Green School
Melview N.S. is working on Year 2 of the Green-Schools Water theme.
To implement this theme and apply for our third Green Flag in March, we are working through 7 steps to help us reduce our water consumption and to raise awareness around water conservation and related topics such as pollution and water treatment.
These steps are:
- Forming a Greens-Schools Committee
- Conducting an Environmental Review
- Developing an Action Plan
- Monitoring and Evaluating the programme
- Linking the water theme to Curriculum Work
- Informing and Involving the school and wider community of progress
- Developing a Green Code which is a statement demonstrating our commitment to environmentally friendly action.
Conor and Chioma collected our first Green Flag
BE WATER SMART – DON’T LET IT GO TO WASTE!
We started our work in earnest in January 2016 when Grace, Sean, Harry and Seyi attended a Green-Schools Water Forum with Ms Hunt in the Abbey Hotel, Roscommon. We participated in different activities to familiarise us with the seven steps and got some good tips for developing our Action Plan. We especially enjoyed designing our Perfect Water School.
In February 2016, children entered a Green-Schools Irish Water ‘Be Water Smart’ Poster Competition. We were delighted when Rachel Walsh from Senior Infants was announced as the winner in the Eastern/Midlands region in the Junior category. On Wednesday, 4th May, Rachel, along with her friend Daisy, principal, Mrs O’Boyle and Green-Schools Coordinator, Audrey Hunt, attended a ceremony in the Radisson Blu, Golden Lane, Dublin. Rachel was presented with her prizes – an iPad and a mounted and framed copy of her poster. There was a video booth where Rachel and Daisy were recorded describing ways water can be saved at home and in school. There were cameras from RTE and Rachel and her poster featured in the News2Dayprogramme. The slogan on Rachel’s poster was – BE WATER SMART – DON’T LET IT GO TO WASTE! We’ve decided to use it as our Green Code for Water.
On 28th of May 2016, the Longford Leader featured an article on Rachel’s big win and also published photos of other children in our school who were presented with prizes by Gary Brady in recognition of their entries which were highly commended: Daisy Barry (Senior Infants); Ciara Brady, Andrew Walsh, Hope Quigley, Lucy Barry (1st Class); Nelly Gijmadeva, Sophie Warnock, Kayla Weir, Aisling Masters, Senan McWeeney (2nd); Faryl Delaney, Grace O’Donnell, Maggie Maguire, Shay Coliier-Hindley (3rd); Rachel Penrose (4th); Ciara Smith, Laura Corcoran (5th); Abigail Rhatigan, Artur Hawrylo, Jill Glennon (6th).
The level of awareness of the importance of water and the need to conserve it was well developed but in September 2016 we got down to the business of reviewing our use of water in schools and developing and action plan to help us achieve two important goals:
- To raise awareness of the issue of water conservation
- To reduce rate of water consumption by 10% through “low cost” and “no cost” methods (behaviour, leaks & drips, hippo bags) within 12 months of programme implementation
DOWNLOAD MELVIEW ACTION PLAN :
DOWNLOAD GREEN SCHOOL 7 STEPS PLAN :
As part of our Environmental Review, senior students had responsibility for carrying out various tasks:
Children from 5th class continue to help us maintain our Litter and Waste Flag by collecting and monitoring waste from junior classes and the staffroom.
Our two 3rd classes had an effective litter picking rota last term which will now be passed onto 2nd class to ensure our yard stays litter free.
Melview Green School Committee
Children on the Green-Schools Committee take responsibility for a number of jobs:
In October, 6th class participated in a Water Quiz. They also enthusiastically created an ‘Alien Drama’ in small groups, working as TV producers to make a drama of a TV advert aimed at encouraging aliens to visit Planet Earth. However, in the drama, our planet has run out of water so they had to think of novel ways.
MEMBERS:
OUR RESULTS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comparison of water usage over two periods in school (January – March 2016 & October – December 2016)
Jan – Mar 2016
- No of School Days: 49
- Consumption in litres: 301,000
- Cost: €401.25
- 23 litres per person per day
- 3c per person per day
- €1.40 per person for 3 month period
Oct – Dec 2016
- No of School Days: 54
- Consumption in litres: 208,200
- Cost: €285.25
- 14 litres per person per day
- 2c per person per day
- €0.99 per person for 3 month period
World Water Day 22nd March – Melview Blue Day – Day of Action – assessment visit
Application needs to be submitted by 24th March
Retaining our flags for Litter & Waste and Energy
Put up Action Plan