Green Schools Project

   St. Patrick's Primary School is gearing up to participate in the Green-Schools Project. Green-Schools is a Europe-wide project designed to encourage and acknowledge whole-school action for the environment.

  Green Schools is both a programme and an award scheme. The award will take the form of a green flag which can be flown outside the school. The award needs to be renewed every two years. The aim of the Green Schools Project is to make environmental awareness and action an integral part of school life.

   There are seven stages towards achieving Green Schools status. The initial crucial steps are:
                   1. Establish the Green Schools Committee.
                   2. Conduct an environmental review
                   3. Determine an action plan
Don't be over-ambitious. The action plan should be one that's easily obtainable. The Green Schools Project is flexible. Different schools will find different routes to achieving Green School status.

 Our Green Flag Arrives!

On June 17th 2003 we recieved our green flag. This was a great honour for the school and the result of much hard work by the staff, parents and particularly the pupils of the school. Special thanks must go to the green schools committees of the past couple of years and to Ms. Hogan, Ms. O'Grady, Mrs. Mongan and our caretaker Miko for all their hard work. We were delighted to have Sarah Keating of pop group "SIX" on hand to assist in the raising of the flag for the first time.

The Green Flag.

       The boys and staff worked hard as a team to achieve this prestigious award. A small group of committee members were chosen to go to Dublin and were presented with the Green Flag by the Minister Mr. Pat Rabbitte. We are very proud of our achievement.

  We are applying for renewal of our Green Flag. To do this successfully we must show that we have maintained and built on our achievements. We have submitted our action plan and answered a questionnaire to prove that we fulfilled the criteria. Our Green-Schools assessor called to assess our project 2^nd February 2005. Our application and assessment form have been submitted to An Taisce where a final decision to grant the award is made.

  River Project.

  The boys on the Green-School Committee are taking part in a project on our local river – The Nanny. At the end of January 2005 they visited the river on two separate occasions. On their first visit they took samples of the water and vegetation. The boys carried out filtration experiments on these samples. They planted three ash trees to enhance and strengthen the riverbank on their second visit. A follow up visit is due to take place in the near future.  

Green Flag Renewal.

  We have just received a letter from An Taisce’s Green-Schools Evaluation Committee to say that they continue to be extremely impressed with our programme and have no hesitation in renewing our International Green Flag Award.

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