The Green Committee

The Green Committee meets once a month to discuss ways in which we can promote our goal of Global Citizenship - Energy. These girls act as leaders in the school, informing their peers about the initiatives in the school and guiding them to become more conscious global citizens. Ms Travers, Ms Kingsbury, Mrs Norris, Ms Naughton and Mrs Markey facilitate these meetings and aid the girls in bringing about action both in our school and in the wider world.

This year the green committee consists of representatives from Senior Infants up to 6th class. These girls are:

Senior Infants

1st Class

2nd Class

3rd Class

4th Class

5th Class

6th Class

Green School Action Plan

This year we are in the second year of the application process to gain our Global Citizenship Energy Flag. As part of this process we will review our energy use in the school and look at how we can reduce this even further. We have introduced the role of student energy monitors. Their job is to ensure the doors are all closed during break and lunch times to conserve the heat in the school, and to ensure the lights and interactive whiteboard are turned off. These monitors also do a meter reading each week to track how we are using energy in the school. Alongside this we are working on maintaining the green flags already achieved by the school. In Mount Anville we strongly encourage the girls to walk, cycle or scoot to school, and have bike racks around the school to facilitate this. We are focussing on reducing our waste by eliminating the use of tissue for drying our hands and using cloths to clean instead of disposable wipes. The girls are regularly reminded at school assemblies how to reduce their waste. We have two compost bins which are used to gather our food waste. All members of the school community participated in a leaf collection this year. The compost and the decomposed leaves will be stored and used as mulch for planting in the next few years. Our school has two water butts to gather rainwater which we then use to water the plants. Our school does a uniform swap every year to promote the reuse of uniforms as the girls grow, and this year we also did a Christmas jumper swap.

As part of the Action Plan, the school will set our own Global Citizenship Energy targets, with the ultimate aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build resilience to climate change. Many of the measures being implemented in the school under the themes of Litter & Waste, Water, Energy, Travel, Biodiversity and Global Citizenship Litter and Waste have a positive impact on this goal. The below image from An Taisce’s information booklet for schools shows 17 goals and targets that outline a vision for the future, for people and the planet.

Learning about the steps we can take as a school to reduce our impact on the environment is an ideal way for children to become better and more active global citizens. We as a school will lessen our overall impact on the environment by:

• reducing the amount of waste we produce
• putting waste into the correct bin (compost, recycling, general waste)
• using recyclable materials as part of art lessons
• using reusable lunch boxes and bottles to carry our lunch
• turning off the lights and the interactive whiteboard when leaving the classroom or if not in use
• turning off the taps to conserve water
• using a water butt to collect and store water for use in watering the plants and washing the bins
• traveling to school in sustainable ways (walking, cycling, scooting car pooling or public transport)
• planting flowers, fruits and vegetables to promote pollination
• caring for our local habitat through the use of bird boxes, insect hotels and bird feeders
• participating in lessons looking at environmental awareness and care

An Taisce: The Green Schools Programme

The Green-Schools’ mission is to protect planet Earth. It is based on seven steps. These steps are outlined in the chart below. The aim of the programme is to get everyone, young and old, involved in making the world a greener place.

The Green-Schools programme is a themed programme. Schools undertaking the programme work through the seven steps, one theme at a time. The themes in sequence are listed below:

1. Litter & Waste green
2. Energy
3. Water
4. Travel
5. Biodiversity
6. Global Citizenship - Litter and Waste
7. Global Citizenship - Energy
8. Global Citizenship - Marine Environment
9. Global Citizenship - Travel
10. Global Citizenship - Food and Diversity

Therefore, for a school to be working on the energy theme they must have completed the seven steps for litter & waste and achieved their Green-Flag. For a school to be working on water they would have to have gone through the seven steps with energy and renewed their Green-Flag and so on.

The use of themes helps prevent schools from trying to deal with every aspect of their environment at once which could be overwhelming. Furthermore, it allows schools to build on their experience, expertise and best practice as they work from theme to theme. However, as schools work from theme to theme they will realise that there is quite a bit of overlap between the themes (e.g. recycling waste is a great way of using less energy and water to produce new products).