Green Schools Action Plan

St.Paul’s N.S Dooradoyle

Setting the Scene

St.Paul’s is a mixed, vertical school set in an urban area on the outskirts of Limerick city. The school has at present (February 2010) a pupil population of 627, served by 32 teachers and 6 Special Needs Assistants. The school has a full-time secretary and care-taker. The school population has increased from 543 in 2005 to its present number and this rapid increase has created both challenges and opportunities for the schools green school initiatives.

On becoming a green school

As far back as 1998, St.Paul’s was concerned at the amount of litter created by the children during lunch-time. Mrs.Dooleys 4^th class conducted a litter survey on school playground, and each class was informed of the results. A litter awareness campaign was launched and children from 5^th and 6^th. Classes were assigned on a rota basis to “do the bins” which involved picking up the rubbish left in the yard, when children had gone back inside. Various combinations of this model were trialled in the school over the next 7 or 8 years with varying levels of success. Sometimes it appeared children would deliberately drop rubbish, since someone was assigned to pick it up, so we would cease that practice and have bins in the yard. Because bins were provided children tended to bring out more food and wrappings, so litter increased. It became a cycle of litter production/ reduction/ collection and we were no nearer a solution. We decided as a school to really tackle the problem head on in 2005 and introduced some major changes which have been adapted, monitored and evaluated .The result is our present green school plan of action and environmental policy.

Litter reduction and waste management initiatives

The following table illustrates the various programmes in which the school engaged from 2005-2010 in order to increase the school community’s involvement in litter reduction in the school and its environs.

Action undertaken	Who is involved	Time-frame	Completed	Responsibility
Healthy eating policy	School community	Sept.2004-Jan.2005	yes	Pupils, parents, teachers
Purchase composting bins	Green school co-ordinator	Jan- Feb 2005	yes	Green school committee/ Principal
Composting fruit waste (a)	All classes	Feb.2005-Nov.2008	Yes**	Class teachers
Bring home wrappers (b)	All classes	Feb.2005- Nov.2009	Yes **	Pupils/ Class teachers
Ban all cans	Whole school	Feb 2005	yes	Principal/ teachers
Encourage use of re-usable bottles/flasks	All classes	Feb.2005	On-going	School community
School garden(a)+(b)	1^st Class/6^th Class	Spring 2005/6	yes	1^st class teachers/ Mrs.Brooks
National re-cycling week	All classes	Each year	yes	Green sch. Co-ordinator
Re-cycling batteries/ mobile phones/Christmas cards	All classes	Each year	yes	Green sch. Co-ordinator

** These practices were discontinued as (a) proved unviable and (b) unnecessary once re-cycling bags introduced.

Present Situation

Litter

Existing litter policy was formulated between October 2009 and January 2010 following a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (S.W.O.T) Analysis carried out by the Green Schools Committee. The committee further involved all the pupils in pin-pointing areas of concern and thus identified priorities to be tackled. The following rules have been negotiated and agreed between the green school committee, class teachers, pupils and the wider school community

· No food or papers in yard

· Uneaten food to be taken home

· Re-usable items to be taken home

· Recyclable items to be placed in white bins

· No cans or non –recyclable juice cartons

· Pencil parings, messy fruit , wet paper in black bin

See attached bin notice /photos for further clarification

Recycling Litter and waste management.

Whole School Initiatives

· A recycling bag in each classroom to collect paper for recycling by September 30th. 2006. Additional recyclable items sanctioned by Veolia Jan 2010.

· Children to be encouraged and reminded to use only one sheet of paper when drying their hands.

· Casual notes to be written on scrap paper.

· Collect used Christmas cards to deliver to Boots Chemists

· Mobile phone recycling project for Jack and Jill Foundation

· Battery re-cycling . Limerick Co.Council

· School book recycling

Individual class Initiatives

· European car free day

First class 2004 see photos

· Spring clean up

Yearly basis in co-ordination with Limerick County Council

· National tree day

Juniors Infants to First Class

Coillte visit Second class

· Planting vegetables/fruit Incredible Edibles (Agri Aware)

Fourth and fifth class

· Planting spring bulbs/growing cress seeds. All classes

· On-site Wormery. 2^nd class

The Out Door Environment

Reduce graffiti to prefabs and rubbish in school grounds

· The Board of Management was encouraged to erect railings to limit access to the school grounds especially in areas of concern.

This has dramatically improved appearance of the school and has almost eliminated graffiti and rubbish in the vicinity of pre-fabs.

(Gates were supplied Summer 2009)

Graffiti before railings

Flower beds

· Flower beds in school yard.

Whole School Involvement.

· Each class to conduct individual environmental review to identify litter blackspots in their classroom environs…. using traffic lights analogy.

· Green….. o.k

· Orange….. in need of some attention

· Red ……. needs urgent attention

· School green plan to be up loaded on schools website at http://www.stpaulsdooradoyle.com

· Green schools classroom project art and craft activities using re-cycled materials.

· Each class invited to commit to the Green School Code and identify green practices in individual classes.

· Tidy classroom competition begun in 2005 is constantly monitored and updated.

· Clean up of school grounds and surrounding environs.This is ongoing throughout the year but special attention is given in conjunction with ‘National Spring Clean’. School is again registered for Spring 2010.

· All children encouraged to keep school clean and tidy on an ongoing basis

· Existing gardens and indoor plants to be maintained by the children.

· By the end of March children will plant bedding plants for school garden.

· Environmental Notice board moved :following consultation with the Green School committee it was decided to relocate the Green Schools notice board to a more prominent location where it was more visible to children and school visitors alike.

· Ongoing encouragement of “Green” practices at home through school newsletters/website.

· Teacher involvement is encouraged and developed through discussion and information updates at each staff meeting. This has proved to be the most successful method of ensuring whole staff involvement and participation in green school initiatives.

· Green School poster competition.

Into the future

· Photos of Green school activities to be uploaded to digital notice board.

· Investigate composting for wormery.

· Fix date for Spring Clean-up in conjunction with Parents Association.

· Calculate school’s carbon footprint on Rehab website.

· Initiate energy saving campaign in relation to water,electricity and gas consumption.

· Upload present green school action plan to www.into.ie and www.greenschoolsireland.org

· Involve pupils in designing posters/notices for turning off lights, computers, taps.