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An Taisce Green Schools Renewal
School: Scoil Bhride, Kilcruttin, Tullamore, Offaly
School Roll Number: 18524K
Telephone Number: 05793 21194
Table of Contents
Introdution
Chapter 1 Committee
Chapter 2 Environmental Review
Chapter 3 Action Plan
Chapter 4 Progress towards our targets
Chapter 5 Monitoring and Evaluating
Chapter 6 Linking with the Curriculum
Chapter 7 Days of Action
Chapter 8 Informing and Involving
Chapter 9 Engaging with the wider community
Chapter 10 Green Code
Chapter 11 How the experience of Green schools has benefited our school
Chapter 12 Additional Projects
Introduction
.
We are an all boy's senior urban school. There are lots of nationalities including Polish, Slovakian, Lithuanians and Latvian boys in our school. We are currently actively participating in the Green Schools programme and in pursuit of our third flag - Water, while also hoping to renew our recycling and energy flag. We have approximately 180 boys in our school who actively participate in the Green Schools programme and are all hoping to receive their third flag. We hope you enjoy reading our project and of course enjoy seeing all the hard work we have done to bring about awareness of water conservation in our school and the local and wider community.
Chapter 1
Our Green School Committee
The boys in the Green School's committee were selected from each class. In our school the classes range from 2nd class to 6th class. We also have two Special classes. The boys were chosen from each class so that information could be fed back to both the teachers and the pupils in order to inform every one and to make the whole school a part of the project.
Each class selected its own pupils. Pupils who were interested in the Green School nominated themselves and children in the class voted. The person with the most votes won. A parent was also invited to sit on the Green Committee. Phil Jennings willingly agreed to do so. The three teachers involved with the committee included M. Buckley, M. Murray and D. Sheridan
In September 2009 the Green Team was re-elected. This consisted of:
Class Member
2nd Odhran
3rd Eoin, Tomas
4th Cian, Yuri
5th David, Vineet
6th Michael, Mark,Tiarnan
6th Ciaran, Aaron, Andrew, Christopher
Special Class Aaron, Jason
Parents P. Jennings
Teachers M. Buckley, M. Murray, D. Sheridan
Members Job Title
Odhran Reporting Officer
Eoin Reporting Officer/Battery Collection
Tomas Reporting Officer/Battery Collection
Cian Reporting Officer/Printer Cartridges
Yuri Reporting Officer/Printer Cartridges
David Reporting Officer
Vineet Reporting Officer
Michael Reporting Officer/Bin of the Week
Mark Reporting Officer/Minutes
Tiarnan Reporting Officer/Bin of the Week
Ciaran Reporting Officer/Old Phones
Aaron M Reporting Officer/Meter Reader
Andrew Reporting Officer/Old Phones
Christopher Reporting Officer
Aaron Reporting Officer
Jason Reporting Officer
The meetings are held weekly usually on a Tuesday from 11.00 - 11.15. Mark Jennings keeps a record of the minutes and attendance in a hard back book. He keeps this in class with him. Ms. Buckley prints up the agenda every week. This is composed from ideas the lads may have at each meeting and events happening in the school. This helps us to identify what we need to do on a week to week basis and thus enhances the effectiveness of our monthly action plans.
This is the picture we displayed around our school:
Meet our Green Team
Chapter 2
Environmental review
Our plan was to complete a water audit. This required designing a chart and putting in the amount of taps in our school, whether they are push or twist, the amount of flushes the toilet uses. John, Eoin O C, Eoghan M., Thomas, Jack and Eoghan G. went around the school and counted all the taps and toilets around the school. The class then put this on a chart and displayed the charts around the school.
Twisty taps
Push taps
The review identified that we had 23 toilets in total in the school and 65 taps. Of these 65 taps 16 taps were automatic and the rest were manual. We also had one shower room. We discovered that each flush of the toilet required 9 litres of water.
We also invited a local County Council worker Joe Dooley in to
check our water metre. This read at approximately 1600 litres a day which he informed us was good for a school. In order to improve this we needed to keep a check on the metre.
We did an environmental review of our toilet flushes. We identified the following:
Estimation
23 Toilets
200 Boys & Staff inclusive
Each day a boy/member of staff uses the toilet once
Day: 200 x 9Litres = 1800 Litres
Week: 1800 x 7days = 12,600 Litres
Month: 12600 x 4 weeks =50,400 Litres
Year: 50,400x 12months = 604,800 Litres
This was our biggest and most measurable use of water
As a result of identifying the large amount of water used through toilet flushes we decided we wanted to change this first. On speaking to our local council we heard about Happy Hippos. We decided to implement these into our school however on waiting to receive them we decided to fill bottles of water and put them in all our toilet cisterns. We felt the saving was too big and that every day counted so as we waited on the Happy Hippo bags we all got to work with Sir Healy to administer the bottles into the cisterns.
When the Happy Hippo bags arrived Sir Healy and the Green committee went around all the cisterns and removed bottles adding the bags.
Chapter 3
Action plan
The action plan has become easier as we have developed in the Green Schools programme. Every term our committee sits down and looks at the three months and brainstorms what we need to prioritise.
Our targets for the action plan are always very small as we feel tiny steps are very important for the children and the school as a whole. We feel that smaller tasks would be more successful as if we try to undertake huge tasks it will all collapse. As the school is not starting from scratch with Green Schools everyone is very aware of what the action plan shows and are all enthusiastic to see what the plans are for the months ahead. This is a sample of our action plan which was displayed in each term around the corridors. This showed every one what our green committee had planned for the months ahead.
Action Plan
Date Aims Action to be undertaken Person/Group
Sept 2009 To re activate Green Committee and to set out an action plan
Classroom bin and slogan audit Electric detectives to be re elected
Bin of the Week re introduced
To continue to monitor corridor thermostat
To keep an eye on electricity monitor Pupils select committee members
To make sure our bins being used effectively and efficiently
To continue to turn off unnecessary lighting and to unplug appliances on stand by
Readings being taken at 3 intervals during the day
To take daily readings from the electricity meter
Whole school
Green Committee
Whole class
Green Committee
Oct 2009 To prepare for launch for Water theme
Water Services presentation
B. Doheny
Tipperary Kids
Elect water squad
To partake in Repak Recycling week Oct 09
An Taisce / Co Council School Seminar in Court Hotel
Classroom Involvement
Seeking direction and resources from Co Council water services, Lorraine Flanagan An Taisce Midland area, C. Clancy Environmental Officier
Colouring Competition
2nd / 3rd Class A to Z of Water
4th / 5th !00 Most Interesting facts about Water
5th / 6th Class Life without water Green Committee
Whole school
Nov 2009 To undertake school audit on water facilities, the mechanics of how we are using water
To decide on an action to conserve,
To adopt slogans to turn off taps and to note leaks etc choose and display slogans and the placing of these next to all taps sinks faucets…
Dec 2009
To regraph our fuel and electricity usage
To re conduct a Home Energy Survey
Questionaire issued to all households To be returned to Green committee for data analysis.
Jan 2010 Goal Water in other countries
To regraph electricity and fuel graphs..
To display slogans at tap and in toilets
February 2010 Water / Tips / Questionaire for parents
Local Waterways eg Canal, river Silver
Water cycle Projects
Local projects Swimming pool…Canal..local river… Experiments !!!
Class projects launched Classes on top corridor researching ……….and classes downstairs researching …… Work to be displayed on corridors
March 2010 Visit from L. Flanagan An Taisce
April 2010 To partake in An Taisce National Clean up Day
Beach or Water area !
Clean up day Parents invited Whole school
May 2010 Shannon Fisheries Visit
Water colours Art exhibition??
June 2010
To have a Day of Action
Date Aims Action to be taken By whom
Sept 10 Re-activate Greenschool committee
Audit of all bins and slogans
Slow Architectural Exhibition Bury Quay
Oct 10 Repak Recycling Week
Select water slogan for Water Theme
Nov 10 Water Awareness Day
Install Happy Hippo
Offaly Co Council Science week The science of the treatment of water in Co Offaly
Home water survey
Dec 10 Apply for renewal of Green Flag
Presentation of survey results
Chapter 4
How far we have progressed towards our targets
We have made great progress towards our targets in relation to the water theme. Raising awareness and promoting good habits has always been at our forefront. We have progressed towards these targets through the following:
" Every pupil makes sure to turn taps off properly and keeps an eye open for any leaks.
" The kettle is filled up with the amount of water that will be used.
" Cartons, paintbrushes, etc. are washed in a plugged sink to avoid constant running water.
" A thorough study was conducted of water usage through examining toilet flushes, use of taps amount of taps and toilets.
" Introduction of Bottles and then Happy Hippo bags into toilet cistern to reduce our flush from 9litres to 6litres.
" 'Water Action Days' on water conservation creating awareness in the school using a water creature 'Spongebob' and class projects.
" Through An Taisce Water Show children found out how running taps while brushing teeth wastes 10 litres of water per brush! Through experiments and discussion with Lorraine they also discovered a tap or toilet leak of one drop per second wastes 10,000 litres of water per year! .
" Water action days - all classes presented water themes, projects and experiments.
" Sending survey to 170 families regarding water awareness - results graphed by the Green Committee.
" Field Trip with Michael Jacub in conjunction with Heritage Ireland along the Grand Canal, looking at water, life in the water, workings of a lifting bridge and lock.
" Field trip - Slow Architect Expedition along the canal.
" Pupils have completed the following wall projects and mounted displays.
- Alphabet of Water
- Water Cycle
- Water Facts
- Canal Study
- Aura Swimming Pool
- Scientific experiments - Floating and Sinking
- Art displays on Rivers and Sea life.
" Dramas about water to educate all classes about its importance in the world. These dramas include the ozone and the water cycle.
" Sports Day - Water events and parents were invited in to the occasion.
" We went around the classes and told the boys that we were going to have a slogan competition. All classes had to design slogans on A4 paper and decorate them these were displayed around the school and the best slogans from each class were selected (see list). Our mascot Spongebob arrived for the final and read out all the fascinating slogans. He handed out a Christmas treat to all the boys for all their help.
" These slogans have since been typed up, laminated and displayed around the taps in every classroom as you can see from our photos. This is a constant reminder to all the boys that we should conserve water when we are at our sinks.
Future Targets
" We have applied for a summer works scheme. This is where we can receive a grant to improve our efforts in water conservation. The major contribution in this grant will be the asset of thermostatic taps which are soon to be installed. Water supply to existing sinks to be piped through a thermostatic mixing valve..(Summer works scheme 2010)
" Breakfast morning in the Court Hotel early February 7.30 am - 10.00am
"
Chapter 5
Monitoring and evaluating progress
In order to monitor and evaluate our progress we all decided that we needed a starting point. With the help of our principal we decided that the best thing and the easiest step to start at was our toilet flushes. On talking to Caroline and Fiona from our local council we discovered that there were ways that we could reduce our flush from 9 litres to 6 litres. This would show instant improvement and also conserve a large amount of water. On estimation we discovered the following:
Estimation
23 Toilets
200 Boys & Staff inclusive
Each day a boy/member of staff uses the toilet once
Day: 200 x 9Litres = 1800 Litres
Week: 1800 x 7days = 12,600 Litres
Month: 12600 x 4 weeks =50,400 Litres
Year: 50,400x 12months = 604,800 Litres
This was our biggest and most measurable use of water
Estimation
23 Toilets
200 Boys & Staff inclusive
Each day a boy/member of staff uses the toilet once
Day: 200 x 6Litres = 1200 Litres
Week: 1200 x 7days = 8,400 Litres
Month: 8400 x 4 weeks =33,600 Litres
Year: 33,600x 12months = 403,200 Litres
Averages daily save of: 201,600 Litres
Meter Reading
Water Meter Readings Scoil Bhride Kilcruttin Tullamore
Date
Index m3 litres Flow
2010
Jan 1st - Feb 10th
42 m3 42,000 1.05 m3 / day 1,050 litres
Feb 10th - May 19th
99 m3 99,000
1.01 m3 / day 1,010 litres
May 19th - August
14th
57 m3 57,000 0.66 m3 / day 660 litres
August 14th - November 10th
196 m3 196,000 2.23 m3 / day 2,230 litres
Usage
Total Jan - Dec 2009
Monthly average
Weekly Average
Daily average
365 m3
30.416
30,416 litres
7.60 m3
7,600 litres
1.52 m3
1,520 litres
Usage
Total Jan - Oct 2010
Monthly average
Weekly Average
Daily average
394 m3
394,000 litres
39.4 m3
39,400 litres
9.85 m3
9,850 litres
1.97 m3
1,970 litres
These are our meter readings for 2010. The average usage of water per day is 1,970. On discussing this further with the environmental officers in the County Council we feel that the daily average is closer to anything between 1,600 and 1,800 litres per day. The Hippo was introduced in November 2010 however we won't see the effect of these until the next reading in February
Monitoring the litter
We keep a constant check on the litter and there is a noticeable decrease around the school. The introduction of litter wardens on a rota basis helped to raise awareness. Green Committee members are also vigilant in reminding classmates not to bring any wrappers onto the yard. The introduction of a lunch box policy as also the Healthy Eating Policy helped enormously in reducing the amount of litter. The boys are encouraged to bring any uneaten food or wrappers home in their lunchbox thus eliminating extra waste in the classroom. Committee members also on a regular basis make spot-checks in the classrooms during snack times to see if these ideas are being adhered to.
At present once a week bins are checked and any objects found that should not be in the bin are presented to the class and if the problem occurs in the staff room it is presented to each teacher. Signs are constantly introduced to show both teachers and pupils what plastics can and cannot be recycled, what needs to be washed out and what can be brought home. Each week pupils are still hungry to win our trophy for bin of the week. Children and even teachers in the staff room get awarded with a bin of the week trophy and every week boys are eager to beat the staff room, which is presented to a class every Friday in assembly. The cost for removal of landfill monthly, by our local agents Oxigen is €60 compared to a cost of €280 before we ever embarked on our journey.
A constant eye is kept on our recycling efforts, use of paper, amount going to landfill and use of the composter.
We have continued to maintain and sustain our recycling efforts. Again this year we celebrated Repak Recycling week Oct 09, and we continue with our 4-tier waste disposal system in the school.
Each classroom boasts one recycling bin, one landfill bin, one composting tray and a Paper for re use tray. We also continue to recycle used batteries, printer cartridges and old mobile phones.
Monitoring our Energy Consumption
In tandem with our water programme we continue to be energy aware and to monitor our fuel and electricity consumption. Our electric detectives are busy in classrooms encouraging the boys to switch off of unnecessary lighting and keeping an eye on the optimum room temperature. This is also fabulousy done randomly at assembly where our principal sends various boys to classes to see are lights off. It is a fact once teachers and class rooms are found out the shame is too much and they DON'T RE - OFFEND!!!! We also received a DEC Certificate from a local electrician which gave us an energy rating of B -.
Chapter 6
Linking with the Curriculum
From the beginning water became an integral part of every classroom. The curriculum has endeavored to make children water aware at all times throughout the year in the different tasks the children have undertaken. Tasks have been completed in many classes with a view to the children becoming more water aware and learning about the importance of conserving water through the various strands of the Curriculum:
No of pupils Language SESE Visual Arts Gaeilge Maths SPHE Other
2nd Class 27 Water Cycle,Water Conservation
Weather vocabulary
Seasons
Local rivers, lakes etc Water cycle
The canal
Weather
Water Conservation
Seasons
Plants movement of water in trees and flowers
Effect of water on various materials
Floating and sinking
Environmental awareness and care
Marbling
Paint and colour Aimsir Capacity
Water safety
3rd Class
4th Class (a)
4th Class (b)
Rm 6 21 Slogans
Tips for saving water Water cycle
Sharks
Science
Melting ice
Trip Painting a raindrop
Ocean scene print Capacity Wash- ing and hygiene Trip to Aras an Chontae
Science week
Nov 2010
5th class 30 Slogans,
Interesting facts Water cycle
Water conservation
Science experiments Hygiene Drama
What on earth's the matter
6th Class (a) 19 Creating slogans
Oral discussion Floating and Sinking
Water Cycle
Water Pollution
Rivers of Ireland & other continents
Water Conservation
Science Week Cycle Banner
Water
Paintings Aimsir
Capacity
Measuring
Graphs Water Safety
Hygiene
Human Rights Drama - The Water Cycle
6th Class (b)
Rm 2 20 Creating slogans
Oral discussion Where water comes from
Water pollution
Water shortages Science Cloud in a jar experiment
Geog
The water cycle
How water shapes our landscape
Major rivers in the world
Marbling
Oil on water Develop. Citizen-ship
Human rights
The right to clean water
Poverty and access to clean water
Special Class
Some class and curricular contributions
6th Class - Our class did the water cycle, we discussed it first and then we did a giant poster and put it outside our classroom door for all the boys to see. To complete the task we presented a drama of the Water Cycle to all the boys in assembly one Thursday afternoon.
3rd Class - presented fabulous projects on water facts and animals that live under the sea.
2nd class - were swimming in Aura as part of the P.E. programme so they decided to find out about how many litres of water it takes to fill the pool. All the classes in the school tried to guess the right answer. Winners got an Easter Egg so thinking hats were on!!
Look at our local swimming pool - There is even a special children's area
4th class - presented Floating and Sinking and other water experiments to the school one Thursday afternoon too.
The special class - worked with words that relate to water and presented some beautiful art on the walls outside their classroom.
Look the found words like rain, drop, reflect, splash!!
Chapter 7 Days of Action
Over the last two years we had several days of action these involved our main introduction of Water introducing our new mascot 'Spongebob'. This is a sponge that lives under the sea. The sponge needs plenty of clean water to survive and this is why we felt he represented our theme. We had an action day one Friday during our assembly time and began our launch by playing the Spongebob song and inviting Spongebob himself along to our action day. Every one sang and clapped along when he arrived.
Look at Ms. Buckley and Sir Mc Mahon welcoming Spongebob into our school
In order for all the boys to remember Spongebob we sent around pictures of him. The best coloured in picture from each class was laminated and displayed in each classroom to show him off to all our visitors.
Various Action Days
1. With Spongebobs help we did a presentation that Joe Dooley had given us on where we get our water and how important it is to save this water
Look at us presenting Joe's power point
And again
And of course our mascot 'SpongeBob' gave a hand
2. We had another action day where the whole school were given projects to do in their classes. Each class had to present their project to the whole school assembly and of course Spongebob!!!!! The whole school really came on board and on the day of our Halloween break boys from all classes got up and presented their projects to all the other classes. We learnt so much about water that day. The highlight was our mascot who came to give prizes to all the boys in the school for their hard work.
Boys from every class presenting their projects
Some more boys presenting projects
This was one of the class projects on 'Water Facts'
This was our class project - Essays on 'Life without water'
This was one of the class projects on the 'Water Alphabet'
The whole school really came on board and as you can see from our photos there were some fantastic displays around the school. On the day of our holidays boys from all classes got up and presented their projects to all the other classes. We learnt so much about water that day. The highlight was our mascot who came to give prizes to all the boys in the school for there hard work.
Boys from every class presenting their projects
Some more boys presenting projects
3. We had an action day for our slogans and our Green Code. Each Class had a week to decide on tips and slogans. These were displayed on the main stair case which led to the staff room. For an extra week teachers had to look at these and pick their favourite. Our slogan 'We are the boys in blue, we save water and so should you!!!' written by David Hogan was chosen. Several slogans were also chosen, displayed and placed around the taps in all the classrooms. Spongebob came to the school and presented all the classrooms with a treat for all their hard work and super efforts.
4. Sports Day: We had water based activities during Sports Day. We invited local papers and parents to the events The events included passing a water balloon around a circle and trying not to be the person holding it when it burst. We also had a bucket event where we had to see who had the most water in the bucket after running with a wet sponge and squeezing out the excess water into the bucket. We had a third event where everyone in the school made an effort to bring in 2 litre bottles of water totalling a 150litres. Each group had to try and get their water bottles to the end line to win. At the end all the water represented the estimated amount of water we use on a daily basis.
Chapter 8
Informing and Involving
The whole school community was informed and involved in all aspects of the Green schools Programme in several ways:
" We have a Green Schools Board
" Green School Committee members communicate the information back to the classes.
" The school has a monthly news letter that has a green section. This allows the school, the children's families and the wider community know what we are doing, what we have done and what we will be doing in the following month.
" The school website as a green schools section which allows the wider community know of all that is happening in our school in regards to conserving water also energy and recycling tips will regularly be highlighted and updated.
" In our school we have assembly every Friday this allows the messages that may not have been conveyed through the Green Schools committee to be conveyed clearly again. The assembly also allows the school knows of current progresses and success in the school. It is the ideal place for classroom spot checks and our principal regularly selects boys to spot check classes and name and shame!!!. It is also where Bin of the week occurs, which is a very positive way to re enforce the importance of our recycling.
" In every task we have done and in everything the boys have achieved we have invited the local papers up to take photos and do press releases in order to make the wider community more aware of the great work that is happening in Scoil Bhride today.
" We sent letters, questionnaires and tips to the parents regularly. It is the ideal place for classroom spot checks and our principal regularly selects boys to spot check classes and name and shame!!!. It is also where Bin of the week occurs, which is a very positive way to re enforce the importance of our recycling.
Chapter 9
Contacts made with the wider community and developing existing links
" Credit Union Competition Tidy Schools In January 2009 our 6th class took part in a project with the Credit Union. We had to do something environmentally friendly to improve our school. The children decided with the guidance of Ms. Murray and Ms. Buckley to launch a water conservation project. The project resulted in many inspections and a written project completed by the class was handed into the Credit Union. A member of the Credit Union and Tom Mc Keigue came to our school and questioned the boys about all their work. The boys showed them around the corridors and showed them a new garden they had designed and created with the care taker and teachers. They also presented a sketch of the water cycle. We were delighted to win an overall prize along with a nice cheque to help continue our efforts.
" Town council - Tommy Mc Keigue also from the Council came to give us a talk. We invited the 4th class boys to join us in the hall for this. He told us we were doing great and were even commended on how well our school looked in the tidy towns. Tommy said that he came to talk to us because we are the future and we can teach the adults because they are harder to change. Tommy offered to bring us to the dump on a tour he aid he would get the falcons to come on that day. We learnt that the falcons come to scare other birds away so they don't drag away the rubbish. We are going in March during the clean up time of the year. Tommy showed us the tidy towns medal too and he told us we should always keep trying. He told us that for the first time two people were fined at bottle banks in Tullamore for not bringing their rubbish home with them.
Tommy and his colleague show off his metal
This is Tommy and his colleague telling us all about keeping our town clean
" Super Value Tidy towns - presented a project in conjunction with Tullamore Town Council. This led to a recommendation from National Tidy Towns to the Council thet they should work in conjunction with our school to use our school template to help in installing a Flora and fauna information board on the canal.
" Shannon Fisheries Visit - As part of our water conservation we invited in Shannon Fisheries. A man named Arnold and a woman named Trish came to talk to us. We invited some of the classes in our school down to the hall to learn lots of interesting facts about what these people do.
And the show begins
We learnt that Shannon Fisheries were trying to promote fishing among young people. They told us that if we throw our papers in the drains this will eventually get to the rivers and affect our plants and animals. They told us how to measure the age of fish by placing their scales of fish under the microscope.
Here we are all ready to hear about looking after our water
We got to look at different water creatures taken from the bed of rivers. These included Wood Lice, Caddis, May Fly, Stone Fly and Shrimp.
Everyone is so interested!!
Look at the shrimp
" Goal Visit - We invited a local man called Ronan Scully who worked for GOAL to visit our school and speak to all the pupils about the importance of water in third world countries. Ronan had spent many weeks in Haiti and as a result of him been kind enough to visit us at such a busy time we decided to collect money for his organisation. In total the school raised €470.
Some 6th class boys with Ronan and Ms. Murray
Everyone was excited about his visit as we had all heard about the sad story of Haiti and we wanted to see how this affected so many people.
Ronan told us a lot of facts in relation to water and how so many people die from lack of water or from drinking dirty water. We were all shown a DVD of Famines and how they effect and destroy so many people's lives.
Let the show begin!!!!
We were also shown pictures of people after Haiti, which was very sad.
Wow! Look at all the pictures
Can you see people gathering water in the picture on the right?
Our class mates are so eager to find out more - Look at all those hands up!!!
" Lorraine visits from An Taisce - Lorraine arrived to our school in late May to carry out workshops on water quality and quantity. It was a super day. During the course of the day boys put a toy fish into water and studied the effect our environmental pollution has on the life of a fish. These included Storm Water, Storm Drains, Oil, Construction work, Pet waste, Washing cars, fertilisers and Slurry, Household hazardous waste e.g. paint.
Look at the poor fish
We found out where our waste water went in both the country side (Septic Tanks) and the town (Treatment Plant). We learnt that the biggest bill for the Council was their water cleaning bill.
We did a game called message in a bottle. This was a leaky water test. This gave us an idea of how much water we waste in a day, week, month, year through one leak in a tap. One school had this problem and when they realised how much they were losing they got it fixed guess how much it cost to repair???? 2euro for a washer and the care taker fitted it!! We also got back some crazy results from our tests.
Message in my bottle
And the test begins!!
These results are frightening!!
We all got to look at the new water meters that are being fitted in schools and Lorraine explained that the water runs through the meter to measure.
We also did a footprint of water on how much we use and how we are going to change. It was a super workshop.
Look at our footprints!!
Lorraine is out the door - She's had enough
" Joe Dooley - water section - Joe gave a presentation about where water is sourced in Offaly, What type of water its is and how there are people designated to fixing leaks in our county. Joe brought a few boys outside to show them where the water meter was.
5th class listen carefully to Joe Dooley as he explains all about water
Eager pupils have more questions after the talk ends
Here we are all looking at the water metre
Sir Mc Mahon even wanted to have a look
We were so delighted with this news we got all the information Joe gave us put it on charts and presented it to the school also we invited along our mascot SpongeBob again. We had asked Tipperary Water for some sponsorship for our water program and because they gave us some 120 bottles we were able to build a wall of water on the stage that day. This helped to keep the water theme in focus for all of us. Also we were keen to remind the boys that from Jan 2010 we would be paying for the amount of water we were using in the school rather than paying a flat rate as we had been doing.
" Michael Jacub - Heritage Ireland - trip on canal. This was a study of the local flora and fauna. We also saw how the lock opened and closed and a lock keeper gave a discussion on his role.
" Slow Architecture Expedition -
" Photos in our local newspaper - Tullamore Tribune to inform the wider community of the launch of our water programme, photos of our Water sports day. Photos of the launch of our Happy Hippo, Our An Taisce Clean up day, Our Tipperary wall of water action day and several other action days with Spongebob as our key guest.
" On Scoil Bhride's Enrolment Day for new pupils the boys put up a display in the front foyer about our Green Schools initiatives.
" We had a lot of dealings with the Environmental Officers Caroline and Fiona from Offaly County Council. We also had a lot of help from Joe Dooley in the Water section. They informed us of tips in launching our water project, offered great assistance in sourcing our Happy Hippos and meter readings.
" We had a National clean up day. This consisted of ringing our local council to request pickers and gloves. We also wrote letters to An Taisce requesting bags and gloves for our clean up. These all arrived in plenty of time for our day.
" Tesco Recycle for Schools - In a bid to earn money from Tesco and to encourage more recycling we joined in the Tesco - Recycle Programme
Chapter 10
Our new Green Code
Our Water Code is "We are the boys in blue, we save water and so should you" We got this slogan from a boy in sixth class. The Green School code was selected by asking each class to pick a code and send it to Room 12 (Ms. Buckley's Room). Each green school committee member informed the classes. The week all quotes were collected Ms. Murray and boys on the Green Schools Committee typed up the slogans and put them on colorful paper. We then stuck them along the staircase in the front hall. The teachers had to pick their favourite slogan and the most popular one was chosen. This was then celebrated by giving a prize to the winner and sending several copies around to each class to be decorated and displayed. Our green code can now be seen in every classroom and on walls around our school.
We are the boys in blue;
We save water and so should you!!
Chapter 11
The experience of Green Schools has benefited our school in so many ways. We are a school that has been described in a competition as _________________ It has been a great opportunity for us to take an active part in our local environment and to interact with the local community and we think we have made a real difference to our surroundings.
It was fantastic to undertake such a brilliant project and we are delighted to be able to show case to you all our hard work over the past few years. By submitting this project we think we have combined conserving water in our school with learning about it at the same time. We have spent the last two years trying so hard to embrace the theme of water while ensuring that we kept up the hard work in relation to recycling and energy awareness.
We hope you enjoy our project and thank you for the opportunity.
Chapter 12
Over the past two years we were working on various things around our school we did things around our school to make it pretty and keep it tidy. These include:
" Flower beds
" Continued efforts in recycling and Composting
" Energy Saving
Planting Possibilities
Our School Garden
Our principal felt we should also use this massive opportunity to come up with an idea to make our school more beautiful for all the people that come to visit us, who take an interest in these projects and also to have something for ourselves that we can use. A brain storming session and from looking at magazines and from looking around the school the boys felt a front garden would be lovely.
The before picture
The first step was to get the entire class to draw up a plan of what they thought the garden should look like (See Appendices). This followed by getting a helping hand from Ms. Sweeney with drawing up a proper picture to scale to give to our landscaper.
Although we had decided we wanted a full double wall going around the garden we realised after pricing that this was not possible. We downgraded this part but Sir says we can expand it when we raise money again.
And here is our down grade pretty impressive!!!
The garden has lovely slabs on it, which the landscaper put down. This was the hard part and the men even used a small digger. For this part we were only allowed watch.
Here we are helping the landscapers
Now who said we were only allowed watch!!!!!!!!!!
After the slabs were put down and our walls were finished we helped Sir put down grass seed. Sir then bought some pansies and one Friday evening we all planted them.
Our yellow tape protects all the hard work
Look at us planting
Sir is going to get us benches soon to put in there and we are putting in a statue of Saint Brigid
By summer we will be able to sit out there and do some of our lessons. The whole school is really excited about this. We also decided that every year 6th class should plant a tree on the outskirts of the garden before they leave so it is a memorial to past pupils while helping the environment because trees provide us with oxygen.
We are so proud
We decided in assembly one day that we would call the garden 'The Flowerbeds'. We thought this was a nice name and we also thought it was nice that the whole school got a say in naming it.
It would be great if we are commended in the tidy towns again this year too when they pass by and see our beautiful new feature
The boys in 5th class also grew potatoes, spinach, strawberries and lettuce in the classroom and then they did potato drills outside beside our composting area in conjunction with Agri Aware.
Tidiness
We tidied up our school with the help of Ms. Sweeney and her class. The school brainstormed and designed a beautiful motif and Ms. Sweeney and all her bots helped paint it. It is in the junior yard and it is very pretty. It represents all that our school is. We have the flags of all our nationalities; we have our Saint Brigid's Cross which is our school symbol and we also have our school motto which is 'Everybody has a right to learn and to be happy'.
Clean Up Crews
Clean Up Afternoon
This year our whole school decided to have one afternoon dedicated to cleaning up our school. We had this in April to coincide with An Taisce Clean up. We thought it would also enhance the beautiful work we had done around the school, which included our displays, our new garden and our freshly painted walls, which we decided along with Sir to get freshened up. Caroline Clancy from the County Council was notified and she said she would arrange for some one to collect our rubbish. We did a rota and assigned every class to a special area (See Appendices) and we all did a great job in cleaning up the school.
Our school only required one afternoon because we have a litter patrol, which keeps our school clean. Our litter wardens wear fluorescent jackets and have pickers, which the council provided for us.
For added interest during our clean up days we usually organise a competition for those who can find the oldest or most unusual piece of litter. All the pupils love this and we have unearthed some rare items over the past few years of clean up days!