly

Joe O’Rielly

 

Thanking you,

The Green Schools’ Committee

 

The green schools project is co-ordinated by Mrs. Levins with help from Ms.McManus. The  school was awarded with our first green flag in April 2010. This flag was awarded for our great efforts in the areas of recycling and waste management.

This year, we are aiming for our second green flag. For this flag, we will be working on the area of ‘Energy’ in the school. We are currently in the process of forming an ‘Energy’ Committee so that we can get started on the jobs that need to be done.

We’ll keep you updated on our progress!