Green Schools’ Newsletter
In September 2017, we began working towards our second green flag, on the topic of Energy, while continuing the great work we had already completed in achieving our flag for Litter and Waste.
Green Schools’Committee
Since 2017, we have had some very dedicated committee members. Our first committee included the following members;
Ella O’Brien, Seán Hourigan, Lily O’Shaughnessy, Jake Mc Grath, Noah Deere, Abigail Hourigan, John O’Donoghue, Katelyn, Tadgh Hourigan, Zach Murphy Ryan, Ciara Keogh, Daniel O’Connell, Madeline Purcell, Eabha Mc Mahon, Jason Ryan Hartigan.
Guided by Ms.Franklin, the committee was ably lead by Ms. Stephens, with Eimear Shanahan as our Parents’ representative.
Our present committee is; Abby Peters, Patrick O’Connor, Faye O’Brien, Darragh Moloney, Emily McMahon, Seán Hourigan, John Stokes, Noah Deere, Jake Mc Grath, Jack Mc Mahon, Ellie and Lily O’Shaughnessy, Eabha Mc Mahon, Luke O’Connor, Fergal Bailey, Madeline Purcell, Eimear Shanahan and Ms. English.
Jade Gammell, Jayne Greene, Robyn Mawdsley and Catríona Dillon are monitoring our ongoing Litter and Waste campaign.
Our Green Code Switch to Green and the world will be clean!
Our work Over two years, not just the Green Schools’ Committee, but the whole school, has carried out an environmental review of our energy use and litter disposal, developed and implemented an action plan, measured our energy use continually and monitored our progress. We even had Green Schools’ homework! Our website, www.nickerns.com has some photos of our activities. We even had Green Schools’ homework!
Our Results
- We have saved 250 kwh of electricity in the first year of our Green Schools’ project and a further 1,170 kwh of electricity in the second year.
- We held a low energy day on Thursday 21st March, saving 9.5 kwh
- Everyone in our school is more aware of the importance of saving energy in school and at home.
Bringing Green Schools’ Home
We are trying to bring the Green Schools’ message home so that we can have many buildings in the community using less energy, not just the school. At home, as far as possible, we are trying to;
- Recycle – it uses less energy to recycle an item than to make it from raw materials
- Open blinds instead of turning on lights
- Turn off lights when leaving a room
- Turn devices off, where possible, rather than leaving them on standby
- Put printers or photocopiers on energy saving mode
- If the room is too warm, turn down the thermostat rather than opening windows
- Grow more plants to offset our carbon emissions
At home and in school we are working together for a cleaner, greener future! – Ní neart go cur le chéile!