Cloneyhurke National School’s pride at being a Green School

Cloneyhurke NS: Green Schools Work

At Cloneyhurke NS, we pride ourselves on being a Green School. We have achieved our Litter and Energy Flags, and this year we are applying for our Water Flag. Our Green Schools Committee meet regularly to monitor and plan for upcoming events and actions.

Some of the programmes that we take part in at Cloneyhurke NS include;

Picker Pals: Funded by Offaly County Council, we are in our third year of this programme. We take part in litter picking walks of the local community using the equipment provided to us by PickerPals. We also take part in environmental awareness lessons and workshops as part of the programme.

Agri Aware Incredible Edibles: Last year we were lucky to be selected as one of the schools who received 4 raised beds and supplies to start our school vegetable garden. We have planted potatoes, carrots, radishes, salad leaves, strawberry plants, and tomatoes. This is a wonderful food education programme and the students enjoy our gardening sessions.

GIY Grow it Yourself and Woodies Budding Gardeners: This programme is sponsored by Woodies and has enabled us to purchase a variety of seeds and gardening equipment. Each student gets to plant wildflowers around our school environment and also their own sunflowers which they bring home to take care of. 

We recently purchased a water butt for harvesting rainwater and some bird feeders. We were able to do this through funding from Offaly County Council following an assessment visit to our school. 

We were delighted with the recent installation of our solar panels and the students enjoy checking the monitor each week to see how much solar energy we are generating and the effect of this on our ESB bill. 

We enjoy taking part in several initiatives including ‘Siopa Glas – swap shop’, An Taisce – National Spring Clean, and World Earth Day. 

We are looking forward to some upcoming workshops to explore Biodiversity. 

As Green Schools Co-ordinator in our school, it is wonderful to be able to provide the children with opportunities to take part in gardening and nature walks to our local woods. Our food education programmes and school garden help to foster a positive attitude to food sustainability. Wellies line the corridor, and the children have access to gardening equipment daily. We are incredibly lucky to have a supportive Parents’ Council, who have funded a number of additions to our Outdoor Learning Space. Natasha Delaney – Teacher