St. Joseph's National School,
Dromore
028 31541
Our Green Flag Journey
Working together for a sustainable future
Green-Schools is IrelandÍ›'s leading environmental management and award programme, working with primary and secondary schools across the country
2020/2021
This year we are working towards our sixth Green Schools flag under the theme Global Citizenship: Litter and Waste.
"The aim of this theme is to take an in depth look at both litter and waste and find ways to eliminate litter and reduce waste output. The Green-Schools programme is partnering with MyWaste.ie, the official guide to waste management in Ireland, to help students find out what they need to know about waste management. The Litter and Waste theme is funded by Local Authorities, Textile Recycling Ltd T/A Clothes Pod and The Wrigley Company Ltd".
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Our Green Schools Committee has been very busy working towards our 6th Green Flag. The whole school has engaged with the theme and the committees ideas and we have worked hard and learned a lot. Click to see our full Green Schools Action Plan and to see our Green Flag Booklet that details all our experiences the past two years in relation Global Citizenship.
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2019/2020
This year we are working towards our fifth Green Schools flag under the theme Global Citizenship. Climate Action Week took place in October. We monitored our energy consumption in school and decided to go plastic free for the week. We learned about the Global Goals. The first goal is that there will be no poverty in the world by 2030. The middle and senior room pupils marked International Day for the Eradication of Poverty by drawing footsteps and highlighting their hopes for the future. We were delighted to have our art work featured in the following issue of the INTouch teacher magazine.
Plastic Free 4 Kids Schools Programme
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"Hello Rang a Trí - Rang a Sé
I know we are getting near the end of term and we are getting tired. Usually at this time of year we would have been working away on our Green Flag tasks and doing our Dromore Challenge. Before we shut down I had registered our school for a “Plastic Free 4 Schools Programme” which would have involved some work in class and a visitor to the school. This now has all gone online so I’m going to share some of the lessons with you. I’m not going to do them all (8) but we might get started on some of them. They are videos, less than about 15minutes each, very interesting to watch and with a challenge at the end. We have talked a little bit about the use of plastics this year but these videos will give us lots of more information and ideas.
Here are links to 2 of the lessons. If you have time and are interested take a look. Let me know what you think of them and how you get on with the challenges at the end. I will send out another 2/3 next week if you would like to continue watching".
Lesson 1 - how to be a Plastic-free Ambassador:https://www.watch
kin.com/6c27e514f7?list=PL4pC5Um_aTFjxxAVm93DAy7W9fxsFnPJm
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Lesson 2 - the history of plastic https://www.watchkin.com/d236d0bf16?list=PL4pC5Um_aTFjxxAVm93DAy7W9fxsFnPJm
"Usually during April we would have done a Spring Clean, picking up litter around the school. Maybe now that you have more time and i'm sure are doing a lot more walking around your area, with your parents' permission, you could bring a bag and some gloves and pick up any litter around your roads. Hopefully there won't be any or too much! We all like to live in a clean, tidy area".
"There is a lot of talk that with the lockdown there will be a reduction in pollution and I don't know if you have noticed but I think there seems to have been more wildlife, the birds have been singing more loudly and the flowers have been amazing. While I would have preferred to be in school seeing you all, in a way it has been nice to have the time to take a good look at the rich and beautiful environment around us.
I would be very interested to hear what you think about the videos, if you knew a lot of the information already or what maybe we could do in school in the future.
Slán for now
Neasa Cotter"