This Tipperary school goes green for Global Citizenship and Sustainability Week
This week in St Mary’s Newport saw the annual Global Citizenship and Sustainability Week. The purpose of the week of events is to raise awareness and educate.
This year our topic was water as a resource. The students took part in a range of events centred around how we think about, use and exploit natural resources.
The events held were – The Self Help Africa organisation sent two people to our school to run workshops on the topic of the differences between the developed and developing world. All year groups were able to participate in this.
The Greens school student committee held a cake sale where all the baking was ‘green theme’. They raised enough money to buy a second rotating composter for our food waste in the school.
We used old wooden pallets in an Upcycling workshop to make an armchair and a couch. This furniture will be used in the foyer of the school as a symbol of our sustainability.
A range of students completed a Walk for Water, where we have to complete a long distance of walking while carrying a large quantity of water.
This gives the person an idea of what daily life is like for millions of people who don’t have access to clean fresh water and spend their lives walking to get it.
A past pupil Catriona O’Halloran visited our school to give three talks to our students. She has just finished her Masters in Sustainability, a journey which has seen her travel the world and get involved in an amazing array of creative fields.
She is a credit to our school. We did a litter pick of the school and surrounding area to remind students of the quantity of waste and plastic we produce that is harmful to our waterways.
Clothing swap shop – Students were asked to donate good quality items to the swap shop over the past number of weeks.
The people who donated were then invited to come to the swap shop event to redeem the tokens they got from donating.
This project is all about promoting a circular economy and teaching our young people about the harm Fast Fashion is doing to our environment and water resources.
We held a treasure hunt for students to follow clues about the sustainable habits of the staff members.
The staff kindly told us all about the little things in everyday life they do to be better for the planet.
The students had great fun figuring out the clues, and we had some fairtrade chocolate prizes for the winners.
Our display area and social media were a hive of information and artistic talent all week, which was a constant reminder to all in school of the need for environmental awareness to be at the forefront of our minds.