Welcome to Greystones Educate Together Green School page. This is the place to follow our progress as we go in search of our first green school flag.
Greystones Eduacte Together is currently participating in the Green Schools programme. The programme is part of a three way collaboration involving the school, An Taisce and local Authorities. It aims to foster environmental awareness in our school and the wider community. The Green Flag is awarded to schools upon completion of all elements of the programme. For the first flag our focus will be on Litter and Waste.
Our Committee:
Our Green Schools Committee was established at the beginning of the year. This committee includes teachers, pupils, parents and the caretaker and meetings are held on a regular basis. Our green school board is in the main entrance of the school and parents and pupils can keep up to date on upcoming events and activities in progress here.
Environmental Audit:
We began by examining the impact of litter and waste in our school, by going on a school walkabout with a camera, recording areas of the school grounds where litter was a particular problem. We examined classrooms during the day and found that these could be tidier than what they are. We also noted the types of waste being produced in class and came up with practical ideas for reducing and minimizing the amount of litter and waste produced by the school. We then formulated our action plan. This is revised on a regular basis.
Action Plan:
The action plan consists of the following targets:
- A pencil toppings tin for each classroom.
- Orange bag in each classroom for paper.
- Black flowerpot in each classroom for food skins.
- General waste in lunchoxes is to be brought home.
- Daily tidy classroom competition with tidy classrooms getting a happy face and untidy classrooms an unhappy face.
- We have decided to hold a Spring Clean both inside and outside the school to clean the school grounds. This will be in accordance with ‘An Taisce’ and will take place in April.
- During specific months we will target the recycling of various objects e.g. Stamps, mobile phones, batteries etc.
- The pupils on the Committee inform pupils of the Green schools Message
Aim: Through these actions we hope to cut down on the waste being produced by the school and increase the amount going into the compost bin.
Our Committee:
Isabelle (4th class), Keela (1st class), (Alanah 2nd class), Leah (J.Infants-Edel), Caitlin (S.Infants), Gabriel (J.Infants-Conor)
Some Events from 09/10 school year
Greystones Goes Green Colouring Competition
Environmental Review
Christmas Decorations out of Recycled materials
Mobile Phone Recycling in association with the Jack and Jill Foundation
Recycling Fact File
Green School Mascot Competition
National Tree Week 7th-13th March
Battery Recycling with W.E.E.E
Spring Clean 30th April
Stamp collection
Day of Action
Conor's Junior Infants
Naomi's 1st class
Catherine's class
Recently, Catherine’s class were set a fact file challenge to discover the types of recycling being done at home and ways we could have a greener home. This has now been completed and a tremendous effort was made by each pupil and I have posted some of their responses here:
- Isabelle ‘We give our clothes to charity shops’
- Alfredo ‘We shop with reuseable shopping bags’
- Charlotte ‘We turn bottles into instruments’
- Megan ‘I turn cat food boxes into teddy homes’
- Sam ‘We don’t leave the tap on when we brush our teeth’
- Daniel ‘We use rechargeable batteries’
- Mia ‘We reuse our jam jars’
- Ava ‘ My mum has a compost bin’
- Alana ‘We recycle plastic and paper’
They also had the task of designing and colouring a green school mascot that would represent the school. As well as this they had to state why their mascot deserved to be chosen. I would like to congratulate Sam Leahy on his winning entry.
- Our Mascot-The G.E.T. Lightbulb
Our eager composters!!
Above: Finn and Ava
Our compost bin is filling nicely and we now have a bin located next to it for all of our dry recyclables as we step up the process of recycling our waste.
Further information:
To view the seven step process of how a green flag is obtained click on the following link:
7 Steps
For more information, games, posters and stories that are all child friendly and environmentally related click into:
http://www.askaboutireland.ie/learning-zone/primary-students/subjects/environment/
- If you would like to become a member of our Green School team or simply want to pass on your ideas, you are more than welcome and you too can help us make this school and the world a greener place.
