St. Antonews Ezine

'If we want the world to stay, let's do it the Green-schools way.'

(St. Anthony's Green-schools motto)

To quote from our successful application for our first green flag back in 2004:'

There is nothing else like Green-schools in Ireland. For students it's a way to stay connected with the outside and with their wider community. Their actions have consequences - both good and bad - and this is something that Green-schools teaches them. Many young people lead sedentary lives these days. Green-schools gets them out digging, exploring, sorting, measuring and moving about constantly. they are aware of healthy eating and wasteful behaviour. They are influenced by each other in a powerful way. They in turn, influence their siblings, parents and also their grandparents. Grandparents can identify with a lot of the ideas which Green-schools promotes - thriftiness and good housekeeping, adapting, moulding, saving saving and saving. Parents learn tips about money-saving waste reduction. They take the project on board in their own homes. It keeps them connected with their child's school and they enjoy taking part in gardening activities and the action days.'

We are currently flying our second green flag and we hope to successfully apply for our third green flag next year.

Our Green-schools Committee are a vibrant and much loved part of St. Anthony's life. Our committee is made up of two parents, Jennifer Whelan and Geraldine Short, two teachers Gillian Barrett and Máire Cronin and two boys from every class from 1st Class up to 6th Class. The committee meets once a month for half an hour. We review our progress since the previous month and discuss ideas for classroom activities, competitions and planting and gardening. The art and craft competitions using recycled materials run at Halloween and Christmas prove to be much anticipated and supported by all classes.

Another much anticipated event is St. Anthony's Day which is organised by the Parents' Association. Last June, Green-schools very own 'Ecstatic Carrot' set up a food-tasting stall where all the boys got the opportunity to taste many fruits, vegetables, dips and the like.

St. Antonews is our Green-school newspaper. Our two fab parents Jennifer and Geraldine busily compiled all the articles, stories, poetry, reviews, interviews, art work, photos and lots more before our most recent bumper Christmas edition. Congratulations to all the boys whose work was published and well done to Geraldine and Jennifer.

    The green school that is St. Anthony's has many beautiful features that exist as a direct result of the Green-schools initiative to date. We can't help being a green school as we are lucky that we have seven acres of grass for our boys to play on and develop as part of Green-schools!

    We are extremely proud of our outdoor classroom which comes into its own in the spring summer and autumn fine weather. We also have our very own meditation garden which was designed with the two sacrament classes, 2nd Class and 6th Class, in mind. It is a quiet space with log seats, wind chimes and pretty plants, where our pupils can sit and think for a while and maybe see a bird drink or bathe in the bird bath.

    We actively encourage wildlife to take up residence with us in our fine grounds. We have bird boxes, a bat box and a bug hotel! Our meditation garden is home to our hedgehog house which hopefully will house a hedgehog family in the near future. Beside the hedgehog house is our ladybird feeder. We like to encourage more ladybirds to share our space.

    The pupils from Junior Infants to 6th Class play their part daily.

• Each class has light and door monitors who help reduce our heat and energy bills by ensuring no light is left on unnecessarily or door left open.

• Each class has a skin bin for their apple butts, banana skins or pencil parings.

• Two boys from 6th Class empty these skin bins daily and bring the contents to our compost bin located near the school vegetable plot.

• The school community are aware of the location of our four recycle bins for batteries, corks, plastic lids and ink cartridges.

• 4th Class collect ringos for their Ringos Project and they enjoyed a visit from Éanna Ní Lamhna in 2007.

• The boys reuse their drinks bottles and use lunch boxes which minimises waste. We also encourage healthy lunches and eating habits.

Guest speakers:

    We have welcomed visits from environmental 'dignitaries' including Kilcoole's own Sr. Enda Mullen who shared her love of bats with the boys and Éamonn de Buitléar who gave a talk about our local wildlife which the boys thoroughly enjoyed. As I mentioned above, Éanna Ní Lamhna visited 4th Class as a part of their Ringos project last year. 

Bulb planting:

    The infant classes plant lots of bulbs every year and we are looking forward to the colourful botanical display that is about to bloom over the coming weeks of Spring.

Greenwave is a mass science experiment for Irish national schools. The boys will record sighting dates of six species which are indicators of spring on to the Greenwave website. The results are mapped and analysed. By taking part we will be actually doing real science i.e. studying and recording when plants and animals react to warming and lengthening days in spring. We will be looking out for buds bursting on horse chestnuts, hawthorns and ash trees. We will be looking for the day the first primrose opens, the first signs of frogspawn and later on the first swallow to arrive. Please let us know if and when you see signs of the above and we'll submit our evidence to www.greenwave.ie

Speaking of spring and summer.... as things start to grow, work will begin again in our school grounds. If you feel you have an hour or two on your hands and would like to pitch in here with us in Green-Schools, please don't be shy! You can email us your contact details on greenschools@stanthonysbns.ie or drop in and make yourself known! Help is always appreciated and welcome.

Slán tamall.

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