Category: Green Schools

Fairtrade Friday

Staff

Herbertstown NS held a Fairtrade Friday which encouraged children to look for products with the Fairtrade logo.

There were also Fairtrade themed activities and lessons in each classroom and pupils were asked to bring in Fairtrade products or wrappers to school if possible.

Green Flag – Biodiversity

Staff

Huge congratulations to the boys and girls across the school who have achieved a fifth Green Flag for Biodiversity!

Speared headed by the Green Schools Committee and Mrs Murphy, there has been fantastic work over the course of two years into the areas around biodiversity, as well as the previous elements of the Green Flag process.

The following speech was proudly read by members of the Green Schools Committee at the flag raising ceremony today.

We are the Green Schools Committee and we are delighted to be raising our 5th Green Flag for Biodiversity! We’ve been working hard as a school to get this flag and we appreciate all the work everyone has put in. We’d like to say a big, special thank you to all our sub-committee members: the Litter Legion, the Switch-off Squad, the Water Wardens, the Travel Team, the Bio-D Bunch, Ms, Murphy, Breda, Louise and Niall for all your hard work too!

Since we began our Green Schools Adventure years ago, we have put recycling bins in our classrooms, raised awareness with signs everywhere, done lots of litter picking, installed Barry our Water Barrell, gone for lots WOW walks, installed a bicycle rack, planted trees and bulbs, improved our garden with a bug hotel and bird feeder and have had many fun Action Days to show how much we care about our planet!

Biodiversity is so important for our planet and our well-being. From the smallest seed to the largest tree. From the tiniest insect to us humans, we all depend on each other, so it’s a great honour to raise this flag now! Thanks again to all the staff and pupils for all the work you have put in over the past 2 years especially when Covid made it so hard to come together. Please give a big bualadh bos for our brand new Biodiversity Green Flag!

Picker Pals

Staff

First & Second Class have being following the Picker Pals programme this year and great work has been done both at home and around the school.

Thank you to everyone who has helped the pupils when they brought home the Picker Pals pack. The children look forward to seeing who will come out of the draw each week and are having a lot of fun with the Picker Pals themed activities, especially singing the Picker Pals song.

Green Schools Action Day

Staff

We marked Green Schools Action Day in a number of ways including:

wearing green, walking/cycling to school, planting pollinator bulbs in the pitch, litter picking, going for a whole school walk, doing climate/biodiversity themed lessons and making pledges to do better for the planet.

There was also a cherry tree planting ceremony to mark the occasion in a lasting way.

First/Second Make Harvests from School Garden

Staff

Pumpkin

Last spring, the 1st & 2nd class planted pumpkins in each of the 5 classroom raised beds in the school garden. Only one plant grew a large pumpkin and it just happened to be our own classroom’s. We used it to make a Jack O’Lantern for our window.

Sunflower

1st & 2nd class also gathered sunflower seeds from the school’s sunflowers and have stored them for planting next spring.

1st & 2nd Class Learn About Apples

Staff

For the past couple of weeks 1st & 2nd class have been learning about apples.

From looking at the different apple varieties, to how they are harvested and creating an excellent apple harvest display they now have a great deal more knowledge on a favourite fruit for many.

In recognition of their hard work, they all got apples from the Apple Farm in Cahir. The variety they received was ‘Tipperary Pippen’.