Green Schools

GREEN-SCHOOLS

NEWS FLASH!!!
EDMONDSTOWN NATIONAL SCHOOL HAS BEEN AWARDED THE REGIONAL PRIMARY SCHOOL AWARD FOR GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP, LITTER AND WASTE: MAY 2023
WOW!!! WHAT AN INCREDIBLE ACHIEVEMENT FOR OUR LITTLE SCHOOL! HUGE CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR GREEN SCHOOL COMMITTEE AND THE WHOLE SCHOOL FOR THE GREAT TEAM EFFORT.

NEWS FLASH!!!
GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP, LITTER AND WASTE FLAG AWARDED TO EDMONDSTOWN NATIONAL SCHOOL APRIL 2023

We are thrilled that our school has been awarded our 7th Green Flag. We hold flags for: Litter & Waste, Energy, Water, Travel, Biodiversity, and Pilot Flag for Global Citizenship - Food & Biodiversity. Well done to all the Committee for all their hard work!

The children are participating in the "Incredible Edibles" programme. They have planted potatoes, celery, spinach, lettuce, carrots, turnips and also strawberries. The seeds have all germinated well and as soon as the last frost is gone, we will plant them out in our vegetable beds.

Our Wildflower garden is coming along nicely from the seed bombs planted by Junior & Senior Infants. There are lovely nettles which will attract lots of Butterflies and wonderful dandelions to help the Bees. The bluebells are beautiful at this time of year.

The Green School Committee and the children in the school have been working so hard on our theme - Global Citizenship - Litter and Waste. Our Motto: "Bin the Litter and Waste - Make the World more Plant Based!"

Spring Returns!!

The children have made their own litter bins!!!

What a fantastic visit to Killakee Christmas Tree farm 1st and 2nd had. They learned all about sustainability and the damage that plastic Christmas trees do to the environment. They all brought home a little Christmas tree to plant. Sincere thanks to Justin and Karen Morton for such an educational and enjoyable visit!

Fantastic Sustainable Christmas Decorations - well done!

Another successful re-launch of WOW for the Autumn - keep up the great work everyone! Wonderful to see so many walking and cycling now, especially on Wednesdays!

3rd & 4th class enjoyed planting seeds and of course, everyone wants to do the watering!!!

The joy of finding a ladybird - Spring is here!

Some children enjoyed making bird feeders.

The Green School Committee decided that it was time to get the vegetable beds ready for "over Wintering". This involves weeding them and then covering with black sacks so that they will be ready for Spring planting. It's tough work, but someone has to do it! They seem to be enjoying the fresh air even though it's pretty cold out there!

We had a very succesful WOW day re-launch on Wednesday, 10th November. Keep up the great work everybody!!

The new committee are taking their roles very seriously - they collect the paper waste each day and put it in the recycling bin and they water the plants. They even sweep up the leaves so that the Junior Infants won't slip - well done all of you!!

National Tree Day 7th October 2021: Our new Green School Committee planted a little wild Cherry Tree today. It was donated by Coilte Ireland. The committee have committed to working on the new theme and to looking after the school garden. The Committee harvested the last of our potatoes and beetroot from the school garden.

Green School Committee 2021/2022

The new Green School Committee are excited to get started on our new theme: Global Citizenship Litter and Waste. They received their new badges today from the new co-ordinator Ms Leanne Browne.

Last year's Green School Committee took ownership of our latest Green Flag on 7th October 2021. There was an award ceremony via Zoom with An Táisce. Congratulations to one and all - the judges were so impressed with all the work we did over the past two years. We were a pilot school for this new flag: Global Citizenship, Biodiversity and Food Waste.

Our beautiful Horse Chestnut tree is providing wonderful food for this little guy and lots of his friends during September 2021. Our school is a wonderful habitat for squirrels and rabbits.

The Green School Committee enjoyed harvesting our lettuce and radishes and strawberries this June. They then participated in a live "cook along" organised by An Táisce - scrumptious!

The Green Schools Committee's work is never finished! They have to continually weed the beds, water the plants and litter pick! Check out some more lovely environmental pictures on the 3rd and 4th class page. The class had the fantastic privilege of engaging with the Pushkin Project this year. On 14th June, Dr. Patrick Madden gave them an inspiring outdoor workshop where they learned all about the wonderful native trees in our school garden. Ms Catherine Behan then did a wonderful workshop on leaf inspired clay art.

5th and 6th class wrote about the various animals and wildlife found in the rainforest. The Junior/Senior Infants coloured them in and cut them out - don't they look amazing!

5th and 6th class learned a lot about the Rainforest and the effect man is having on it. They wrote some wonderful poetry and also created some great posters regarding the disadvantages of using Palm Oil.

Well done first class - what a great effort at making your very own Rainforest!

The Green School Committee have been working hard planting out our broad beans, radishes, spinnach, salad leaves and peas. They water these vegetables every day. They also have to do a lot of weeding!

5th and 6th class planted radish, beetroot and spinach. We will plant them out in the school garden as soon as the frost finally decides to leave us alone!

1st and 2nd class simply love their Biodiversity colouring books and all the interesting facts. Many thanks to South Dublin County Council for supplying them.

In April 2021, Junior & Senior Infants learnt all about the rainforest and the jungle as part of our Global Citizenship Biodiversity and Food studies. They also learnt about the life cycle of the butterfly.

It's wonderful to see so many children walking, scooting and cycling to school - keep it up everyone!

Look at these busy students transplanting their little plants into bigger pots. They were careful to put a little "hat" on their support stick so that no one would hurt their eyes by accident when watering their plants. Every day they bring out their plants to "harden" them off. When we are confident that there is no more danger of frost, we will transplant the broad beans up into the vegetable plots. Then all we will have to worry about will be the rabbits!

A beautiful heron came to visit our little river - some of the children spotted him from the bridge.

Well done to the boys and girls from 3rd and 4th class for minding their broad beans over the Easter holidays. They have germinated now and how sprouted wonderful shoots. We will transplant them into bigger pots and "harden them off" during the day before finally transplanting them into our vegetable beds.

A lovely little deer visited the area and was spotted by one of our students.

Junior and Senior Infants had terrific fun making seed bombs. We planted these in our Wild Flower Meadow and we are keeping our fingers crossed that lots of wild flowers will grow and that these will attract lots of bees. The children also planted cress seeds and these germinated in two days!

The children have researched wonderful projects on the Rainforest, even creating a 3D model!

Our Green School Committee worked hard at preparing a vegetable bed and then they planted some potatoes. Hopefully they will be ready to harvest in June - fingers crossed!

Thanks to Pádraig and Sarah Lambert, we had a visit from a one day old lamb on 24th March 2021. Thanks you so much for such a magical moment.

During March,3rd and 4th class planted Broad Beans. They will bring them home to care for them over the Easter and then we will plant them out in the school garden after the holidays.

3rd and 4th class worked hard preparing the vegetable beds for planting peas - well done boys and girls!

SPRING IS IN THE AIR NOW THAT THE CHILDREN ARE BACK AT SCHOOL: MARCH 2021

Mallard ducks, frogs, daffodils, snowdrops and crocus welcome us each morning as we race into school with joy!

WALK ON WEDNESDAY

It was great to see so many children walking and scooting on the relaunch of our "Walk on Wednesday" on 4th November 2020. Well done for keeping "Socially Distanced" as you walked. Keep it up!! Well done Mrs Burke and the Green School Committee for organising everyone.

22ND OCTOBER - ANOTHER VISITOR TO OUR SCHOOL GARDEN!

An October 2020 visitor to our Owendoher river.

WALKERS, SCOOTERS AND CYCLISTS

It's great to see so many of our children walking, scooting and cycling while the weather is mild - well done and keep it up!

Our window boxes and planters are looking great thanks to the green fingers of Linda!

1st October 2020 - National Tree Day

The children of Edmondstown are so lucky to be surrounded by trees in their school grounds. They had great fun today out and about learning about our various native trees. We have a magnificent horse chestnut which is over 120 years old - just imagine the stories it could tell!! The children in 3rd and 4th planted a little Ash tree brought in by Max and the children in 1st and 2nd planted a little Sitka Spruce.

Global Citizenship, Biodiversity and Food - A Green Flag Newstalk feature

Newstalk featured our Green School endeavours on Friday 25th September 2020. Mrs. Burke was invited to talk on Newstalk on the Lunchtime Live Show with Andrea Gilligan, in relation to green action being taken in schools in Ireland. Mrs. Burke discussed a new Green Schools’ theme, ‘Global Citizenship, Biodiversity and Food’. Edmondstown was chosen to pilot this new flag from An Taisce over the last two years. Due to its wonderful success, the theme has been launched countrywide. All the children in Edmondstown absolutely loved every aspect of the theme - from growing and eating our own food in a harvest workshop, to studying our global topic - ‘Our Diet, Our Rainforest’. The theme has really helped the children to understand themselves as global citizens and how our food choices have impacts on other people and their environments. Amelie from 5th class was fantastic at telling the panel all about the soil experiments that the class carried out. We were very proud of everyone. Have a listen to the recording below.

Check out this great article in the Irish Examiner by Michelle Darmody highlighting the importance of educating children about growing and cooking their own food and featuring Edmondstown School Garden and the children of 3rd and 4th class - well done Mrs Burke and everyone involved.
https://amp.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/lifestyle/features/michelle-darmodys-food-mission-why-we-need-to-teach-our-kids-to-cook-at-school-997174.html

The children are not the only visitors back to school this September 2020!!! We are blessed to have such idyllic school grounds and a wonderful garden where biodiversity thrives.

Ducklings and their Mam swimming on the Owendoher river under our little bridge at school. 7th May 2020

TERM TWO RELAUNCH OF WOW 2019

It was a beautiful sunny day on Wednesday 27th March - perfect for our re-launch. There was a great turn out of children and parents and lots more who met up with us along the way. Well done to Ms Brocklebank, Mr. Egan and Federica who accompanied the children up the hill.

Global Goals Conference

3rd and 4th class had a great time at the Global Goals Conference in Croke Park on 15th November 2018. Thank you to all our parent volunteers who helped supervise on the day.

Green-Schools WOW Day 2018

Green-Schools Notice Board

Green-Schools Committee 2018-2019

Walk on Wednesday starts again!

On Wednesday, September 19th, Edmondstown National School has its first WOW day of the year! Led by Mr. Egan and Ms. Brocklebank, the gathered pupils and parents walked from Springvale to the school. Well done to everyone for taking part!

Mr. Ben Curtin Raises our Green Flag - June 2018

In recognition of all his efforts in making our Sensory Garden become a reality, Mr. Ben Curtin was invited to raise our fifth Green Flag on 29th June. It was a beautiful sunny day and our Green School Committee were on hand to help out and tell us about their endeavours. The choir sang a terrific ditty composed especially for the occasion.

Edmondstown Is Awarded the Biodiversity Green Flag!

On 22nd May 2018, Edmondstown was awarded its fifth Green flag. This flag was for all our work on the theme of Biodiversity over the past two years. Three representatives of the Green School Committee represented the school with Mr. O'Dwyer. They went to the Helix to accept our flag and then were treated to lunch in DCU. We are all delighted. Congratulations to everyone.

BIODIVERSITY

First and Second Class Plant Seed Potatoes

First and Second Class enjoyed planting seed potatoes on 22nd March. They are hoping for a good crop to harvest in June. Check out the lovely photos under the class tab here.

Green School Inspection

On Monday 12th March, Maebh Boylan from An Taisce visited our school to find out all about the work we have been doing for the Biodiversity theme. She was really impressed with our Green School Committee and how well they could talk about the topic. She loved walking around our school garden to see all the different initiatives in action. Thanks to Mr. O'Dwyer and Ms Brocklebank for all their enthusiasm and help with the committee. Maebh said that she could see the theme was firmly embedded from Junior Infants to 6th class. She loved the little rhyme from Ms Wallnutt's class and the song that the whole school sang - well done Ms Wallnutt! We hope we will get good news soon!

PLANTING ONIONS IN THE VEGETABLE BEDS

Junior and Senior Infants planted onions on Thursday 22nd February. They enjoyed digging with our new spades and raking the soil. We hope our onions will sprout soon. Check out more photos under the Junior and Senior infants class tab.

HABITAT MAPS

Third and Fourth Class studied the habitats surrounding our school and they drew some terrific habitat maps of before and after all our work on the garden.

JUNIOR & SENIOR INFANTS ARE WORKING HARD ON OUR THEME

Junior and Senior Infants were so excited to discover that their broad beans had germinated during the mid term break. They also made a magnificent Biodiversity poster.

VEGETABLE BEDS AND WILDLIFE PICTURES

We really love our collection of Native Irish wildlife and birdlife pictures. They really brighten up our playground shelter. Thanks so much to our fantastic Parents' Association for all their fundraising and to Mr. Mick Behan who spent a lot of time putting up the pictures. Our vegetable beds have arrived and we can't wait to start planting out our peas and potatoes. Soon we will be making our own home made soup!

HOME MADE BIRD FEEDERS

Look at the fabulous bird feeder made by a wonderful student and her father! This will be great for attracting more bird life into our garden. Check out more amazing bird feeders and bird boxes made by third and fourth class.

Two little deer arrived today 1st February 2018 - Spring has definitely arrived!

We continue to strive for our Biodiversity flag. We are now in year two of our endeavours. The school garden is really starting to take shape with the addition of our Sensory beds and pond and of course our Amuigh Faoin Spéir Learning Zone. We are hoping to create a Bumble bee corridor by planting lots of bee-friendly flowers and shrubs. We are hoping that a hedgehog moves into our hedgehog house. There is lots of evidence of insects in our bug hotel already. Hopefully in the Spring, lots of birds will use our bird houses in which to build their nests. Did you see the beautiful deer that peeped into our classrooms the other week? Wasn't he so curious. We continue to Walk on Wednesdays, recycle our rubbish and conserve water and energy. On 11th October 2017 we re-launched our Walk on Wednesday and despite the rain, we had a small but enthusiastic turn out. Mrs Cleary and Mr. O'Dwyer walked down to the meeting point at Springvale to accompany the children up the hill.

GREEN SCHOOLS' COMMITTEE 2017/2018

BIODIVERSITY

W.O.W - Walk on Wednesday

The Green School Committee are working hard encouraging everyone to Walk on Wednesdays and keeping the scores on the doors.

SOME BIODIVERSITY ART

GREEN SCHOOL NEWS OCTOBER 2016

We will re-launch our Walk on Wednesday initiative on Wednesday 19th October. We hope to have a great turn out. We will meet at the entrance to Springvale Estate and walk up to school together. We are now pursuing our FIFTH green flag. This flag is for Biodiversity. We are really looking forward to working on this theme because we have a huge variety of life in our idyllic setting up the mountain. Just look at who came to visit us in class last week!

SENSORY GARDEN

We are working hard on our Biodiversity theme for Green Schools. In May 2016 we had no garden and now, in September 2016, what a wonderful amenity we have with our beautiful garden. The meandering path through the woodland is an absolute delight and the children really love it. We are so blessed that Susan and Ben Curtin were determined to get this garden up and running. Don’t you just love the pencil fence? Well done to all our parents and children who helped paint the pencils. Hopefully we will soon have our `Amuigh faoin speir” learning zone and our sensory planting beds. The children are making great use of our new playground games. They really love hopscotch and the giant circuit. Declan Nutley has really helped us out with our garden and it is great to know we have an expert gardener on our team.

PODCAST FOR IMPROVEMENTS

During the summer term of 2016 Mrs Cleary's third and fourth class lobbied South Dublin County council along with the help of our green school committee member, councillor Francis Duffy and some brilliant parents and we explained that although we had achieved our travel flag, that it was still very difficult to walk to school. We even sent them in a podcast outlining the problems. Imagine our surprise when we came back to school this September and discovered that the pathways to our school had been improved and that "slow down" warning signs had been erected. Children can have powerful voices for change it seems! Check out the podcast below.