The staff and pupils participated in World Oceans Day 2019 which was celebrated in many schools throughout the world in early June. We marked the occasion on Wednesday, the 12th of June. The pupils and staff dressed in ‘BLUE’ to honour our Oceans. We were very pleased when Carmel Madigan (Explorers Education Marine Institute)Roisín Garvey (An Taisce)Hugh O’Malley (Achill Oysters) and Joe Queally (RNLI) attended and worked with the children on this day.

We are very anxious to ensure that the children are made aware of the importance of our oceans in sustaining and maintaining life ‘under the sea’ on our planet. We want them to understand especially their individual responsibility for ensuring that we do not cause damage to the sea and all marine life.

In an effort to engage pupils in small environmental initiatives that can have a big impact, we held a Waste-Free Lunch Day on Wednesday, the 12th of June. All pupils brought food and drinks in re-usable, washable containers in a re-usable bag. The main aim is to have little to no packaging or wrappers that will be thrown in the rubbish bin e.g. plastic. From September, we intend to have a daily waste free zero plastic lunch. Therefore, the one plastic food container and drinking bottle will be re-usable for the year.

We organised a whole school exhibition day were all classes exhibited their artwork and craftwork displays.  Parents were invited to view the exhibition and were very proud of their children’s work. If you weren’t able to view the exhibition it is still on display in the halla every morning and evening during school times until Friday, 21st of June. All who viewed our displays where invited to sign our pledge against plastic. If you haven’t yet signed there is plenty space for more signatures!

The choir learned a song ‘Under the Sea’ and sang it so beautifully. Virgin Media, Clare Champion and Clare People had representatives present for the occasion and to our delight we made the headline in the news and above papers. Bishop Fintan also viewed our exhibition and he was immensely impressed.

The Green School Committee comprised of eleven students ranging from 1st to 6th class. The team worked extremely hard this year to bring this day to fruition. Well done to our wonderful principal and staff who supported this from day one.

Let’s begin this journey of ZERO plastic together to take action and to make plastic pollution a thing of the past! Your children are ambassadors for our marine environment and let’s support them in their actions.

This is such a small step but can make such a big difference. The committee are already looking forward to our new year and to obtain our next and final green flag on the Marine Environment!

An enjoyable day was had by all involved! Keep up the great work everyone and remember our Green School motto, over the Summer when visiting the beaches: ‘Don’t Trash where we Splash’ – as quoted by Grace Mc Gloin 6th Class.

Green School Committee 

Chairperson Lyndsay Clarke (6th Class), John Carey (6th Class), Peter Corcoran (5th Class), Jasmine O’ Driscoll (5th Class), Kate Howard (4th Class), Amílee Cleary (4th Class), Ade O’ Malley Cetinkaya (3rd Class), Síofra Lahiff (3rd Class), Lilly O’ Malley (2nd Class), Hanaa Axmed (2nd Class), and Maeve Carden (1st Class), Zelma Power and Jim Chambers (Co-ordinators).