Collecting Our Green Flag - 15th May 2018 Smiles all around as we were awarded our 5th Green Flag!15/5/2018
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We had the great challenge of coming up with a new green code relating to biodiversity. We did this in our green-school's groups over the course of two weeks. It was tricky as we wanted something short, smart and catchy. Once all the entries were submitted, staff (who had no involment in green-schools) chose the winning green code. Well done - it is super! Biodiversity Green Code If you plant a tree, You help life be free, If you plant a flower, BIODIVERSITY gets power! Junior and Senior Infants wanted to be part of the fun so the junior room had a challenge of designing a biodiversity mascot. The entries were fantastic so six winners were chosen. You will find them displayed all around our school with green tips for everyone. The children from the junior room came up with the tips too so maith síbh! Check them out below:  Newly added to our Green-Schools noticeboard - THREATS TO BIODIVERSITY Step 6: Informing and Involving Check out our songs which all have hidden messages! 1. The Melting Song by the Junior Room 2. Turn Off The Tap! by the Junior Room 3. The Walking Song by 2nd, 3rd & 4th Class 4. If You're Feeling Cool Today, Dress Hot! - Fantastic Dance by 5th & 6th Class Step 6: Informing and Involving - two new biodiversity themed notice boards to check out in our school 1 - "Drip Drop" - Inspired by "The Metling Song". The junior infants made these penguins who live in the Antarctica. If you look closely, you'll see that they are very sad because the ice caps are melting due to global warming. 2 - "The Variety of Life" by Killeen N.S. Every child in the school helped make this biodiversity wall by designing their favourite animal, bird or plant in it's own natural habitat. Step 6: Informing and Involving - Climate Action Day We had a jam packed day of activities for Climate Action Day on the 18th October 2017.
1. Visit from the Climate Action Officer Caroline Goucher who works with Mayo County Council. 2. We designed the front page of the Mayo News for the year 2037. 3. We formed the words "Climate Action Killeen" in the junior yard with our bodies - this was tricky but great fun! 4. We learned a little about bees in Ireland. 5. Movie Screening - Junior&Senior Infants watched the movie "Over the Hedge" -1st-6th Class watched the documentary "Disney Nature's-Earth" 6. We came up our top ten tips for parents on little changes we can all make at home to protect our planet. Top Ten Tip for our Parents:
As part of our efforts to inform and involve the local community, we entered the St. Patrick's day parade with our biodiversity theme. The pupils were very pleased to choose their own aspect of biodiversity and create a costume based on it. Due to weather conditions, the parade did not go ahead in Louisburgh town. On a finer day, we paraded our creative designs down the road from the school and back to the delight of the onlookers. Well done everybody! Bualadh bos *** STEP 5 - Curriculum Work Click the links below to see how we have linked the theme of biodiversity to our curriculum work: STEP 4 - Monitoring and Evaluation Revisiting the Biodiversity Awareness Survey The pupils from 2nd-6th class filled in the Biodiversity Awareness Survey in September 2017 (See results further down this page under Step 2). There was room for improvement for sure. The survey was repeated this week (February 9th) and the results speak for themselves. WOW! Well done boys & girls - amazing knowledge of such an important topic.  Step 4 - Monitoring and Evaluation Revisiting the Flora & Fauna Survey 38 students and staff filled out a "What do you know?" questionnaire about minibeasts, trees, plants, animals and birds in February 2018. This was also completed in January 2017 so we were re-visiting it to look for improvements. The children and staff had to try to identify each item of flora and fauna on the sheet. The results were interesting and we noticed great improvements. Nobody could correctly identify each one, although 2 pupils got a fantastic score of 27 out of 30. 50% of the participants were able to correctly identify 16 items or less. 82% of the participants were able to correctly identify half of the flora and fauna. Well done boys and girls!  STEP 3 - Action Plan Click below to read our Biodiversity Action Plan:  1st class pupils putting out bird feeders for the small birds during winter. Our New Garden With lots of help from Jo, Nicole and the Rural Social Scheme, we have a beautiful new landscaped garden. We are looking forward to sowing, planting and harvesting again in summer 2018. We are aiming to attract as much insects, birds and animals as we can!
 Our block graph shows that MOST people surveyed could identify about HALF of the flora and fauna. STEP 2: Environmental Review Minibeast Species Tally - This tally was compiled in spring/summer 2017. It will be revisited and completed again in spring/summer 2018.  We formed mini groups made up of older children with younger children. We had to go around the grounds of the school and map out the building, the yard, the court, the pitch, the garden, the prefab, the trees, the bushes and the wall. It's a bit tricky with the extension as the building has changed its shape. Here is a photo of us back in the classroom doing the proper map on A3 pages.  Large Scale Habitat Map of the School - Year 2  This habitat map is organic. It is changing all the time. It is displayed on our green-schools notice board so it is accessible at all times. Pupils report to the green-schools committee any time they see any insects, birds or animals and they are drawn in on the map. We think it is working well so far. In spring time, we plan on adding in plants too.
40 students and staff filled out a "What do you know?" questionnaire about minibeasts, trees, plants, animals and birds. The children and staff had to try to identify each item of flora and fauna on the sheet. The results were interesting. Nobody could correctly identify each one. The highest score was 25 out of thirty. In fact 60% of the participants were only able to correctly identify 15 or less. It didn't help that the pictures came out quite dark in the photocopier. They may have been easier to identify in colour. Why don't you click on the button below to see how many you know! Step 2: Environmental Review - Biodiversity Awareness Survey The pupils from 3rd-6th class and staff filled out a biodiversity awareness survey. Check out the results above. We are hoping that these results will change considerably when we complete this survey again in March 2018.
The following children were elected to the Biodiversity committee in September 2016: 1st class: Hannah O’Malley 2nd class: Conor McGreal 3rd class: Lilly Dunwood 4th class: Róisín Dyar 5th class: Eve Power 6th class: Chloe O’Malley The following children were elected to the Biodiversity committee in September 2017: 1st class: Paddy Murphy 2nd class: Ciara Kitterick 3rd class: Andrew Frazer 4th class: Eoin Dyar 5th class: Aoibhín Grady 6th class: Darren Scanlon |
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