Green Schools
News 20.03.2024
Ardkeenan NS would like to invite all members of our school and local community to support us in our REUSE initiative CASH FOR CLOBBER.. The scheme is aimed at raising awareness of textile recycling among children and to show how essential it is for everyone in the ‘developed world’ to reduce, reuse and recycle and is also a great way of raising funds for our school. Bags of clean, unwanted textiles may be left in the Drum Parish Hall ( Sunday 20th April between 9.30 - 11am and Monday 21st April between 8.45am and 10am) for collection by Cookstown Textile Recyclers, one of the Eco-school program partners, who will sort and recycle. Low grade material is used for industrial wipers and fillings, good quality clothes are re-used in the developing world.
Why not have a Spring clear out of old and unwanted items? Perhaps you could encourage family and friends to donate their unwanted textiles too?
What can you put in the bag??
All types of clothing (even with holes!)
Bags and shoes (please tie shoes together with laces)
Hats and belts
Towels and curtains
Bed linen (sheets, pillow cases, duvet covers)
Remember NO QUILTS OR PILLOWS and all items must be clean.
We would like to thank our school community for all their support and cooperation in our efforts to achieve our Green Schools targets
News 13.12.23
As part of our drive to REUSE our waste, our pupils have designed and created a range of Christmas decoration from recycled materials as part of Co. Roscommon' Art Competition. The standard was exceptional and this event showed the children how our waste can be used not just for practical uses but also for create and aesthetically pleasing pieces of art and sculpture. We were lucky to have two winners amongst our entrants which was the icing on the cake!!. Well done to Ella and Kate and all our entrants on displaying such creativity and environmentally friendly entrepreneurial spirit!!!
News 16.10.23
Our school community represented by our Green Schools Committee have selected a number of targets from the data we collected and our goals this year will continue to focus on further REDUCING, RECYCLING and this year we want to place new emphasis on REUSING with a view to acting as more responsible Global Citizens. The committee will work within the school community over the coming months to help develop habits which will see our school looking at Waste vs Rubbish and seeing how we can become more responsible in our handling of waster to benefit others not just in Ireland but potentially global wise.
One of the first steps has been to set up a WASTE MANAGEMENT TEAM who coordinate our RECYCLING within the school.
In addition to this, the children now bring all their general food waste home so that parents can see what is not been eaten and this will lead to decisions which reduce overall food waste, especially in a climate where food is such a valuable commodity.
News 15.09.23
Our school community moves into the second year of our 6th Green School Flag - which is centred on the theme GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP - LITTER AND WASTE. This is a maintenance theme which enables schools to discover how Green-Schools work has positively influenced people and environments worldwide while revising the previous Litter and Waste theme. Our elected Green School Committee have already completed some of the initial stages of our project through surveying the school community on their awareness around this theme. Our next step will be to look at this data and carefully select our targets for the coming academic year.
News
We are currently working towards our 5th Green Flag in Ardkeenan NS. We are working on the theme BIODIVERSITY .
We must also continue to work on past themes:
Litter & Waste; Energy; Water: Travel.
What is Biodiversity?
The meaning of ‘Biodiversity’ is easier to understand when we break the word down; “bio” refers to life and ‘living things’ and “Diversity” means just that: range or variety. The word refers to the huge variety and variation of life that is all around us.
Why is Biodiversity so important and why should we conserve it?
A high level of diversity among plants, animals and all living things is essential for maintaining a healthy functioning environment, fit for human life. This includes diversity within species, between species and diversity of ecosystems.
We rely on living things to provide some of the most important needs in our daily lives; from the wooden beams that keep our homes standing, to the cotton fibres in our clothes, and from the oxygen that we breath to the food on our plates. We interact with and have an impact on living things, directly and indirectly every day through our lifestyles; e.g. the food we choose to eat or how we manage our gardens. Being aware of this interaction, and making choices to support wildlife and our natural environments is very important.
“The truth is: the natural world is changing. And we are totally dependent on that world. It provides our food, water and air. It is the most precious thing we have and we need to defend it.”
David Attenborough
https://laois.ie/wp-content/uploads/Garden-Wildlife-Booklet-WEB-17MB.pdf
NEWS March 2020
CAR POOL TO SCHOOL
Email sent to all parents on 28/2/20)
Dear parents,
As you know we are hoping to achieve our 4th Green Flag for Travel this year and are working on the 'travel' theme at the moment. Maybe you could help us!
Could you take the Travel Challenge between 2nd-6th March????
As the roads leading to our school are very narrow and hilly, we feel that walking or cycling to school is not a safe option. Therefore CAR POOLING is the safest way to travel to our school in a more sustainable way. Of course we understand that car pooling will not be possible for everyone however it may be an option for some!
If you think you could manage to CAR POOL TO SCHOOL next week please pledge your support by emailing the school. It could be like your Lenten promise! Perhaps you might like to car pool for all of Lent!
We all need to make small changes in our ways in order to stop climate change.
Yours sincerely,
The Green Schools Committee (Roisín, Alex, Eabha, Cillian, Vanja, Aimee, James, Amy, Barry and Maeve)