It was with great delight that our school greeted the news that we have received our second Green Flag for Energy. Representatives from our school will be travelling to Ashbourne, County Meath, on 28th May to collect the flag, and a flag raising ceremony will be organised in the school for early June. Congratulations to our Green School co-ordinator Miss Byrne and her hard working Green Schools Committee.
Green-Schools is a European educational programme which promotes responsible behaviour towards the environment among school children and the wider community.
The Green-Schools idea was originally developed by FEE – The Foundation for Environmental Education – who aim to promote awareness of the importance of environmental education. An Taisce, the National Trust for Ireland, is a member of FEE and co-ordinates the Green-Schools campaign in Ireland.
While Green-Schools is managed by An Taisce it is run in co-operation with Local Authorities throughout the country.
Green-Schools, known internationally as Eco-Schools, is an international environmental education programme, environmental management system and award scheme that promotes and acknowledges long-term, whole school action for the environment.
As a learning resource, it aims to increase students’ and participants awareness of environmental issues through classroom studies and to transfer this knowledge into positive environmental action in the school and also in the wider community.
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 a seven step programme for each theme.
The themes in sequence are:
Litter and Waste
Energy
Water
Travel
Climate Change
This process helps pupils to recognise the importance of environmental issues and take them more seriously in their personal and home lives.
As an award system, Green-Schools promote and acknowledge long-term, whole-school action for the environment. The programme can be adopted by any school using the guidelines set out in the An Taisce handbook. Schools that have successfully completed all the elements of the programme are awarded the ‘Green-Flag’. This award has now become a well-recognised Eco-Label. The award has to be renewed every two to three years.
