Green-Schools is a themed environmental education programme, designed to both recognise and advance action for the environment in schools. The Green Schools programme aims to help pupils to recognise the importance of environmental issues and take them more seriously in their own lives. Green-Schools is both a programme and an award scheme. The award is given to schools that successfully complete the Seven Steps of the programme.
In Oola National School we have received our third Green Flag. We have now been awarded flags for work in the areas of Litter and Waste, Energy and Water. To secure our fourth Green Flag, we now turn our attention to the area of travel.
Photo shows our current Green Schools Committee members with a volunteer from each class from Rang I to Rang VI. This committee was elected in November 2011 and will coordinate efforts to secure our fourth Green Flag on the theme of travel.
Update January 2012
At present the committee are working hard.We meet once a fortnight. We have contacted the RSA and are endeavouring to secure a hi vis vest for each pupil. We have informed pupils of an art competition on the theme of travel. In a bid to encourage car pooling we are currently working on a visual presentation on our Green Schools notice board, where each family place a pin where their home is on a map of Oola. In this way we hope pupils will see clearly where car pooling might be feasible.
History of the Green Flag in Oola N.S.
It all began in early 2005 when a Green Schools committee was elected in an attempt to obtain Green Flag status for Oola National School.The school has taken on board many new measures in a bid to both reduce rubbish produced by the school and increase awareness. We had a visit from our adjudicator on Tuesday, April 25th 2006. We then received the very welcome news that our application had been successful. We received our first Green Flag at the Green Schools National Award ceremony on May 23rd 2006. It was presented by Gavin Harte, Director of An Taisce. The flag was raised in Oola on June 12th by Limerick hurler Denis Moloney.
A second Green Schools committee set to work on the next Green Flag working on the theme of "energy". We have since worked very hard to make our school more energy efficient. Our renovated school building has helped reduce energy wastage with new carpets, new windows and a more efficient heating system. Pupils and staff are more aware of the need to save energy where possible. Our Green Schools adjudicator, Joanna Gammell, visited the school on April 15th, 2008. In early May we got the news we had been waiting for. Our application had been successful. And so we were awarded our second Green Flag on Wednesday, May 28th 2008 at a ceremony in the Lifetime Lab in Cork.
Due to the building works in our school the official raising of this flag was delayed until Wednesday, May 13th 2008. Two retired teachers Mrs Bourke and Mrs. Bowles performed the honours.
The third theme of the Green Schools Programme was water. The committee were also anxious to keep up efforts on both themes already explored. We worked on the areas of water awareness and conservation.
The presentation of our third Green Flag took place on March 10th 2011 in Cork. Mrs Butler and two members of the Green Schools Committee travelled to Cork to accept the flag on behalf of the school.
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For further information on the Green Schools programme visit:
http://www.greenschoolsireland.org/
