Dun Laoghaire Area Committee meeting 27th June 2007
GREEN SCHOOL AWARDS
The following Motion was AGREED by Councillor M. Baker and seconded by Councillor C. Devlin WITHOUT DISCUSSION.
"That this committee congratulates the staff in the Environment Dept. in particular the School's Environment Officer for the wonderful results in the Green Schools Awards when St Mary's BNS, Booterstown, St Patrick's GNS, Hollypark Foxrock, St Kevin's NS, Sallynoggin and Rathdown Junior School, Glenageary attained their first Green School Flag. Further to acknowledge that the following schools attained their second Green School Flag, St Annes NS, Shankill, Carysfort NS, Blackrock, St Oliver Plunkett NS, Monkstown and Scoil Lorcain, Monkstown."
The following Report was NOTED
The Green Schools programme has been running in Ireland since 1997. The programme has been extremely successful so much so that currently 63% of all schools in the Country are registered as taking part in the programme. In Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown 88% of primary and 78% of secondary are registered with the programme, 25%and15% above the national average respectively.
Green-Schoolsis an international environmental education programme and award scheme that promotes and acknowledges long-term, whole-school action for the environment.
Gaining a green flag is not easy and each school has to work very hard to put in place an environmental management system which is based on the ISO 14001 international environmental management accreditation that businesses all over the world work towards.
In the first phase of the programme schools work on reducing the amount of waste to landfill and on increasing their recycling rate. At this stage they generally introduce composting in the school and work on keeping their ground and the grounds outside the school litter free. When they have made sufficient progress with this they are awarded their first green flag.
However their work is not finished as currently there are five green flags to work towards. The second green flag is awarded for energy conservation, which in recent months has been complemented very well by the Power of One Campaign that the Department of Communications, the Marine andNatural Resourcesare running. The third green flag is awarded for water conservation, which is currently very topical considering the introduction of water charges to all schools in the County. The fourth flag is awarded for travel, and focuses on how children get to and from school, promoting walking, cycling, the use of public transportand car sharing. Currently no school in Ireland is working on the fifth flag as the supporting materials have not yet been developed by An Taisce. The fifth green flagwill beawarded for healthy living.
Through out the programme schools must maintain the standards they have achieved for each flag as they move on to the next phase. Schools are generally assessed every two years. Rathmichael Parish School in Shankill is our longest running green school. They are currently taking part in the national pilot of the travel theme and are working withthe Council, An Taisce and the Dublin Transport Office to this end.
The Council currently have forty green schools in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County. This is an increase of ten on last year.
The following schoolsachievedtheir first green flag this year:
Holy Trinity NS, Leopardstown
Rathdown Junior School, Glenageary
Scoil San Treasa, Mount Merrion
St Kevin’s NS, Sallynoggin
St Mary’s BNS, Booterstown
St. Patrick’s GNS, Hollypark
Wesley College, Ballinteer
Booterstown NS, Blackrock
Gaelscoil Padraig, Ballybrack
Guardians Angels NS, Newtownpark Avenue
The following schoolsachievedtheir second green flagthis year:
Carysfort NS, Blackrock
Our Ladys BNS, Ballinteer
St. Annes NS, Shankill
St. Oliver Plunket NS, Monkstown
St. Raphaelas NS, Stillorgan
The following schoolsachievedtheir third green flagthis year:
St Attractas Junior School, Meadowbrook
St Attractas Senior School, Meadowbrook
Scoil Lorcain, Monkstown
It is very encouraging that the schools in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County have taken so well to the green schools programme. All the schools, teachers, pupils and parents have played an active part in gaining and maintaining the green flagsacross the County. It is also encouragingto report that at least ten more primary schools and up to five secondary schools are working very hard on gaining their first green flag next year.