Green School

  

     

GREEN SCHOOL

Our Travel slogan is: Share the air that we all share , if it's not too far don't use the car.

      We are part of the Green School Project  for the past few years. We have already received many green flags. Our Green School projects to date  were based on the following themes: Litter, Waste, Energy and Water.   We are now applying for the Travel  flag. We are committed to being a Green School and our aim is to teach the children to respect their environment and to hopefully put into practice as adults what they have learned in school. As part of our Action Plan,  we have set many Travel targets, with the ultimate aim of increasing the number of pupils walking, cycling, carpooling or using public transport, which will ease congestion by reducing the number of private cars arriving at the school gates.

Some  activities that will take place 

1.        Rotation of the committee every year
2.        Committee organises events and will encourage the whole school to        get involved.
3.        We will link the Travel flag with our Active School week in April in order to promote the theme of Travel.
4.        Teachers will integrate and link lessons on the Travel Theme and display different projects on the green school notice boards
5.       Children and teachers from our school will partner up with other local  schools to go on walks on the beach and in the local woods
6.       Action days and events will take place during the year based on the travel theme
7.       Class surveys and whole school travel surveys will take place 
8.      Seat Belt Sherrif lessons will be run in first class. 
9.      Santa Dash will take places in December on our walks to the Community hall
10.      All children will be encouraged to walk, cycle and carpool more often if it is possible and safe to do so

The committee 2016-2017

Committee meetings will be held throughout the school year

Junior infant:    Caoimhe Collins 

Senior Infants:  Oscar Power

First class:        Lauren Walsh 

Second class:   Ben Geary

Third class:       Diarmuid Fitzgerald

Fourth class:     Barry Walsh and Emily Brenner

Fifth class:         Ally Kelly Budds and Diarmuid Buckley

Sixth class:        Mark O' Mahony and Katelyn O Donovan

The committee 2017-2018

Green school Committee  2017-2018:

   Juniors infants :  Ciaran Mcgrath

   Senior Infants:    Oran Coughlan

   First class:           Leah Conlon

   2nd class:            Emily Lawton

   3rd Class :           Samanatha Power

   4th class:             Aaron Dignam and Katie Fiztgerarld

   5th class:             Lilly Jane Daly 
   6th class:             Ally Budds and Jack O'Connor 

2.    Environmental review

The aim of the review is to identify the initial situation within and outside the school regarding travel

Activities:

ü  Undertake green school Travel survey

ü  Undertake a walkability audit

ü  Undertake a cycleability audit

ü  Undertake mapping exercises

ü  Undertake traffic surveys

3. Action Plan:

This Action plan is a list of future targets and goal for Inch National school

Goal 1: To ensure that everyone in school and the wider community is aware of the Green school travel programme and encourage everyone to take part.

Goal 2: To research school travel Patterns and identify areas for action and improvements

Goal 3: To reduce the number of students being driven to school and increase walking, cycling and carpooling.   (also to reduce the number of cars parking outside the school in the mornings and evening)

The action plan will be continually revisited and updated during meetings and targets maybe be changed during the year.

See Our Action Plan further down 

4. Monitoring and Evaluating

We will monitor and evaluate or Travel activities so as to ensure that progress towards our directed targets are checked, amended where necessary and a success celebrated.

Examples of monitoring and evaluating:

Class survey

Green trees

Monitor Previous themes

5. Curriculum work

Our aim is to link the travel theme to the curriculum work going on in our school.  See a sample of how the curriculum will be integrated further down this page.

6. informing and involving

Our aim is to spread the Green school message throughout the whole school and the wider community through ongoing publicity and an action week.

 We will spread the word through the use of:

ü  Notice boards

ü  School website

ü  Action week

ü  Newsletters

ü  Displays and posters

ü  Travel green code

7. Green Code

We will create a code which states the objectives that demonstrate the school’s commitment to environmentally friendly actions


Our Travel slogan is: Share the air that we all share , if it's not too far don't use the car.

 Our Action Plan

Goal	Action/Target	Person/Group Responsible	Timeline	Progress Made
2016-2017	Staff Meeting to Discuss the green flag	Class teachers	September 8th   2016	Accomplished
	Inform parents about the green school travel flag By updating the website	Coordinator	September On going	Ongoing
	Update Green school notice board	Co-coordinator and committee	Ongoing	Ongoing
	Establish green school committee	Whole school	September	Accomplished
	4th class carry out a survey on travel	4th class	September	Accomplished
	Teach lessons based on the theme of travel	Class teachers	Ongoing	Accomplished
	Talk about school travel	Green school Travel Officer	14th of October 2016	Accomplished
	Getting children active -Super Troopers	Whole school initiative	17th of October 2016	Ongoing
	Undertake travel survey for staff and students	Green school Travel officer and green school co-ordinary	14th of October 2016	Accomplished
	Make a graph of the results and display	Green school committee and co-coordinator	October	Accomplished
	Active travelling Walking and running around the school (score on the door)	Green school committee	Term 1	Accomplished
	Walk in glen bower woods with other schools in the parish	6th class	27th of October	Accomplished
	Undertake a walk able audit and inform every one of the results including: good routes to school and possible park and ride	Green school travel officer and green school co-coordinator	November	Accomplished
	Make a graph of results and display	Co-coordinator and committees	November	Accomplished
	Green Tree	5th class will create a visual tree in the hall to create a visual display of transport to school	November	Accomplished
	Identify areas for improvement from the walkability Audit and report to the local council	Green school travel officer	December	Accomplished
	Design a map for the whole school to mark out how far each class has travelled I.e. (map score on the door)	Whole school involvement	Ongoing	Accomplished
	Each class learn the safe cross code	Class teachers	December	Accomplished
	Each class to learn   about road safety	Class teacher	December	Accomplished
	Active school week- cycling walking to school	Whole school and community	April	Accomplished
	National walk to school week	Whole school where possible	May	Accomplished
	Taken on follow on Survey s (Hans Van De Ven)	Green school committee	May /June	Accomplished
	Cycling training day  with Hans Van De Ven	Whole school	April	Accomplished
	Awards presented to the person or class which walks or cycles the most to school for the month of June	Green school committee	June	Accomplished
2017-2018	Review committee and vote for new members for the new school year	Green school committee and co-ordinator	September	Accomplished
	Committee  meeting to be held every Thursday Constant encouragement and reminder to the whole school of our commitment to the travel flag	Committee meetings	All year	Accomplished
	Meeting with Hans Van De Ven Review travel surveys	Committee and teachers	October	Accomplished
	Journey themed lesson plans	Whole school	November	Accomplished
	Santa Dash -  walk to Christmas concert practice each day  (wear hats)	Whole school	December	Accomplished
	2018 review targets meeting setting new targets	Committee	January	Accomplished
	Meeting with Hans Van De Ven-Green school Liaison	Committee and teachers	January	Accomplished
	Carpooling drive	Whole school	February	Accomplished
	Structured organised Travel yard games	Juniors –march Seniors –April First –may 2nd –June	March -June	ongoing
	Travel lesson – revisit the school cross code	Whole school	May
	Active School week	Whole school	April
	National walk to school week	Whole school where possible	May	Accomplished
	Reduce reuse cycle Campaign	Whole school	All year	Ongoing
	Beach –environmental walk with all schools in the parish	5th and 6th class	June
	Raise awareness and publicise your green code throughout the school  by raising the  new flag CLIMATE CHANGE LESSON S	Whole school WHOLE SCHOOL	June
	Awards presented to the person or class which walks or cycles the most to school for the month of June	Green school committee	June

G

Sample of Class Curriculum links

Travel Theme-First class

Maths:

• ·        Conducting surveys: Graph how the children travel to school every day
• ·        Measuring distances

Art:

• ·        Drawing a map of our journey to school
• ·        Design a picture of how to you travelled to school each day

·         

History:

• ·        Transport long ago- exploring how travel has changed

Geography

• ·        Different kinds of Transport
• ·        Mapping and aerial view
• ·        Spring walk in Glen bower woods

Science:

• ·        How my bicycle works  
• ·        Design a model car to carry out a test on the safety of seat belts

Sphe:

• ·        The seat belt sheriff
• ·        Road safety lessons

Physical education:

• ·        Active School initiatives – score on the door
• ·        Walk on Wednesday
• ·        Supper Troopers activity
• ·        Active week in April

Drama:

• ·        Walking up and down to the hall to practice for the Christmas concert

Music

• ·        Sing travelling songs: for example, the big ship sails, a bicycle made for two, down by the station etc. 
• ·         Learn the safe cross code song.

English: 

Promoting communication skills. Public speaking
·        Report writing:  Sport day/active week/
·        Oral language: talk and discussion 


Useful websites and resources
http://www.rsa.ie/en/RSA/Road-Safety/Road-safety-for-kids/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIluoGcCKNg

Action Day

Our action day consisted of teachers teaching many lessons related to the Travel theme.  We also encouraged the children to walk or cycle to school on that day.  We invited Hans Vans De Ven from the green schools to speak to the children about helmet safety and he also provided cycling training skills activities with the children.   The green school slogan was hung around the school and all the classes were encouraged to learn the slogan.  We also performed the green school safe cross code as a whole school in our Astro turf field. 

Sample Photos 

Cycling to school 

Action day 

lesson on different ways we can travel

Action day