11 schools across Laois were awarded their Green-School flag on May 14, an award for environmental management in primary and secondary schools.
All the Laois Schools who won awards received an invite to the Green-Award Ceremony held in Kilkenny on May 13 which over 4,000 people attended.
Laois County Council provided a bus to each school down to Kilkenny for the awards ceremony.
Portarlington were awarded their travel flag for encouraging walking, cycling, carpooling and taking the bus to school in their Green-Schools campaign.
Three schools were awarded the Biodiversity award, Scoil Mhuire Fatima Timahoe, Fiontan Naofa Shanahoe and Knock National School.
The schools raised awareness for biodiversity by planting wildflowers on their school grounds.
They used native Irish sustainably sourced seeds and changed the management of some outside areas to encourage the growth of wildflowers naturally.
Knock NS created a biodiversity garden with habitats for different wildlife and showed wide engagement on this theme, as well as their previous Green-Schools themes, with the whole of the school.
While S.N. Fionntan Naofa Shanahoe established a biodiversity garden with a willow tunnel.
There were 3 Laois Schools awarded for Global Citizenship Energy theme -Scoil Chriost Ri, Clough NS and Ballyadams NS.
Scoil Chriost Ri had initiatives such as all computers being automatically switched off at 4.30pm in the evening and a limited amount of paper allowed for printing per teacher.
Ballyadams NS had some brilliant ideas such as ‘No Tech Tuesday’ NTT, both in school and at home which meant parents too and a device free Tuesday evening.
Clough NS held great action days and took energy conservation measures as the best way to save energy is….not to use it!. Their Green-School committee carry out litter picks on Sundays with their families.
Global Citizenship Litter and Waste flags were awarded to St Francis Special School, Ballyfin NS and Mountmellick Community School.
St Francis Special School, who repurposed waste as art, particularly their bottle top blossoms. They did a great job of maintain their previous 5 themes.
Ballyfin NS had a lot of upcycled art, run poster campaigns and global citizenship projects. They are supporting more regular community clean ups and increased signage for awareness on the impacts of waste and waste prevention.
Mountmellick Community School had a drinking water fountain installed and seen a reduction in single use plastic. They run swap shops for clothes and books and had relandscaped a neglected internal garden area into a biodiversity haven with a bench for relaxation.
Derrymalogue NS were awarded for Global Citizenship Travel revisited all their previous sustainable school journey efforts – walking, cycling, scooting, parking ‘n’ striding, getting the bus and carpooling to school.
They also focused on the four Sustainable Development Goals most relevant to sustainable travel.
Ballyfin N.S. pupils, Serena Meade and Juliet Carroll , with Grace Milne, Karen Moore PhD (Community Climate Action Officer, Laois Co Council ) and Aisling Conroy from Ballyfin N.S. . holding the Global Citizenship award presented at the Kilkenny Green Schools event. Photo: Michael Scully
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