Green Flag
Green-Schools in Ireland is operated and co-ordinated by the Environmental Education Unit of An Taisce (FEE member for Ireland), in partnership with Local Authorities throughout the country, is supported by the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government, the Department of Transport and is sponsored by Repak and the Wrigley Company Ltd.
One of the key success factors of the Green-Schools programme is that it is a themed programme. That is, schools undertaking the programme work through the seven steps one theme at a time. The themes in sequence are:
2. Energy
3. Water
4. Travel
5. Biodiversity
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. St. Mary's are working on our 5th Flag Biodiversity at present.
A number of themes are currently in development and piloting these include:
Global Citizenship, Litter and Waste
Climate Change
We are now working towards our 6th Green Flag. This is for bio-diversity which is how different aspects of our world are dependent on another. We have one more year to achieve this award. Meanwhile we have to continue with our composting, water preservation and power conservation which is what we received the other three awards for.
Our caretaker who is also a member of our green team has spent a long time re-designing our compost area. We now have a paved area for the children to use when emptying their compost bins. We would like to thank the Donegal County Council for the new compost bins.
