Green Schools Update

New Committee: At Halloween we said goodbye to our 2016-2017 Green School Committee. They were a super group. They carried out their green school duties with confidence and assurance and communicated our green school messages very effectively.

Our new green school committee is as follows: Ruby Tynan, Katie Weedle (Ms. Frawley); Aoibhinn Hudson, Talya Keya(Ms. McFeely); Kasia Davis, Amelia Guiney (Ms. Kilty); Alannah Murphy, Megan Breslin (Ms. Pounch); Samantha Goode, Kirstin McGowan (Ms. Campbell); Ruby Sweetman, Fayda Murphy (Ms. McGeary); Kira Lynch, Emma McDonald (Ms. McCarthy); Fleur Mullan, Maya Loughman (Ms. Gorman); Holly Daly, Arianne Walsh (Mr. Ó Cróinín); Abigail McCartan, Ella Carey (Ms. Coleman); Kitty Moran, Anna Theunissen (Ms. Ní Chuireáin); Eve Forsyth, Alex Cooke (Ms. O’Malley); Tilly Mullin, Charley Maguire (Ms. Gillan).

Christmas Decorations: Congratulations to all the girls who made a Christmas tree decoration by reusing materials already at home. The creations were amazing. We look forward to seeing them hanging proudly from our school Christmas tree.  The green school committee had a very difficult decision to make as they chose one to represent our school in the competition organised by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council. In the end this fantastic and very cute reindeer won the day. It was made from used plastic milk containers by Amy Winter who is in Ms. Ní Chuireáin’s sixth class. Even the lid found a home! Well done Amy!

Christmas Dec

Green School Flag: Thank you to all the girls and their parents for helping us to reduce the number of plastic bottles in our school. This initiative is part of our programme to help us achieve our next Green Flag. We survey every class on one day each week to see how many plastic bottles are being used in our school. To date five classes have managed to have one day with no plastic bottles. We are learning why it is important to reduce our use of plastic bottles: the manufacturing and supply of plastic bottles uses a lot of precious resources and energy; plastic has a long life and plastic is a major pollutant of our planet particularly of our seas. At one of our recent  meetings Ella Carey in Ms. Coleman’s fifth class told us how the government are considering a tax on disposable cups, nicknamed the “latte levy”.  Ms. Pounch is one step ahead. She told us that some of our local coffee shops will happily fill customers’ own reusable mugs. Thank you Ms. Pounch for that tip! This cuts down on the use of the shops’ own containers which are frequently lined with plastic. Therefore they can’t be recycled in normal depots. In fact it is estimated that only 1% of disposable cups are recycled. Also we learned that it is a good idea to bring old plastic bags to the supermarket for loose fruit and vegetables instead of using the bags in the supermarkets. These plastic bags are not accepted for recycling by all of the waste companies and end up in landfill sites. So it best to reuse them.  Next we will be learning all about recycling and the meaning of the symbols on our plastic containers.