St. Mary's, Mallow - Green Flag Committee

St. Mary's Secondary School, Mallow, Co. Cork, have set out on a mission to obtain our first Green Flag. Follow this blog to keep up-to-date with the work of our Green Flag Committee and the activities and projects undertaken by us in school. Admin: Miss O' Connor.

[stmarysmallowgreenflag]

Neat Streets Workshop

On the 9th of November 2015, a group of nine Green School Committee students along with Ms O'Connor and Ms Coughlan travelled to the Lifetime Lab to partake in the 'Neat Streets' workshop. We started the day with an introduction to what Neat Streets really is and how we can help our school become more Eco-friendly. We began the student workshop with a couple of ice breakers as there was another school also there with us. We learned all about what litter is and had a discussion about how we and the area around us can be affected by litter. We were asked who is to blame for litter and how can we prevent litter. After a short break it was back to work. We discussed ideas in relation to preventing litter in the schools. Solutions were suggested! We discussed setting up an Instagram, Twitter and Facebook page for our green schools Committee also and we looked at a couple of other Green Schools Committees around Ireland to get some ideas. We designed an action plan and hopefully we will be able to stamp out  litter and encourage more recycling and achieve our green flag next year. We need your help! Be sure to like our Facebook page, follow our twitter and Instagram. Stay calm and keep green!

[stmarysmallowgreenflag]

‘Bin It!’ workshop comes to St. Mary’s

As part of the Green Flag initiative in St. Mary’s, we arranged for the ‘Bin It!’ workshop to come to the school on October 24th. Over 100 students took part in this interactive workshop aimed at 1st year students. It explored littering and social responsibility with a particular focus on the environmental cost and social issues surrounding discarded chewing gum.

The workshop was led by the two hilarious characters, ‘Doc’ and ‘Taylor’, who encouraged the students to consider why people litter, the consequences of littering, and what actions could be taken to encourage people to stop and think before littering. Littered gum is a topic that most of us students will have experience of, and makes a great starting point for encouraging students to take an interest in current issues and play an active role as responsible citizens in public life.

We thought this was a really worthwhile workshop and will hopefully help us in our endeavor to encourage the students at St. Mary's to be more conscious of litter and waste. It was also a really fun way to kick off the mid-term!

[stmarysmallowgreenflag]

Litter Pick

Litter Pick

The 5km colour run organised by St. Mary's transition year YSI students and Miss Lyons took place today (October 19th). There was a huge turnout and everyone had great fun becoming human rainbows! A few of us from the Green Flag Committee got together after the event and arranged to do a litter pick as there were drinks and snacks being given out at the finish line at the school. Abbie and Leah gathered general and food waste while Emma and Jane gathered recyclable waste.

[stmarysmallowgreenflag]

Committee Meeting

Our committee met again today, October 9th, and were each assigned different tasks. Some of us are working on the environmental review, others are researching the price of small bins that could be used in our classrooms and corridors for recycling and more students are working on creating posters to raise awareness in our school about the importance of recycling. It will be a busy year ahead but we are really looking forward to seeing our school become a 'greener' place!

[stmarysmallowgreenflag]

Going after the Green Flag   We have set out on a mission to obtain the first green flag for our school! The focus for this green flag is litter and waste. Our Green Flag Committee includes 13 students from both junior and senior cycles.   On Thursday 2nd October 2014 we met up with Eoin Morton of Neat Streets to discuss ideas about starting out on our Green Flag journey. Neat Streets is an anti-litter and waste programme for secondary schools which is linked to the Green Schools programme.     In the hopes of achieving the Green Flag for St. Mary's we will undertake an Action Plan  to reduce waste and increase recycling. The Action Plan will continue for the whole school year 2014/15 and application for the Green Flag will take place in November 2015. Keep following this blog to keep up-to-date on all of our activities and projects to make our school a 'greener' place.