Congratulations to the super Committee who showcased the continued efforts to make our school more sustainable during our Travel inspection Looking forward to hearing feedback & hopefully adding to our Green Schools flag collection. Big Travel Challenge:
Our #andshecycles ambassadors hosted a girls only bike maintenance workshop. Huge thanks to the @TheBikeHub_ie for facilitating the 3 day workshop.
A busy couple of weeks for all ambassadors with the girls bike maintenance workshop, podcast interviews, surveys and water poster competition as well . Entries are in for the Green Schools Water for Peace Poster & Video competition.
Our #andshecycles ambassadors at the Velodrome on their new bikes
The green schools ambassadors had a very busy week during the midterm break! Maedbh, Eliza, Sean, Kristians and Diane, our five climate ambassadors, headed out to the Climate Ambassador Network meeting on Thursday the 15th where they learned about different things they could do to turn the school into a more carbon neutral place. They met people from all different backgrounds and discovered how they can make an impact in the fight against climate change.
A huge congratulations goes out to three of our #andshecycles ambassadors, 3rd year Stephanie, and TY students Cerys and Lillie, for successfully applying for a €500 grant each to purchase new bikes. Lillie also learned how to cycle over the break! The girls will be truly well prepared for the female only school cycle taking place in April.
The annual green schools water poster competition and video competition are back on this year. The prize for the poster won is €250 voucher for art and hobby (12 regional winners). 3 national winners will receive €500 for the green schools committee as well. The video competition winners will receive €750 for the green schools committee and receive national news. See the posters attached below and on the green schools notice board.
The theme is "Water for Peace" and the deadline is Friday the 8th march. We've had winners from the school before and it's always been a fantastic thing to win.
Posters should be A3 in size. Entries can be submitted to Mr Delahunty, Ms. Lowe or our water ambassadors Charley House and Maedbh Butterly. Full terms and conditions listed in attachment.
Click here to find out more
Say hi to our @GreenSchoolsIre
Ambassadors for 2023/24. Climate Ambassadors Eliza, Diane, Maedbh, Kristians and Sean; #andshecycles Stephanie, Cerys, Sophie, Lillie and Louise; and Water Ambassadors Maedbh and Charley.
#andshecycles
We had a massive uptake in female students applying to take part in the #andshecycles ambassador program this year which indicates the impact that Mia Murphy Hill and Chloe Hanratty Russel had on the younger students last year. 30 students applied for the programme, with 5 successes. TY students Sophie Monks, Louise McCann, Lillie Fitzgerald and Cerys Haines and 3rd Year Stephanie Cherish Dan.
Water Ambassors 2023/24
St Joseph's had two successful applicants for the Green Schools WaterAmbassador programme. TY students Maedbh Butterly and Charlie House.
There's a new pollinator area outside the front of the school thanks to the TY community care class.
Tree Planting Workshop with Dale Threadwell
The Green Schools committee and the TY Young Social Inovators groups begin a new Wellbeing Woodland of oak, holly, Rowan and hazel.
Congratulations to Aaron Mellows 5th Year on his winning entry in the Green Schools water conservation photography competition. Aaron wins a GoPro HERO8 Waterproof Digital Action Camera and Fujifilm Instax Mini 11instant camera. A great prize.
The Green Schools Committee have begun their work for their next Flag, following on from last year’s successful Water Flag campaign. This year's theme is Travel. Their campaign kicked off with the #Walk2School22 week September 19th to 23rd. Impressive statistics from their survey of students 66% of students walked to school with another 14% cycling.
Mia and Chloe attended the launch of #andshecycles campaign hosted by Green Schools Ireland.Across Ireland, data shows that just one in every 250 teenage girls cycle to school every day. The #andshecycles campaign was developed to explore, understand and address barriers to cycling for teenage girls.
Green Schools Water Flag Ceremony May 25th 2022
Green Schools Award Ceremony Radison Blue May 10th
Speaking at the awards, Geoffrey Bourke of Irish Water congratulated all the winners for their efforts to highlight the value of water. “We have seen how the younger generation has taken the lead in the battle against climate change. In the same spirit, the students and schools who have taken part in the Green-Schools Water Theme this year have shown exceptional leadership in inspiring their communities to value our precious water resources. We all have a role to play in safeguarding our water and they are leading by example through outstanding water conservation, communication and education initiatives. Congratulations to all the winners and everyone who has taken part in this excellent programme.”
Green-Schools Manager Cathy Baxter said: “Once again this year we have seen some and inspirational ideas from the participating students. They have shown great leadership, not just in their schools but also in their wider communities.
May 2022 update
Firstly, we have another winner in the Green Schools poster competition. Lucy Learmonth (2E) won for her brilliant poster on the theme of Groundwater: Our Hidden Treasure. You will be able to see it on the Green Schools noticeboard once we have it printed out. Please give her a congratulations when you see her. Lucy will be attending the awards ceremony in the Radisson Blu with her parents on the 10th May and will receive a €250 voucher for Art&Craft as well as a framed copy of her poster. She is also in with a chance of winning the overall competition so fingers crossed for her!
Secondly, after two years of very hard work we have been successful in achieving the Green Flag for Water with Green Schools. It has been 6 long years since the school achieved a green flag and we were at the point where An Taisce were going to take the flags we have already achieved away from us so this really is a big achievement for all of the students involved, both last year and this year.
Green School's will be sending out the new flag soon and are asking us to have the flag raising ceremony on the 25th May.
Feb 2022 Green Schools Ambassadors Beach Clean Up in Donabate.
Our four TY Green Schools ambassadors meet up with other GS ambassadors from other schools in Donabate. Here they learnt about assessing water quality and plastic breakdown in our seas . Thanks to Ms Lowe and Ms Cooke for organising this .
The Green Schools Committee linked up with Art Department to create an outdoor classroom for a Green Schools Competition. We only discovered the competition the week before it closed but decided to enter. The competition was country wide, and we are one of three runners up. It is a huge achievement and I just really wanted to thank the Art Department for bringing such creativity to the imagined classroom.
You can see the winning school, and what Green School's had to say about our entry here: https://greenschoolsireland.org/outdoor-classroom-competition-winners/
"The designs from St. Joseph’s Secondary School were beautifully drawn and showcased an awareness of biodiversity concerns, with a wild garden
and bug/bee hotels. The garden would be useful, with mural space and herb planters for use by students alongside a stage and sensory path."
Click on the link below to see our entry - I would advise downloading it and viewing in PowerPoint rather than Google Slides (keep an eye out for a few words from some of the students - I too would like an outdoor classroom with a spa! 🙂)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YxEuKVEMh3Uh7R55k8KAxkhKr4gGNdXi/view?usp=sharing
The top prize was having an outdoor classroom built by Green Schools, which would have been fantastic for the new school. We are disappointed not to get the top spot but are still proud of coming runners up!
Plastics update Ciara called to collect the bottle tops looking forward to hearing about what happens next.
Hi all,
I just wanted to say thank you to all wo contributed plastic lids for Ciara's project. We just about filled the 5 gallon bottle with plastic lids in one month. It just goes to show how much plastic we go through in such a short amount of time. Imagine our yearly waste!
A huge thank you to Ciara for recognizing the issue of plastic lids not being recycled when put into the green bin. Hopefully, this project will contribute to maintaining the beauty of the coastal landscape in Rush as well as protecting the many marine species along the coast (did you know Dublin bay is Ireland's hot spot for the dolphin like-harbour porpoise?). Plastic lids are a huge problem for sea birds such as the fulmar (pictured below) that eat the lids, or part of the lids as they begin to break apart. This leads to them feeling full and eventually starving to death. Ongoing research from GMIT has shown a devasting impact by plastic on Irish sea birds and grassroots projects like this one really do make a huge difference.
Keep up the fantastic work Ciara. I would be happy to help out again during the next school year.
Kind regards,
The Green Schools Team
Some great news to end the week. Joely from 1B is a regional winner for the Green Schools Poster Competition on the theme of "Valuing Water". Joely is one of only 12 students picked from this nationwide competition and her poster is now in the final to be crowned the national winner. She will be attending a virtual ceremony on the 23rd of June to find out if she is the overall winner. So far, she has won a €250 art & craft voucher and her poster will be framed and displayed for the ceremony in June. If she wins the national competition, she will win an additional €500 for the Green Schools Committee. We are all really proud of her so if you see her next week, do give her a huge congratulations.
Valuing Water our competition entry April 2021
Walk for Water with TY Aidlink Group and First Years
What is biodiversity?
“Biodiversity underpins the functioning of the ecosystems on which we depend for food and fresh water, health and recreation, and protection from natural disasters. Its loss also affects us culturally and spiritually. This may be more difficult to quantify, but is nonetheless integral to our well-being”
– Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations
Hi all,
Today starts the beginning of Biodiversity Week 2021, with a huge range of events taking place virtually all over the country to celebrate Irish biodiversity and conservation. If you are looking for something fun to do over the next week I am attaching a few activities, videos and live events that you might be interested in showing your students (also helpful if you are covering a class and want to show them something fun and interesting). Below is the link to the calendar of events. All are free but you may need to get a ticket for it anyway.
"Discover and celebrate the huge range of wildlife in Ireland with free events every day for #biodiversityweek2021! Learn how to attract wildlife to your garden, or more about our woodlands, wetlands, or coastline. Get ideas for your community group, or how you can take individual action.
See all events here: https://biodiversityweek.ie/events-calendar/
Finish off the week by taking part in the #BackyardBioblitz! Discover what's right outside your door with experts on hand to ID your finds. https://biodiversityweek.ie/backyard-bioblitz-2021/ "
Natural History Museum events: https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/News/National-Biodiversity-Week-Ireland-events
You might also want to get your students involved in the biodiversity photo competition (winning prize of €500): https://biodiversityweek.ie/photo-competitions/
Green Schools Biodiversity Week Activities (includes competition with daily prizes) : https://greenschoolsireland.org/event/biodiversity-week-2021/
Videos:
This is Ireland - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4VdLc-mqss
Gardening for biodiversity series - Log piles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZJkbd0CLvg
Wildflower Meadow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJTqM14vOHU
Garden Pond: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRN1sp78jHk&t=5s
Eco Eye - Biodiversity (24 mins): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIFmlh6De9k
Hope you find something to enjoy
St Josephs' Green Schools Committee and Mr Delahunty
Valuing Water Click here to view our video