Water
How we got the Green Flag for the Water Theme
The Green Flag for Water takes two years for completion. We started the work for this flag in October 2014. Our Green-Schools Co-Ordinator, Miss Martin, set about forming a new Green-Schools Committee for the Water Themed Green Flag.
During September, pupils interested in joining the committee had to submit a written reason to their teacher why they wanted to be on the Green-Schools Committee. The class teacher then chose at least two girls to represent her class at the meetings. The first meeting was held in October and the committee wrote a small piece for the noticeboard and website to tell the school a bit about themselves. The committee consisted of:
2nd Class Pupils: Aoife Cosgrove, Cara Dawson, Kaisha Laverty & Amy Haughey
3rd Class Pupils: Anna Thompson, Neasa Farrell, Allie O'Riordan & Tejuola Emmanuel
4th Class Pupils: Lara Myers, Emma Whately, Muireann Mailley, Katelynn King, Raziya Mabunga & Mollie Duffy
5th Class Pupils: Rachel McArdle, Aoife Gorham, Searlait Owens-Duffy, Ava Cassidy, Amy Psonka, Tola Oladejo, Aisling McStravick & Eimear Farrell
6th Class Pupils: Alannah Murray, Anneke Wisnieska, Eunice Elewa, Leanne English, Chloe Moran, Nadine O'Donagh, Tolu Emmanuel & Clodagh O'Hare
Here is the Green-School Committee members for the first year of the Water Green Flag:
The second school year of the Water Themed Green Flag meant that changes had to be made to the pupil make up, since 6th class left and a new 2nd class entered the school. Anybody on the committee the first year was given the option of staying on or leaving for the second year. The availability of new places was assessed and once again pupils interested in joining the committee had to write a small piece stating why they should be on the committee. New members to the committee were:
2nd Class Pupils: Lucy Foster, Katie Wynne, Lucy Mc Coy & Alannah McArdle
3rd Class Pupils: Sophie Brennan, Abaigh Moonan, Éabha Lawless & Morgan Nesbitt
5th Class Pupils: Ruth McGee & Sarah Hearty
The committees met every fortnight over the two years. During the meetings the committee made sure our action plans were carried out. They were made aware by our Green-Schools Coordinator of upcoming environmental events to then go back and inform their classes. They also helped monitor and evaluate processes that were put in place to help with achieving all of the Green Flags to date.
The first thing the committee did was an environmental review of water usage in the school. We examined water bills supplied by the principal Miss Galligan. Our aim was to try and reduce water usage by highlighting how to save water. We conducted a water appliance survey. We counted all the sinks, taps, toilets and drains in the school. We examined the taps for leaks and we were fortunate to discover that there are no leaks in the school. It was decided that each class should have a basin to help them work out how much water they were using. This made each class more conscious of not wasting water and reusing the water were possible. For example, 3rd class used the water collected in their basin for watering their hyacinth plants.
Water awareness was pretty good in the school but we decided to highlight this further by putting up posters around the school and around the toilet area. We also displayed water facts on the school notice board and the school website. We joined the Water Explorer Challenge and our 5th classes enrolled in a Water Workshop focusing on Global Water Use. Each teacher also conducted lessons in SESE about where water comes from and the Water Cycle. Lessons included questionnaires about water usage at home.
Since we were working on the Water Flag, we were eligible to enter the Green-Schools Irish Water Poster Competition: ‘Water: from the cloud to your glass’. Many pupils in each class drew posters for the competition and the Green-Schools Committee chose their favourite entries to represent the school. There were 6 pupils for Category A (2nd class) and 10 pupils for Category B (3rd – 6th classes). We gave a prize to our chosen winners. Unfortunately, none of our entries won the overall national prize.
Our Day of Action
To celebrate World Water Day on March 22nd and spread awareness of water issues around the world, we organised a Walk for Water event. This event involved the pupils walking 6 kilometres (4 miles) with 6 litres (1.5 gallons) of water in a backpack to raise awareness of water scarcity in developing countries and to show the pupils what the reality is like for the children that walk longer distances in third world countries with up to 20 litres of water, every day.
We walked to Ice House Hill Park on Tuesday 24th March. Each pupil was asked to bring in water in milk cartons or bottles and carry the water in bags or a backpack. As a guideline for how much water to bring in it was decided that 2nd class would carry 2 litres, 3rd class would carry 3 litres, 4th class would carry 4 litres, 5th class would carry 5 litres and 6th class would carry 6 litres. If a child felt that their amount was too heavy they were allowed to reduce the amount they carried. Pupils were not allowed to increase their load. At the end of the walk the water was to be reused either at home or in school. We saved some water in bottles for watering plants in May and June.
Our Green Code for the Water Theme
Slow the Flow, Save H 2 0
To get our Green Code we held a competition in each class. We asked pupils to think of a slogan for the school. Each class submitted their slogans and the Green-School Committee selected the Top 15 slogans.
Each class was then asked to rank these 15 slogans as far as their top 7. Each rank was given: 1st = 10 points, 2nd = 8 points, 3rd = 6 points, 4th = 5 points, 5th = 4 points, 6th = 3 points, 7th = 2 points and 8th = 1 point.
Mrs Duffy calculated the scores and the top 6 were given prizes with the overall winner being: Slow the flow, Save H 2 0 (by Erin Savage in 3rd Class).
The Green-Schools Committee selected a prize for the winners. The slogan is displayed in all the classrooms and each winner made up a poster which is displayed on the entrance to the toilets.
The other slogans were:
Drip, drip, drip, drop! Turn the tap to make it stop! (Lucy Foster 2nd Class)
Don't let it drip, drop, drain. It's time to use your brain. (Lolah-Beth Tremewan 3rd Class)
Water you can't borrow, So save it for tomorrow! (Maria Serebe 3rd Class)
It's not very clever to leave the tap on forever. (Saoirse Nelson 5th Class)
Save water and be kind, Keep the future in mind! (Searlait Owens-Duffy)
Don't be a fool, saving water is cool. (Aoibhínn Pepper 3rd Class)