Green School 2021-2022

Global Citizenship Energy

Kiltiernan NS are proud to apply for our 8th Green Flag this year. The theme this year is Global Citizenship- Energy. 

We have had some big challenges along the road to receiving our new flag. The global pandemic has led to unprecedented times where school closures were regular although they came about quickly and with short notice. 

We had begun recording weekly differences in electricity usage in school. After schools reopened, we changed the record taking to daily records and will graph those results as we near the application date. All of the classrooms were involved in finding out about being connected globally and what that meant to us in our lovely small school. 

We did a Global Food Survey where the children brought in food labels from different parts of the world. We were stunned to find how many miles our food travels before ending up in our fridges. We found food from India, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, all over Europe, Columbia and South Africa to name but a few. It brought great awareness to where our food comes from and a lot of us have agreed to buy from local farmers from now on.

Every child in the school has come up with a slogan to save energy and we will get an external judge to pick a winner. The winner will get a small prize and their slogan will be used as the tag line for our whole project.

We will also enter a regional and national colouring competition run by An Taisce to promote keeping our local roadsides litter free. 

For Book Week this year in March, we have taken our Green School project into account and are delighted to say that we have a well known author in Climate Change, Oisín McGann. He will visit and tell us how we can help slow down and reverse Climate Change globally. 

The Senior and Middle Rooms have been working hard to research and educate ourselves on different forms of renewable energy. We have learned  about BER ratings, wind and hydro power, electric cars and lots more. Read our articles below to find out how to help with conserving energy. 

Our Green School notice board is filled with lots of up to date information which keeps us interested in learning. 

We look forward in March to meeting Mark Molloy from Galway Co. Co. who will see all of our hard work to date and advise us on any other work that may be investigated before our application is set off. 

Keep in touch with this page to follow our progress!!

Trip to the Library

On March 5^th, 3rd, 4^th, 5^th and 6^th went to the library 4^th, 5^th and 6^th went first. We brought our library cards so we could take out books. We had a look around and we chose  a book then if we wanted to we could read it there or rent it. We were allowed to use the computers to find a book that we wanted. To use them you would put in your email address and then look up the book you want. A collection of that genre of books would come up and you could pick out the one you want. The librarian talked to us about how they organise the books in the library.  It was very enjoyable and a great way to celebrate book week.

By Killian 5^th class.

Pollination – Visit from Áine from Seed Savers

On the 2nd of April we got a visit from Áine from a company called Seed Savers. When she arrived she told us what the company was and what its goal is. Seed Savers wants to protect native plants and pollinators and get people to stop using chemicals and leave a bit of grass in your garden to help bees polinate – as well as other pollinators including butterflies and keep our local plant species thriving.

Firstly, she showed us a powerpoint about all the different types of bees –which there are aound 100 species of! She showed us a really interesting picture of what are breakfast would look like like if we did not have pollinators in are world.

One thing Áine talked about a lot was bees and how they pollinate. The most popular type of bees are solitary bees with over 77 different kinds however the most useful bee is the bumblebee. She showed us a picture of the lifecycle of a queen bumblebee in the different seasons.

Next we watched two short videos about the importance of bees and a video about the “waggle dance”  a dance that bees use to tell other members of the hive where there would be many polinationg flowers.

After that Áine took 6th class out for an oudoor workshop. First we used a compass to see which way North, South, East and West directions are facing. We learned about the high value and low value plants in our school grounds. Some high value polinators iclude – dasies, ash trees, clovers and buttercups. We found out there was only two low value plants that we identified one of which was the daffodile which I was surprised by as we learned it had no pollen in the flower what so ever!

When we came in we marked out the places on a map of the school where we could help the polinators, including what we could plant to attract pollinators. We discussed planting herbs such as thyme and lavender, hanging boxes in which solitary bees could nest in and growing nettles in fenced off areas where butterflies could pollinate.

At the end of the lesson Áine gave us flowers seeds to plant in our school grounds including poppies. Overall I thought Áine’s visit was very interesting and I learned about a lot of things that were literally right outside my doorstep.

Edel

6th Class

Seed Savers

Today, 4th, 5^th and 6^th class got a visit from Áine. She works for seed savers. She walked us through a basic explanation of what pollination was, how pollen was spread and how and who it’s spread by. We were also taught how important bees are and how they spread pollen. She showed us a diagram of how pollen was spread. Firstly, the bees are attracted to the flowers by its bright colours or scent. Secondly, the bee lands on the flower collecting the pollen without even realizing what an important job they are doing. Thirdly the bee goes back to his hive carrying his pollen in his basket (a bee’s basket is a small basket between the bees back legs). Finally, when the bee arrives back at his hive he makes his honey. I thought this was all really fascinating, because I never knew that they don’t realize they collect their pollen by accident.

                After the power point we had a lunch break and after lunch Áine then brought 6^th class outside and guided us around the school showing us all the different species of plants, flowers, trees and weeds.   We got into groups of 2 and we had to list high value pollinators and low value pollinators in our school grounds. We were also given a map of the school and marked North, South, East and West on the map to know which way we were going and how our map is orientated. I only got 2 low value pollinators and 34 high value pollinators. I really enjoyed today as it was really interesting. My favorite part was going outside and looking at all the nature happening around us in such a small area.

By Gráinne

6^th class