The Green School Committee with the guidance of Ms Pigott,  Ms Herlihy and Fiona (Green Schools Advisor) have been engaged in a wide range of activities relating to Travel. These Activities include:

Walkability Audit:

The Walkability Audit highlighted several issues that needed to be addressed locally to make walking to school safer for our pupils.

The Walkability Report that was sent to Cork Co. Council was very effective and we can see the results on the road to school and even down town.

Road Markings have been re-painted and bulbs replaced on Pedestrian Crossings.

Mapping our location: 

A School Google Map was created to illustrate the modes of Travel used by our pupils to get to school.

Weighing of School Bags:

School Bags were weighed on arrival to school. The average weight was around 4kg. However 2 pupils had bags which weighed 8kg and a few had bags which weighed 6kg. Now that both Pupils and their Teachers are very aware of these weights we are certain that everyone will carry a lighter bag to and from school!

WOW:

On Wednesday 29th the pupils and their parents walked to school.

87.1% of pupils travelled to school by Walking, Bus or Park ‘n Stride.

This was an exciting event and the sun shone all the way!

Next WOW is on Wednesday 5th May

St.Finbarr’s Boys N.S. Green Schools Committee 2013-2014  holding our third Green Flag for Water. Go team!

 

We’re busy preparing for our ceremony on Thursday 12th June at 1:00pm. Our special guest on the day is local swimming hero Damien O’Donovan. In addition to the National Games medals, Damien  has a World Games gold medal from the 100 metres in 2003.   Damien started swimming with the Community Games in Bantry.  He qualified for the World games in 2001 (this is a two year lead-in) and trained extremely hard in the two year lead up, particularly with Clive Seawright (coach).   His race in the world games attracted alot of media coverage at the time due to the competitive nature of the race and his subsequent joy…..the race was unbelievably exciting!    Swimming has given Damien the opportunity to attain and retain a physical fitness and also, to engage in competition that he thoroughly enjoyed. We’re thrilled that he can partake in our celebrations.

On Wednesday 28th May Ms.Herlihy and three members of the Green Schools Committee attended the Awards Ceremony in the Silver Springs, Cork.  We shared the journey with committee members and teachers from Gaelscoil Bheanntraí and Our Lady of Mercy N.S. Bantry. On arrival we were treated to a delicious meal. We then went to the conference room where we were presented with our Green Flag for Water and listened to speakers from An Taisce & Cork County Council. It was such a beautiful day that we had to stop for ice-cream on the way home. Back at St.Finbarr’s we took a photo of the Committee with our third Green Flag. Congratulations to our neighbours in Gaelscoil Bheanntraí and Our Lady of Mercy N.S. for their achievements.

Well done everyone!

 

 

 

 

 

On Monday 28th April we received a letter from An Taisce informing us that our application for our Green Flag for Water has been successful!

Congratulations to the Green Schools Committee, teachers and pupils for all the hard work over the past two years.

The Green Flag will be presented to St.Finbarr’s Boys N.S. by An Taisce on 28th May at the Silver Springs Hotel, Cork.

The National Spring Clean is Ireland’s largest anti-litter initiative organised by An Taisce and funded by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. The campaign runs throughout the month of April.  St.Finbarr’s signed up to partake in this campaign and received gloves, bags etc. for the clean up.

On Thursday 10th April 2nd Class pupils did a major clean-up on the school grounds and the road up to the school. The school continues to maintain all the work done for the 1st Green Flag-Litter & Waste.

          

          

On Thursday 3rd April St.Finbarr’s Boys N.S. featured in the Southern Star. In the Bantry News Section the school was mentioned under the title “Green Schools”. The substantial piece listed the various activities and trips the boys have undertaken in their quest for the Water Flag. These included a trip to Ballyhilty Water Treatment Plant, Water Action Day and so on. The article highlighted the need for greater awareness regarding our use and conservation of this precious resource. It also informed the wider community about the work we are doing in St.Finbarr’s Boys N.S.

On Thursday 13th March pupils from 5th & 6th Class visited Ballyhilty Water Treatment Plant in Skibbereen. The water curators, Ger Connolly and Tommy Leonard, gave the boys an excellent, in-depth tour of the facility, charting the water’s origins in the Ilen River to when it reaches our homes.

Ballyhilty Water Treatment Works produce 3,000,000 litres on average on a daily basis and 4,500,000 litres per day at busy times in the Summer. We were all particularly fascinated by the settling tanks and filters. In the settling tanks the water flows upwards very slowly and the dirt is drawn off to the side of the tank. The water flows to the filters from here. At the filters, the water passes through the sand which is capable of removing the finer particles in the river water. Fluorine is added to protect teeth from decay and chlorine, to finally disinfect the water ready for drinking.

We also inspected a rain gauge located on the grounds of the facility. This rain recorder is the property of Met Éireann and is recorded on a daily basis.

The trip certainly deepened the pupils’ understanding of Water Treatment and the growing need for greater awareness and water conservation. We are also grateful for the wonderful school resources we received on the day.

    

    

    

 

 

The four finalists in our Green Schools Rap Competition performed for the whole school on our Water Action Day.All four raps/ poems are displayed on the Water Noticeboard. We decided that a combination of two of the raps worked well and most importantly, highlighted the links and connectivity between all three themes- Litter & Waste, Energy & Water.

“Here’s rap to turn off the tap! We need to reduce our water use”

“Saving water is what we do!

There’s a new water sheriff and it happens to be you!

Encourage water saving, its lots of fun.

So, pull up that tap and take a shorter shower,

‘Cause its better for you.

We can still save the environment,

The fights not over yet.

Recycle, Save Energy and Water, better yet!”

 

Thank you to the boys that submitted photographs for our water gallery. They’re beautiful!

 

 

 

  

St.Finbarr’s Boys N.S. held their Water Action Day on Friday 28th February. The Green Schools Committee broke up into pairs and set up various water experiments and awareness raising activities in the hall.  Each class was  allocated a time to visit the hall so pupils could participate. Families were also invited to attend and check out the experiments and Green Schools noticeboards (Energy, Litter & Waste, Water).

Dean and Kian  managed the Quantities Pairing Game. Pupils had to estimate how much water was wasted due to a leaky tap etc. then match the quantity to the picture.

Dan and Sammy  had fun explaining and demonstrating Surface Tension and Bubbles experiments. The bubbles got a bit out of control!

 

 

Jared and Dara  did a water based experiment taken from our Discover Primary Science & Maths resources, called Creepy Reflections & Floating Finger.

Ted and TJ  made a lighthouse. They discussed its uses and showed the boys how to make a complete circuit.

Niall and Paddy demonstrated that oil is lighter than water and so will sit on top of it. They also discovered that syrup is heavier than water and so will sink to the bottom. Their experiment was called “Diving drops and Sinking Feelings.”

Dylan and John had containers of various sizes/quantities and the boys had to estimate how much water was in each one, for example, a pint,a  litre, 5 litres etc. They had photos and images from developing countries showing women and children walking for water. The boys could not believe that on average they walk 6km for water and often carry up to 20 litres of water. Pupils were encouraged to try walking with various amounts of water.

   

Mr.O’Meara guided the pupils in carrying water and walking around the hall. Ms.Herlihy displayed photographs from her time in Uganda and explained the water situation there. Ms.Pigott set up a virtual Water Gallery. The pupils had taken water photos using their ipads and we saved all the photographs in one folder. Ms.Pigott then set up a slideshow of these photographs on a laptop in the hall. Pupils’ families were also invited to attend and enjoy the day with us.

 

 

 

The whole school gathered in the hall after 2pm and the boys performed the winning raps/ rhymes/ poems. Congratulations to Jack O’Brien, Cohen Lee, Hugh Fitzgerald, Luke De Guzman, David Keane, Filip Gil, Ted Wiseman and Ciarán Thornton. We took some great group photos which we will display on our Water Noticeboard. The whole school and wider community really enjoyed our Water Action Day. It was a great success so, well done everyone!