Green School

The Green Schools Initiative Ireland

The Green Schools programme is known in the EU as ‘Eco-Schools’ and was first introduced in Ireland in 2001. It’s run by ‘An Taisce’ in co-operation with local authorities as an award scheme to encourage schools to ‘go green’.The now well-respected award is a green flag that’s usually displayed outside the school and shows the school have reached an international standard. To encourage adherence to the achieved standards, the schools must reapply every two years.The Global Citizenship themes are to reinforce various parts of the ‘Green Schools’ Initiative and to help students see their role in a global context. With the changing nature of Ireland, it’s important for some to understand other cultures and different ways of life.

The Green Schools Initiative Ireland

Green Schools is an environmental education programme whose aim is to raise an awareness of and sensitivity to our inherited environment and to encourage environmentally friendly practices in children and indeed the wider community

This involves following a programme laid out by Green Schools Ireland which recognises compliance with its aims by the granting of Green Flags as an award to schools whose efforts are considered satisfactory. A high degree of local autonomy is granted provided the schools actions are in accordance with the aims of Green Schools Ireland.

• The now well-respected award is a green flag that’s usually displayed outside the school and shows the school have reached an international standard. To encourage adherence to the achieved standards, the schools must reapply every two years.

• Energy

  Consumption of energy is a very important consideration when looking to move toward a sustainable future. This theme looks to raise awareness in students about how they use energy and where it’s possible to reduce. This in turn makes students understand the close connection between the environment and the energy we use every day. Green schools was pleased to report that they’d seen a reduction in energy consumption of 19kWh per person, per year under the scheme.

• Travel

  The travel theme is funded by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the main aim is get students out of the car and to start using healthy alternatives. The Green Schools annual travel report shows great steps being made each year and some say this theme has the greatest benefits as the good habit of leaving the car at home often bleeds over to parents and other members of the community.

• Biodiversity

  Biodiversity has become a worldwide issue with about 10,000 species disappearing each year and the Green Schools programme tries to bring attention to this on a local level. It focuses on protecting habitats, the importance of native plants and animals and the delicate balance that exists at all levels of nature.

• Water

  An increasingly important aspect of conservation is water and the Green Schools initiative develops a deeper understanding of water conservation and effective management of the resource. A whopping 450 million cups of water was saved by participating schools in 2016.

Green Schools Themes

The programme is split into several themes of which focus different areas that are important from an ecological point of view

St. Peter’s National School has now started the process to achieve a Green Flag. The initiative involves co-operation between parents, teachers, children and various local bodies both statutory and voluntary. The school looks forward to greatly reduced litter and waste in the school area over the coming years.

• The Green Schools programme is known in the EU as ‘Eco-Schools’ and was first introduced in Ireland in 2001. It’s run by ‘An Taisce’ in co-operation with local authorities as an award scheme to encourage schools to ‘go green’.
• Litter and waste are probably one of the most common problems for not just our communities but also for schools and the first theme in the Green Schools programme helps to tackle this all too common problem. By maintaining a clean school free of litter and graffiti, students are able to build a sense of pride in their school that they will later bring to the wider community. The green schools programme reported that in 2016, green schools had saved 16g per person per day from ending up in a landfill site.

Green Schools update @ May 2022

St. Peter’s N.S. are well underway with the quest for our first ever Green School Flag. The theme for this two-year programme is ‘Litter and Waste’. The Green Schools Committee is made up of two children from each classroom. They have been really busy this year making changes for the better in our school.

One of the most successful changes we’ve made so far is the introduction of a 3-bin system in each classroom. We have a bin for recycling, a bin for compost and a bin for general waste (landfill). The Green Schools Committee have done an amazing job in implementing this system in each classroom and monitoring the bins carefully in order to reduce the production of waste in our school.

Another successful change we’ve made this year is our weekly litter pick-up. The Green Schools Committee – along with 3rd and 4th class – complete a loop around the school grounds every Monday afternoon to pick up any stray litter. Donegal County Council very kindly donated some litter-pickers to help us with this task. Last year, we identified many litter ‘black-spots’ around our school; but now they have been significantly reduced thanks to the amazing work of our Green Schools Committee.

We have set up a notice board in the school to keep everyone up-to-date with our progress so far.

Why not take a look at our Action Plan to see what we’re up to? Green-Schools-Action-Plan (1)