Green Schools - St. Anne's Killaloe

Green Schools is Irelands leading environmental management and award programme, working with secondary schools across the country.

Green Schools is a student-led programme, where students promote long-term and whole-school action for their environment, with involvement of the wider community. The programme is operated and co-ordinated by the Environmental Education Unit of “An Taisce” and supported by Clare and Tipperary County Council.

Click Here - St Anne's Our Green Schools Journey: The following is a powerpoint which was presented at Neat Street Conference in Croke Park last week. The school were delighted to be awarded the An Taisce Neat Streets "Champion School" for litter and waste. Click on the link above to download the pdf of the presentation given.

How many themes are there?

There are ten themes that schools work on. All schools start on the theme Litter and Waste for two years and when a Green Flag is achieved and awarded schools move on to the Energy theme. For details on all the themes see www.greenschoolsireland.org/themes/

St Anne's were awarded their first Green Flag for “Litter & Waste” in 2019 and are working towards renewing this Green Flag and achieving a Green Flag for “Energy” for 2021/2022. As part of receiving Green Flag for Energy actions must continue to be taken on Litter and Waste.

The Green Schools gives us an opportunity to take ownership of an environmental issue and create a positive change in our local community.

Student-led Green Schools Committee

Head of Green Schools:

Oversee committee actions and coordinate activities.
Liaise with Green Schools Coordinator/s to keep her/him updated.
Run Green Schools meetings with the Green Schools Coordinator/s
Link with Green School co-ordinators to ensure curriculum links are made.
Keep action plan up to date (link with deputy head)

Deputy Head of Green Schools:

Work closely with the Head of Green Schools
Keep action plan up to date and ensure up to date version is on green schools
Create an agenda for meetings
Record and circulate minutes of the Committee meetings.

Green Code / Action Day co-ordinators / team:

Create a song, rap, poem or slogan for the Travel theme.
A competition could be held within the school.
Create a video / digital poster / poster of the Green School Code.
Display this code on the notice board, web or elsewhere
Organise Action Day

Green Schools notice board communication officers / team:

Design a creative theme for the notice board.
Display Committee names and photos.
Update the notice board regularly to display survey results, recent events and news.
Use a ‘fact or image of the week’ system to get other pupils thinking about the environment

Digital and Social Media co-ordinator / team:

Look at preparing social media posts relating to Green Schools
Develop a Green Schools section on school web page
Add links to short videos, posts about the Committee’s progress

Litter Awareness co-ordinator / team:

Complete Litter Checklist - attached
Map and monitor litter black spot areas
Analyse time of day littering occurs (inside and perhaps outside school grounds?)
Involve other students – create awareness days - set up timetable for classmates to do litter picks; participate in National Spring Clean

Waste Management co-ordinator / team:

Look at www.mywaste.ie
Complete Waste checklist – see attachment
Develop questionnaire and survey – see attachment
Obtain waste collection data from contractor – look at quantity of waste going for recycling; food waste and general waste – seek to see an upward trend in recycling and food waste bins and less in general waste – link with Analytics team here
Conduct audits of the bin
Look at contamination in recycling and food waste bins and seek to reduce contamination through awareness campaigns
Review signage / bin locations
Encourage students to prevent waste in the first bring reusable water bottles; reduce amount packaging for lunches etc
Look at paper usage and how to reduce

Waste Prevention awareness co-ordinator / team:

Look at www.mywaste.ie
Complete Waste checklist – see attachment
Develop questionnaire and survey – see attachment
Encourage students to prevent waste in the first bring reusable water bottles; reduce amount packaging for lunches etc
Look at paper usage and how to reduce it
Are staff using two sides coping
Are we using high-yield economical toners for school printers.

Analytics co-ordinator / team: