Green Schools
Our Annual Spring Clean
Green School Action Day: Beach Cleaning
We travelled to Curracloe Beach to meet with Harriet from the environmental awareness group Flossie and the Beach Cleaners who delivered an effective workshop with us looking at the impact of beach cleaning on our marine environment.
Sea Explorers Programme
Thank you to Eoin from the Marine Institute who delivered the sea explorers programme to the school over the past couple of months. The programme was completed today with a squid workshop, including a dissection.
Under the sea squid projects
As we are in the process of applying for our next green flag in the area of the marine, we are looking at all of the life in our oceans, what lives there and what we must do to protect the creatures that live there. the children in the school have been very busy working on projects in this area.
What would you like to see in our sea poster?Well done to harry and Sadie who traveled to Cork to receive their prizes for 2nd and 3rd place in the poster competition.
Recycled Christmas Decoration CompetitionMeet the Green School Committee
We are the Green School Committee and we are made up of students from Second class to Fifth class. We meet often to discuss how are school is progressing with its green school action plan. At the moment we are busy making sure all our work in the area of recycling, saving energy and water is being maintained. later in the year we are going to look at the marine environment as we apply for our next green flag.
WOW Day: September 2023Our Winning Slogan is:"Energy Rule- Don't Use Fossil Fuel" . WEEE Ireland Battery Recycling ProjectBring your old and unwanted batteries to school and help us with our WEEE Ireland Battery Recycling Project! You’ll be helping tackle climate change, protecting your environment and supporting the children, families and staff at LauraLynn, Ireland’s Children’s Hospice. Helping LauraLynn to deliver its specialised hospice and palliative care to children with life-limiting conditions and their families in Ireland.
Recycle for good with our school today! Autumn GardeningWOW-Walk on WednesdayOn Wednesday, 14th September we relaunched our WOW-Walk on Wednesday initiative. We all donned our hi vis vests and walked together to school. We then enjoyed a delicious mini breakfast together. We encourage everyone to walk/cycle/scoot to school whenever they can. #activeschool #greenschool #walkonwednesday A big thank you to all parents who joined us on our walk.
WOW DayIn Castledockrell National School we 'Walk on Wednesdays' as part of our Green School/Active School initiatives. The senior room will monitor how many people are walking/cycling to school every week, so try to get moving while the weather is still good!
Our Spring Clean 2021Recycled Christmas Decoration Competition 2020Wow! We are speechless! This year's entries are the best we've ever seen. Well done to everyone who took part in this annual competition. Winners will be announced tomorrow.
WOW-Walk on WednesdayRecycled Christmas Decoration Competition 2019Huge congratulations to Emelia and Cathal on winning the Wexford County Council Recycled Christmas Decoration competition!
They will attend an award ceremony at 4.30 pm on Thursday the 19th December in the County Hall in Wexford.! Maith sibh! Recycled Christmas Decoration Competition 2019
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Planting Winter Flowers
The junior room were busy planting winter flowers in our window boxes today. Well done everyone.
Flag Raising Ceremony
The sun shone as we raised our 7th Green School Flag on Friday, 21st of June. The Green School Committee, led by Ms. Johnston did a short presentation about the huge amount of work involved in earning this flag. The committee have worked tirelessly over the past 2 years and we thank them for their efforts. We also thank the whole school community who got behind and supported our endeavour. This is a huge accomplishment for such a small school; we are one of the first schools in Wexford to achieve our 7th Flag. After raising the flag we did a short music presentation and then enjoyed our Teddy Bears' Picnic.
Green School Flag Presentation Ceremony
A great day was had at the award presentation ceremony in Kilkenny on Wednesday, 22nd May 2019.
Mia and Leah, two 6th class students who are members of our Green School committee, along with Ms. Johnston and Marie, represented the school on the day. We look forward to raising our 7th Green School Flag in the coming weeks. More information to follow.
Mia and Leah, two 6th class students who are members of our Green School committee, along with Ms. Johnston and Marie, represented the school on the day. We look forward to raising our 7th Green School Flag in the coming weeks. More information to follow.
Design a town/city of the future
The senior room students were given a design brief and asked to design and create a town/city of the future.
Their town had to include renewable and sustainable projects across 6 areas: Energy, Transport, Waste, Buildings, Food and Biodiversity. The standard of the projects was incredibly high, and the size and scale of the projects was really impressive. Chloe's project was voted as the "People's Choice" project after getting the most anonymous votes from the school community. Ellie, Huw, Ava and Emelia also picked up awards. Everyone is welcome to come and view the projects which are all on display in the school hallway. From wind turbines to solar panels, E-Cars to hybrid cars, Farmers markets to water butts, living roofs to kinetic energy sources... the children have come up with a huge range of sustainable ideas for our future. A massive well done to all pupils.
Their town had to include renewable and sustainable projects across 6 areas: Energy, Transport, Waste, Buildings, Food and Biodiversity. The standard of the projects was incredibly high, and the size and scale of the projects was really impressive. Chloe's project was voted as the "People's Choice" project after getting the most anonymous votes from the school community. Ellie, Huw, Ava and Emelia also picked up awards. Everyone is welcome to come and view the projects which are all on display in the school hallway. From wind turbines to solar panels, E-Cars to hybrid cars, Farmers markets to water butts, living roofs to kinetic energy sources... the children have come up with a huge range of sustainable ideas for our future. A massive well done to all pupils.
Cool Planet Experience
As part of our Green School endeavour, we visited the ‘Cool Planet Experience’ in Powerscourt Gardens on Thursday, February 7th.
The Cool Planet Experience is a fun, interactive climate action experience and it’s the first of it’s kind in the world! It is based within the beautiful Powerscourt House & Gardens. We had a brilliant day there; the children were immersed in the story of Ireland’s changing climate, the science behind it & they discovered some wonderfully innovative ( & high tech) ways to reduce their carbon footprint. They also took part in an interactive, hands-on workshop where they learned about the acidification of our oceans through mixing some household acids and bases.
All children trained to be 'Agents of Change' and pledged to do their part to help reduce climate change. Children can log in and track their carbon footprint by clicking here .
A quote that stood out from the day:
"We do not inherit our world from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children"
The Cool Planet Experience is a fun, interactive climate action experience and it’s the first of it’s kind in the world! It is based within the beautiful Powerscourt House & Gardens. We had a brilliant day there; the children were immersed in the story of Ireland’s changing climate, the science behind it & they discovered some wonderfully innovative ( & high tech) ways to reduce their carbon footprint. They also took part in an interactive, hands-on workshop where they learned about the acidification of our oceans through mixing some household acids and bases.
All children trained to be 'Agents of Change' and pledged to do their part to help reduce climate change. Children can log in and track their carbon footprint by clicking here .
A quote that stood out from the day:
"We do not inherit our world from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children"
Planting our 'May Bush'
Today we planted a young whitethorn/skeagh from the Wexford County Council. We look forward to watching it grow and become our very own live May Bush to decorate in years to come as part of the Wexford May Bush Festival.
Recycled Christmas Decoration Competition Winners:
Breaking news:
We are delighted to announce that we had two winners in the Wexford County Council Recycled Christmas Decoration Competition. Emelia's Christmas tree came joint 2nd in the 3rd class category. Ava's Winter Wonderland came 1st in the People's Choice Award. Well done girls! Both the girls and their families have been invited to a prize giving ceremony on Wednesday in the County Hall. |
Recycled Christmas Decoration Competition
Well done to all pupils who entered our annual Recycled Christmas Decoration Competition. The standard was very high this year; we were very impressed with the creativity and effort put in. Five decorations have been selected to go forward to the Wexford County Council competition in city hall.
Congratulations: Jack, Luke, Nicole, Emelia and Ava.
Congratulations: Jack, Luke, Nicole, Emelia and Ava.
SEAI Energy Workshop
Here are some photographs of our Energy Workshop on Tuesday, 13th November.
This workshop was delivered by Ciara from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.
This workshop was delivered by Ciara from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.
Our New Green School Committee
W.O.W. September 2018
We relaunched our Walk on Wednesday initiative on Wednesday, the 12th September. The whole school community met at the church car park, donned our hi-vis jackets and walked together to the school. Everyone felt wide awake, fresh and ready to start the school day after this nice, brisk walk. We all then sat down together and shared a nice, healthy breakfast. We look forward to seeing everyone walking and cycling to school whenever they can.
Working Towards Our 7th Flag
As we begin a new school year we look forward to starting work on our 7th Green school Flag "Global Citizenship-Energy". Our Green School Committee will keep us up to date on all new initiatives and action days.
Global Citizenship – Energy is the seventh theme in the Green-Schools Programme; it is a maintenance theme which revisits our efforts on the Energy theme while expanding to look at energy and climate issues worldwide.
This flag is very relevant and topical at the moment because Ireland has set three main targets to achieve by 2020:
- to increase renewables by 20%,
-to reduce energy consumption by 20%
-and to reduce greenhouse gas levels by 20%.
Global Citizenship – Energy is the seventh theme in the Green-Schools Programme; it is a maintenance theme which revisits our efforts on the Energy theme while expanding to look at energy and climate issues worldwide.
This flag is very relevant and topical at the moment because Ireland has set three main targets to achieve by 2020:
- to increase renewables by 20%,
-to reduce energy consumption by 20%
-and to reduce greenhouse gas levels by 20%.
Spring Clean 2018
This week the pupils and staff of Castledockrell N.S. were very busy giving the school grounds a spring clean! As part of the National Spring Clean we donned our plastic aprons and gardening gloves, and we weeded, swept, cleaned, collected any litter and planted some summer bedding. Thanks to a great team effort the school now looks ship shape.
Christmas Decoration Competition
Well done to everyone who took part in the Green Schools Christmas Decoration Competition. The standard was incredibly high this year; the children used all sorts of old, unwanted and recycled materials to create some wonderfully festive decorations! The teachers had a very tough decision selecting which ones would go on to represent the school in the county competition. Congratulations and best of luck to :
Annabel, Shifra, Adam, Emelia, Joe, Katie and Luke.
Annabel, Shifra, Adam, Emelia, Joe, Katie and Luke.
Planting Crocus Bulbs
3rd and 4th class planted crocus bulbs in the school garden. We look forward to seeing them bloom in Spring!
Our 6th Green School Flag Raising Ceremony
We raised our 6th Green School Flag on Thursday, 23rd June 2016. Noah and Ruth our two 6th class committee members raised the flag on behalf of the school. We are very proud of our Green School tradition; thank you to everyone for your support with this initiative.
Incredible Edibles and Summer Planting
We have been busy planting "Incredible Edibles" and summer bedding in the school garden.
We planted lettuce, potatoes, turnips and carrots, as well as a selection of summer flowers.
We planted lettuce, potatoes, turnips and carrots, as well as a selection of summer flowers.
Green School Award Ceremony
Thank you to Ms. Johnston, Noah, Ruth, Emelia and Carmel who attended the Green Schools award ceremony in hotel Kilkenny on Wednesday 11th May to collect our 6th Green Flag. We are very proud of achieving our 6th Green Flag. Well done to all the committee and the wider community for all of your hard work and support. We look forward to raising the flag in June.
Our Green Schools Committee
Spring Clean 2016
We carried out our annual Spring Clean on Wednesday, 27th of April. All pupils and staff donned gloves and aprons and scavenged the school grounds for litter, waste and weeds! We pride ourselves on a clean school environment and utilise the annual Spring Clean: to encourage children to clean-up at home as well as in school, to galvanise the practices of recycling and re-use where possible, and to promote personal responsibility for litter.
A big thank you to everyone who helped out on the day and we hope that parents and the wider school community will continue to support us in keeping Castledockrell NS clean!
A big thank you to everyone who helped out on the day and we hope that parents and the wider school community will continue to support us in keeping Castledockrell NS clean!
Recycled Materials Construction Workshop
Pupils from 2nd - 6th classes took part in a great Green Schools workshop during which they created a variety of constructions using cardboard and newspaper! Ice creams, birds, hurls, fish, boomerangs, ladybirds, snakes, turtles, even penguins were made! A winning quote from the day was "Happiness is .. a load of rubbish!"
We support WEEE Ireland by recycling old batteries!
Hand Towel Initiative
Our Green School Committee have been striving to come up with ways to reduce litter and waste within the school. A huge amount of the schools litter and waste comes from the use of paper handtowels. In order to reduce this the committee have suggested that each child brings in their own towel each day and uses it to dry their hands.
We suggest that a facecloth, old tea towel or small hand towel would be suitable. This towel should be stored in the front pocket of your child’s schoolbag or else in a small zip lock plastic bag and washed/ changed as necessary.
The committee hope that this one small change will reduce our litter and waste, and promote reusing among our pupils. We thank you in advance for your support and we will review this new system in the coming weeks and months.
We suggest that a facecloth, old tea towel or small hand towel would be suitable. This towel should be stored in the front pocket of your child’s schoolbag or else in a small zip lock plastic bag and washed/ changed as necessary.
The committee hope that this one small change will reduce our litter and waste, and promote reusing among our pupils. We thank you in advance for your support and we will review this new system in the coming weeks and months.
Recycled Decoration Competition
One of our senior infant pupils won the recycled decoration competition and has been invited to a prize giving ceremony in Wexford town hall. There were 308 entries from schools across the county and the standard was very high. Congratulations Anna!
National Tree Day 2015
We are looking forward to our trip to Altamont Gardens, Co. Carlow on Friday 9th October, to celebrate National Tree day 2015.
N.C.T. 2015
We relaunched our No Car Tuesday today, Tuesday 15th September. All members of the school community met outside the church and walked together in our high visibility gear to school in an effort to reduce traffic and promote environmental awareness. Following this we all sat down to share a delicious breakfast of fruit, pastries and muffins. Well done to one and all.
Leave No Trace Workshop
On Tuesday, 26th of May all the children participated in a' Leave No Trace' workshop where they were looking at ways to enjoy and explore the great outdoors, but in a way that leaves no mark on the beauty of our countryside. As part of the workshop children looked at how long it takes certain wastes to breakdown and also, they participated in a bug hunt.
A Visit to Holmestown Waste Management Facility
On Monday the 11th of May the whole school went on a trip to the Holmestown Waste Management Facility
in Wexford.
in Wexford.
National Spring Clean
On Friday last, the 17th of April, staff and pupils all rolled up their sleeves and donned their gardening gloves and bibs. We worked together to make sure the school grounds were spic and span as part of our annual Spring Clean.We pulled weeds, collected rubbish, swept the paths/leaves, replanted the flower beds and we recycled and reused whatever we could!
Many hands made light work and the now the school grounds look great!
Many hands made light work and the now the school grounds look great!
Green School Action Day
Our Green School Action Day, part of our 6th flag endeavour, took place on Friday March 13th.
We are working towards our "Global Citizenship:Litter & Waste" flag.
All the children dressed up in green clothes and had some lovely green treats to mark the
special occasion!
Everyone created wonderful projects, artwork and even songs/raps for the big day.
We sampled food from around the world and lot's of Fair Trade Products.
We are working towards our "Global Citizenship:Litter & Waste" flag.
All the children dressed up in green clothes and had some lovely green treats to mark the
special occasion!
Everyone created wonderful projects, artwork and even songs/raps for the big day.
We sampled food from around the world and lot's of Fair Trade Products.
February 2015- We are taking on "THE BIG TRAVEL CHALLENGE"
For the month of February we will all try to walk or park n stride to school.
Help us achieve our goal of increasing a greener mode of transport in our school
and get some fresh air and exercise along the way!
For the month of February we will all try to walk or park n stride to school.
Help us achieve our goal of increasing a greener mode of transport in our school
and get some fresh air and exercise along the way!
Green Schools
Green School Committee Jobs
Clickers and Closers:
Kian Foley and Luke Boxwell
Tap Turners:
Leah Stanton-Mernagh & Blaise Kearney
NCT Monitoring:
Luke Byrne and Jamie Saunders
Energy Checklist:
Ruth Byrne
Water Butts:
Steven Byrne
Lunch Box Survey:
Noah Kearney and Ruth Byrne
National Tree Day, 9th October 2014
Lá na gCrann
We celebrated National Tree Day by planting a bare root sapling Alder tree (Fearnóg) in
the school garden. The Alder tree is a native deciduous tree which is conical in shape. With
the sunshine, rain and some nurturing from us, we hope the tree will grow big and tall!
NCT in Castledockrell N.S.
Children and staff of Castledockrell N.S. re-launched their No Car Tuesday (NCT) initiative on Tuesday, 30th September. The school is currently working toward its sixth green flag, in the area of Global Citizenship but the green school’s committee are keen to keep earlier initiatives alive also.
Staff, parents and children walked together from the village to the school in an effort to reduce traffic and promote environmental awareness. Parents and children then enjoyed a healthy breakfast as a reward for their efforts!
Lá na gCrann
We celebrated National Tree Day by planting a bare root sapling Alder tree (Fearnóg) in
the school garden. The Alder tree is a native deciduous tree which is conical in shape. With
the sunshine, rain and some nurturing from us, we hope the tree will grow big and tall!
NCT in Castledockrell N.S.
Children and staff of Castledockrell N.S. re-launched their No Car Tuesday (NCT) initiative on Tuesday, 30th September. The school is currently working toward its sixth green flag, in the area of Global Citizenship but the green school’s committee are keen to keep earlier initiatives alive also.
Staff, parents and children walked together from the village to the school in an effort to reduce traffic and promote environmental awareness. Parents and children then enjoyed a healthy breakfast as a reward for their efforts!
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Castledockrell National School has a strong tradition with the Green Schools Scheme. We have just received our fifth green flag for BIODIVERSITY and will be holding a flag raising ceremony in June. So far we have been awarded flags in Litter and Waste (2006), Energy (2008), Water (2010) and Transport (2012).
Litter and Waste - we studied how litter and waste impact the environment and introduced practical ways we can reduce and minimise the amount of litter and waste produced in the school.
Energy - we worked together to increase awareness of energy issues and improved the energy efficiency of Castledockrell N.S. Water - we learned about the importance of water to us and to the planet. We took steps to reduce our water use and water waste in school. Travel - we examined travel issues and came up with practical solutions to improve our travel efficiency. Biodiversity - we looked at the flowers and animals in around our school and increased the biodiversity of the school through the use of school gardens and bird and bee boxes. |
Some of our Green Schools Notice Boards, Posters and Drawings
Trips Away and Activities as part of the Green Schools and learning about the environment
NCT (No Car Tuesday)
As part of our application for the Fourth Green Flag (Transport) the greenschools committee introduced NCT (No Car Tuesday). By doing this we are reducing air pollution and reducing car congestion around our school. We are also moving our bodies and getting active. Some of the children live too far away to walk all the way to school so they park and walk from the village or cycle to school.
National Spring Clean
National Tree Day - Trip to Altamont Gardens
The Beekeeper comes to visit
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We were as busy as bees on the 16th of April 2013 when a beekeeper came to visit. The visit was organised as part of our application for our Biodiversity Flag. We learned lots about what bees do for us and for the environment.
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Castledockrell N.S. Wind Farm Visit
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On the 19th of June 2013 the children visited the Castledockrell Wind Farm. One of our pupils wrote the following piece.
"On Wednesday, 19th of June we visited the local wind farm. There are eighteen windmills on the hill near our school. They put them on the hill so that they could catch lots of wind. We met the engineer who maintains the windmills. His name was George and he has worked on windmills all over Europe. George gave us a tour of the windmills. We went inside one windmill. It was very tall and made from steel. They came all the way from Germany on a boat and then they came to Castledockrell on a lorry. Eighty lorry loads of cement went into the foundations so that the windmills would stand up. We hada lovely picnic on the grass, enjoying the beautiful views all around us." |
Senior Room Trip to Tramore Marine Education Centre
Wexford Wildfowl Reserve
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On the 26th of April, 2012 the school visited the Wexford Wildfowl Reserve to carry out a wetlands study.
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