County Limerick students transform donated clothing and leaves into colourful scarecrows

The spirit of autumn is alive in Lisnagry where students have turned fallen leaves and donated clothing into scarecrows, as part of a hands-on horticulture project. 

Over the past few weeks, Junior and Senior Cycle students from St Vincent’s School, Lisnagry, have collected and dried leaves from around the school to use as stuffing in their polytunnel. They also assembled and decorated the scarecrows with masks, hats, and other accessories. Horticulture Teacher, Gary Hanley said: “The project has been a fantastic way for students to explore creativity through nature and their environment.”

“The finished scarecrows are now proudly displayed around the school, and students of all ages have been enjoying visiting them and taking photos. It’s been a wonderful whole-school effort that has encouraged teamwork, environmental awareness, and plenty of laughter along the way.”

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The local teacher added that the project is part of the new level one programme for Junior and Senior cycle students with additional needs.

Mr Hanley said that the students spent one week collecting leaves and brought them into the polytunnel to dry them out. “Our idea then was that we use those a part of our stuffing for our scarecrows so the kids then see kind of that cyclical nature of it where they're getting to use the same leaves that they see fall off the trees to then design and create something later on with it.”