Scoileanna Glasa - Green Schools
Tá Scoil Náisiúnta an Inbhir pairteach sa chlár Scoileanna Glasa eagraithe ag An Taisce. Tá muid ag iarraidh ár gcéad brat glas a fháil i mbliana. Tá daltai agus tuismitheoiri agus muinteoiri ar an gcoiste. Tá pictiur den fhoireann glas le feiceáil thios:
Inver National School are taking part in the Green Schools programme organised by An Taisce. We have been awarded our first flag this year.
The aim of Green-Schools is to increase students’ and participant awareness of environmental issues through classroom studies and to transfer this knowledge into positive environmental action in the school and also in the wider community. Schools that have successfully completed all the elements of the programme are awarded the ‘Green-Flag’. This award has now become a well-recognised Eco-Label. The award has to be renewed every two years.
The programme is based on a 'seven step' system for continual improvment. Green-Schools is a themed programme with schools initially focussing on the theme of Litter & Waste, and working through the seven steps for this theme and applying for the Green-Flag. SN an Inbhir is currently working on the Litter & Waste theme. For more information on the Green Schools programme, go to http://www.greenschoolsireland.org/
The first of the seven steps towards being awarded a Green Flag is to elect a committee. We call our committee The Green Team.
There are students, parents and teachers on the Green team. Here is a photo of the students on the current committee:
We elected out team initially in November 2008. Each candidate who wished to go forward for the Green Team had to seek election and persuade their classmates that they were the right person for the job. See a short clip of some of our candidates below:
In November 2008, we went to the Recycling Centre in Derrynumera, near Castlebar to see what went on there. See how we got on here. We learned a huge amount about the importance of recycling and how it was done.
As part of our Green Schools programme, we are monitoring the amount of waste in the school. We keep an eye on the weight of our rubbish bags
and we are glad to see that they are getting lighter all the time. We recycle our recyclable products and compost items that are suitable for composting.
In April, we had our big clean up, installed our composter and began our garden. We planted potatoes, strawberries,
lettuce, beans, peas, herbs and courgettes.Anyone who wanted to take something from the garden could do so in return
for a little weeding.
Last summer we began to use recycled materials to make drums for our Samba band. You can see some clips from our inaugural performance here.
Tony in Rang a Se composed a nice rap for us. Listen and watch here:
Inver is cool, Inver is fab,
When we get the Green Flag, we’ll be glad.
In February 2010, we learned that we had been awarded our Green Flag. We were delighted. Here is Shannon's account of how we collected our flag:
On the 3rd March 2010, three people from sixth class, Joseph Mason, Tony Maloney, me (Shannon) and Mrs. Connolly went to the Galway Bay Hotel to collect our green flag.
On that day we had to be at the school at 7:30.It was an early start. We went in a taxi to Galway. When we left the school we were tired but no one slept. We played our Nintendo DS’S most of the way up. We stopped in Castlebar to get a drink and then we carried on heading for Galway. As we went through the towns we guessed what the called. We played a game too where you have to say whether you would live in the house you passed or not. It was fun.
We eventually arrived in Galway. The Galway Bay Hotel is in Salthill. We all needed to use the loo so we went straight to it. As we went into the conference room we got sheets to fill out. We did them while we were waiting for the presentation to begin. We also took some photographs while we waited.
When it began there was a man talking, then four other people talked to us too. After a while people were getting presented with there green flag. We were then presented with our green flag. We also were given bags with pencils and bookmarks in them. The flag was huge. After the presentation was finished, we went to the restarant for lunch. All the kids got pasta and chicken goujons and jelly and ice cream for dessert.
Then we went shopping, we only stayed in the shopping centre for half an hour as it was getting late. When we were leaving we all got a slushee and a tub of ice cream.
On the way home we played sweet and sour for a while and then on our DS’s. We asked Mrs Connolly if we could stop at a shop so we stopped in Balla. We all got another ice cream and another drink. We had a lot of ice cream that day. We talked about who would like to come and raise our flag and we all said John and Edward.
We enjoyed our day and we were all very happy to have got our green flag after all our hard work.
By Shannon
 |
 |
| John and Edward raise the first Green Flag in Inver National School | Jedward enjoyed our Samba Band too! |
We were very proud when we invited Jedward to raise our Green Flag. They came on April 23rd 2010 to raise our First Green Flag. It was the first Green Flag Jedward raised too.