Eco News

Eco-schools 2016

Recent Eco Events

Written By Anna Toal P.7. – Eco-Committee Chairperson

In September our very enthusiastic Eco-Committee was elected. Our first eco event was a competition to see who could come up with the best eco-code. Matthew and Jamie in P.7 got the most votes and their eco-code, called Renewal, won. This code is displayed in every class throughout the school.

October brought our Harvest and we harvested the vegetables from the raised beds in our kitchen garden. We made vegetable soup and champ for all the pupils. Many thanks to Mrs Ryan and Mrs Mc Cusker for helping us make the tasty delights.

The P.2 & 3 classes enjoyed a nature trail in Florence court, where they looked for signs of autumn and had a great time.

During November we introduced litter and energy monitors to every class to encourage a more efficient and healthy school.

We participated in an eco-assembly in December in front of the school for healthy eating.

In January we made water collectors with empty bottles. The P.5 class and the Eco-Committee empty them every week. We empty them into the water butt and we will use the water when we plant the vegetables during our Big Spring Clean.

We promoted Healthy living in February. We made fruit characters from recycled card board. Thank you to Mrs Quinn, Ruairi and Michael for helping us paint the fruit.

We thought that we could encourage even healthier eating by creating a poster competition. Some of the P.7 Eco-Committee was given a budget to buy prizes and we decided to buy water bottles, lunch bags and sports bags. All the entries were outstanding and we appreciate everyone’s hard work.

The P.5 class took part in the RSPB bird watch for six weeks and recorded the different birds which they observed each day. They collected their results and analysed their data. They presented their findings using graphs. This was an excellent topic and the whole class enjoyed it.

For one week in March we ran a healthy tuck-shop during health week in aid of Trocaire. The Eco-Committee agreed the prices and what type of fruit to buy. Thank you to everyone who helped and donated money.

Fitness Freddy delivered dance workshops to everyone during health week and he was a big hit! The whole school participated and had a great time.

As the P.5 topic was flight, we assisted them with making bird feeders. Thank you to Callum for purchasing the lard and birdseed and thanks again to Mrs Quinn, Mrs Mc Vitty and Mrs Mc Cusker for all their help.

Planting started in April. The P.2 class grew cress heads in shelled out potatoes and they enjoyed eating tasty cress sandwiches. They also planted tomato seeds and recently moved the young shoots to our school greenhouse.

P.7 planted potatoes and they carried out an experiment to investigate which type of natural manure would produce the best potato crop. Thank you Emer, Darragh and Caoilte for bringing in the manure from cows, horse and sheep. Thanks too to Mr Dolan for planting the potatoes with us.

The P.5 class went on a river study to Florence court and they had a great time in spite of the cold weather!

Upcoming eco events:

Our Big Spring clean is next Wednesday the 4^th of May and we are inviting all parents and pupils to help us clean up the school. We are going to save money and plastic by reusing our milk bottles to make watering cans. To make better soil for the boxes the eco committee and the P.3 class are going to make wormeries from plastic bottles, sand, soil and leaves. Please send in plastic 2 litre bottles. We much appreciate all your help.

We are also updating our bug hotel with old wooden crates, sticks, leaves and grass. The P.2 and P.4 classes will enjoy hunting for mini-beast in our outdoor classroom. We are looking forward to hearing what they find!

We recently got three beautiful new bird boxes kindly made by Andrew Magee. Thank you for all your hard work and time.

Cash for clobber is a charity to help adults and children in foreign countries build a better society. Please leave back the bags full of shoes, handbags, hats, scarves, bed linen and curtains. Pillows and duvets cannot be recycled for hygiene reasons, but duvet covers and pillow cases can be re-used. Please leave in the bags for 10^th May. Thank you once again for your kind generosity.

Our daily jobs:

The eco committee carry out daily jobs, such as watering the vegetable boxes, emptying the fruit waste into the compost bin and reminding classes about being energy efficient. We also have eco meetings every Wednesday and our secretary, Ruairi, makes notes during each meeting. I would definitely recommend to younger pupils to join the Eco-Committee.

I have really enjoyed being on the Eco-Committee, and since it is my final year here at Mullanaskea, I can’t wait to ‘go for green’ next Friday.

Thank you to everyone in the Eco-Committee, teachers, classroom assistants and volunteers for all your help and support.

Anna Toal, Eco-Committee Chairperson 2016