Green School

The travel theme is focused on changing our relationship with our cars, so that they are used less often and more efficiently.

Did you know?

·      Pollutants from unsustainable transport contribute to global warming and climate change?

·      Carbon dioxide is a pollutant that comes mainly from:

–       burning fossil fuels, like coal, oil, gas, diesel, petrol

–       deforestation and

–       urbanisation

·      In 2019 scientists recorded the highest level of CO2 emissions on Earth since records began. This increase in greenhouse gases traps more of the Sun’s heat, increasing the average global surface temperature and thus changing our climate.

·      Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions per person are amongst the highest in the world.

·      Climate change in Ireland is causing warmer summers, wetter winters and more extreme weather events like storms and flooding.

·      Globally other impacts include: river and coastal flooding, water shortages, effects on fisheries and food production.

Ø  Active Travel – cycling, walking, scooting

AND

Ø  Sustainable Travel – school bus, car pooling

We hope to help students, teachers, parents and the wider community understand the benefits of Active and Sustainable Travel, how it can help us and our planet so that we can all make better choices about how we travel now and in the future.

So maybe when you are an adult and you are in college or working, you will choose a more Active and Sustainable way to travel and not rely on your car all the time.

·      Health benefits

·       Safety benefits

·       Environmental benefits

·      Community benefits

HEALTH BENEFITS

Active travel like walking, cycling and scooting has many benefits for our health.

·       It helps children learn better – exercise can improve our concentration.

·       It supports our emotional development – we feel better when we exercise.

·       Active travel helps to build stronger bodies – muscles and bone!

·       It supports fitter bodies – we get more cardio-vascular exercise.

·       It helps children to feel free and independent!

SAFETY BENEFITS

·       Reducing the number of cars travelling to our school can reduce congestion at the school making it safer for children as they are walking in the school environment.

·       Learning about Road Safety is also an important part of the Travel Theme.

COMMUNITY BENEFITS

The travel theme can help our community by

·       Reducing traffic.

·       Creating opportunities for social interaction – like chatting to your friends on the bus or as you walk to school.

·       Better infrastructure like footpaths, pedestrian crossings, bicycle and scooter stands.

·       Creating stronger communities where we all work together towards a shared goal.

ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS

Reducing the number of cars in our school community:

·       Improves air quality around the school

·       Reduces noise pollution

·       Reduces our school’s carbon footprint

·       Supports biodiversity around the school

·       Helps children to connect with nature

There are seven steps to getting a Green Flag for Travel

The first step was to set up a committee. We have children from all classes on our committee.

The next step was to do an Environmental Review to find out the current situation as regards travel around our school.

–       We did a Hands-up Travel Survey with the school community to see how people travel to school.

–       We did a Walkability and Cycleability Audit with our Travel Officers to see how pedestrian and bike friendly it is to travel to school.

–       We did Traffic Surveys to count the traffic and check the speed (16% of motorists surveyed were speeding; 78% of cars observed had only one occupant)

–       We did a No Idling Audit to check how many engines are left running at Infant Home Time (43% were idling for 20 seconds or more).

The third step was to make our Action Plan. We identified targets and goals to meet in order to promote sustainable travel to and from school.

They included:

–       Getting our scooter and bicycle stand at the front of the school

–       We had a day of action where children could bring in their bikes and do cycle training with our Travel Officer Lorraine.

–       5^th class have been doing Cycle Right Training this year.

–       We asked Longford County Council to repair the barrier and the crossing point at the school.

–       We have contacted our local TD, Joe Flaherty to inform him of our work and to seek his help in making Melview a safer place for our school community.

–       We put information about our work on our Green-Schools notice boards and the school Facebook page and website and we did a presentation at Junior and Senior School Assemblies to inform the whole school about our work.

–       We have had competitions – one for our Green Code and an Art competition.

–       We had Green Day or Lá Glas on Thursday 16^th March, in conjuction with Seachtain na Gaeilge to inform everyone about our work. Everyone looked great in green!

–       We are running a No Idling and Love 30 Campaign.

–       On Tuesday the 28^th March, our Travel Officer, Ciarán will be visiting to do a scooter workshop with 1^st class for Scoot to School Week.

–       To help maintain the work we did for our other three green flags, we remind everyone to close doors to keep in the heat, switch off lights and whiteboards when not in the room, make sure taps are not left running and to we do litter picking. Each room has two bins and we encourage everyone to reduce waste, reuse or recycle where possible!

–       In June we will have our school walk and would love to organise a Cycle Bus to School

This step involves checking progress towards targets and making changes where necessary. It also involves celebrating and rewarding achievements.

R Established Committee

R Completed environmental review

R Devised Action Plan

R Use Green-Schools Notice Board, website, Facebook page and school assemblies to inform, promote active and sustainable travel, raise awareness about climate change

R Cycle training with Lorrain Flanagan our previous Travel Officer (June 2019) & Cycle Right Training for 5^th class (2023)

R Contacted Longford CoCo re damaged barrier at front and repair of lights

R Contacted Joe Flaherty TD and Longford CoCo re. Walkability Audit

R Applied and received funding for bike and scooter stands

R Use carpooling for matches/school events

R Launch No Idling Campaign

R Promoted Love 30 Campaign

R Scooter workshops for 1^st class

R Art Competition

R Green Code Competition

R Green Day/Lá Glas – Days of Action to inform and involve

R 11% Reduction in numbers of children travelling by car, 11% increase in number travelling by bus

The aim of this step is to link the Travel Theme with the curriculum.

Class teachers were given links to suggested activities they could participate in connected to our Travel Theme like learning about Road Safety, quizzes, debates, scavenger and treasure hunts.

The whole school participated in an Art/Colouring Competition with the theme of Active/Sustainable Travel.

The aim of this step is to make sure the whole school and wider community are aware of the Green-Schools work being carried out in the school. We use our Green-Schools notice boards, School Facebook page and website, Aladdin and School Text Messaging service, Newsletter, Class Dojo and Seesaw to inform our school community of our actions and events. Our local newspaper Longford Leader sometimes features our Green-Schools endeavours.

We held a competition to come up with a Green Code for Travel. It could be a one-liner, a slogan, a song, a statement of intent etc.

We will use it to highlight the theme in a fun and catchy way.

Here are the winning Green Codes:

Senior Green Code for Travel

Try to carpool with friends

Really! Or walk to school and have a laugh!

Along the way make a friend or two! Just so you know…

Vans, cars and buses all harm

Earth, so get out your bike or go for a stroll!

Let’s get active together once and for all!

By Sarah Connolly & Sarah O’Donnell, 6^th Class (2023)

Junior Green Code for Travel

The world is our home, help to keep it alive.

Reduce the car levels and get more exercise by walking and cycling to school.

Animals are a bit like people but a little bit different. That does not mean we do not treat them like how we want to be treated ourselves.

Vehicles are a way to make the world hotter. So let’s reduce those car levels.

Eventually we will get this green flag!

Love 30!

By Luca Shanley and James Bunjaj, 1^st class (2023)

We also want to say a special word of thanks to all our past pupils and staff who had worked hard on our committee for the travel theme before the Pandemic when we were so close to applying in March 2020.

Thank you for reading!