Green- Schools News

St Paul’s is a Green-School and this year we are busy working towards our sixth Green-Schools flag, “Global Citizenship, Litter and Waste”.  This theme enables us to see how our work on the Green-Schools programme so far positively influences people around the world and allows us to revise our Litter and Waste theme. We are learning about children from different countries around the world and are trying to reduce, reuse and recycle our litter and waste as much as we can in school.

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November

This month we started our annual 'Costume Swap'. This an initiative that sees us bring in any old costumes we don't use after Halloween and do a swap with other families to hopefully use them the following year or during play time. It was hugely successful for it's first year and we thank all the families in our community for getting involved. We look forward to welcoming it back next year.

October

This October we spent the month working on our Energy Song. Ms McDermott kindly practiced this with all classes in our assemblies for the month with her guitar which was so lovely. We have really enjoyed getting to practice it 

September

We elected our new Green Schools Committee this September, we are really looking forward to seeing their new ideas across the school year. We know they are going to fill our school full of encouragement and positivity surrounding our next Green Schools flag.

Our Green Code

We use this code as a reminder on all the ways we can make good choices for the environment and wider world in our school community. We have posters displayed in each classroom and on our corridors too!

Global Citizenship and Waste Flag Action Day

On March 22nd each of the classes in the school took part in our action day with the aim of highlighting some of our goals and targets. Each class did a display outside their classroom on some of the different nationalities we have in the school community. There were also country studies done on France, Italy and Spain where the boys and girls got to taste the national dishes, speak some of the phrases, and study the famous artists and monuments from each place. 

You can see here the wide variety of things we were able to explore as a school for our action day. We also asked each student to bring in an item from another place they or a family member might have a link to. We did a show and tell in each class and the boys and girls in our classrooms had such great insightful items, questions and information which we so enjoyed getting to share.

​The Junior Infant Classes had a country study to do on Italy as part of their yearly Geography plan. You can see here they learned some Italian phrases and used these throughout the week instead of the English words, they created their own Italian flags with these phrases. They also looked at some famous Italian attractions and historical landmarks like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, The Colosseum and the Trevi Fountain. They particularly enjoyed learning about Italian food and seeing how often they eat this food every week.

​The boys and girls in our Senior Infant classes did a country study on France. You can see their amazing artwork here. They all created their pictures of the Eiffel Tower and learned some fun facts about France. Two of the students in Room 15 had actually been to visit the Eiffel tower before and had brought in souvenirs to show the class. It was wonderful to hear all the interesting facts they had picked up during their country study!

​Here you can see First Class took a trip around the school during our Green Schools Action Day! The conversations and questions being asked showed such a sense of curiosity and enjoyment in learning about all the students and nationalities both in our school and the wider community. They spent some time on the day reading the book ‘All Are Welcome’ which had a created opportunity for wonderful discussions.

​The Second Class children really enjoyed retelling stories and memories they had from visiting different places. In Room 5 there are lots of different cultures that are discussed and incorporated each day. You can see here the wonderful items that had been collected from different countries. The boys and girls really enjoyed the Oral Language lesson Ms Travers did surrounding all of these on our Green Schools Action Day. 

Global Citizenship Noticeboard Updates

We have added in some new languages onto our noticeboard, we are looking at all the ways we can say hello to each other and hope to learn lots from our classmates about their native languages. We hope all the boys and girls enjoy seeing this fun new update to the board.

Meet our New Green-Schools Committee

With the new school year we elected new Green Schools members. There were two chosen from each class in 1st and 2nd class. They have made a great start this year with delivering top tips to all our classes and reminding their classmates of how to be proactive with our Green Schools code!

Our New Herb Garden

Room 10 were busy bees and created a wonderful herb garden in their yard. They have been out watering and keeping a watchful eye on their Rosemary, Parsley, Thyme, Sage and Coriander. 

Our Bug Hotels

The boys and girls in Room 12 were working really hard over the last number of weeks collecting items for their bug hotels. We really wanted our school to be more inviting to little critters! We used sticks, stones, hay, pin cones, dried grass, old pots and used bright colours to attract different insects to take a rest in our hotels.

The Golden Boot

A big thank you to Ms. O'Neill for arranging our very successful 'Footright Fortnight'. There was a fantastic effort made by all the St Paul's community in walking, scooting, cycling or park and striding to school! The classes who had the highest average number of students doing the above won 'The Golden Boot'. This meant they got to have some extra play time and were celebrated for a fantastic effort

Meet the Green Team – We meet each month to talk about what is happening with Green-Schools and we decide what information we need to tell our classmates. It also gives us a chance to share our ideas.

The Greens-Schools board keeps the boys and girls informed about what is happening with the Green-Schools programme.

Green-Schools in Action

Look at these pictures to see the amazing Green-Schools work by the boys and girls and boys of St Paul’s.

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“Spring Clean Posters” by Senior Infants to celebrate National Spring Clean Month.

Amazing robots made from all recyclable materials by First Class (room 5).

 Unique robot creations made with recyclable materials by First Class (room 8).

Second class (room 10) went litter picking around the school grounds for National Spring Clean Month.

Second Class (Room 11) did an amazing group project about the honey bee. They also learned about pollination and planted wildflower seeds in the school garden to encourage pollination.

Second Class (room 12) learned about the impact of their carbon footprint and created this beautiful display to mark Earth Day.

Greens Schools Art- Some boys and girls got busy collecting leaves, stones and twigs in their gardens and used them to create beautiful pictures. Here is F with his owl picture.

Costume Swap

A huge thank you to the Green Team and the Parents Association for hosting our first ever Costume Swap in St Paul's.
 A special thank you to all the children who brought in costumes for the day. There was so much to choose from.