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Email: stpaulsdooradoyle@gmail.com


Domocilium Parochia Scola Home Parish School

GREEN SCHOOL NEWS

WELCOME TO THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2019/2020

Leaf Project

This year our school was lucky enough to be included in the LEAF (Learning Everything About Forests) Project again. This is our fourth year being involved in this wonderful project.

The project explores forests as a whole and looks at the topics of BIodiversity, Water Climate, Products and Community and the actions we can undertake to help, protect and enhance our forests.

As in previous years interest in being involved was intense but unfortunately only one class could participate. The lucky class this year was Ms. O’Dea’s fourth class and they thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience.

‘The children really enjoyed both the school workshop and the forest based workshop. They loved having Ray come to visit our classroom. They enjoyed his presentation and were very eager participants. The fact that we then got to go on a walk around our school and locality was great. He was able to tell them all about different plants and shrubs and hedgerows that were very near our school. We also planted some acorns, the children were delighted and have taken such good care of them. They watered them daily and were happy to bring them home during the holidays to look after them. Even in the pandemonium of the school closure in March the children we in a panic about what would happen to their plants! They took them home to mind, and have been sending pictures. The excitement of when the sapling began to grow!

The forest based workshop was enjoyed equally if not more by the children, even though the weather was dreadful. It rained all day long. The children loved getting out of the classroom for the day and learning all about Curraghchase. Their guides Ray and Sean were fountains of knowledge and taught them all about different aspects of forests in a very fun and interactive way. The majority of the children in the class live in an urban setting and it was a life experience for them. One or two of the parents even mentioned it at the parent teacher meeting and expressed how much they enjoyed the day. Some of the children have even brought their families out to Curraghchase and by all accounts were imparting their knowledge to them.

The LEAF programme was one of the best things I have participated in as a teacher. We inspired the other two fourth classes to visit Curraghchase too. I was delighted my name came out of the draw to be involved in the LEAF programme. Ms. O'Dea'

LEAF continued to provide extremely useful online resources, information & ideas when the school closed due to Covid 19 in March 2020.which we are extremely grateful for.They are an excellent organisation and we would love to continue to be involved with them in the future.

Biodiversity Workshop

Ms. Hayes 2nd class thoroughly enjoyed the recent workshop they had on Biodiversity

Sarah explored the topic through the mediums of PowerPoint, hands on creation of food chains and crafting an Irish animal. They shared previously known knowledge on the subject and reported back on the new skills and information they had been working on.

Thanks so much to Sarah for making our learning so interactive and interesting.

Student Council, 2019/2020

We would like to welcome our new Student Council Committee for 2019/2020...They have been very busy so far this academic year....watch this space for lots more activity

The following was written and researched by our Students Council.

'The School recently had an internet safety talk and the Student Council throught it would be a good idea for parents to know what ages the apps their children might be suing actually are for. The apps we are listing might be apps that your child does have and others that they don't. For some apps your child might not be old enough for but this doesn't mean they have to delete them, if you think your child is responsible enough to have certain apps they can keep it. We just want you to keep in mind what the ages are.'

WELCOME TO THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2018/2019

Final update for the Academic Year 2018/2019

Thanks to Mrs. Bernard and her team for all the hard work and commitment to help improve our environment during the year. It was indeed a very busy, fun and productive year…...Some programmes they were involved in during the year:-

Leaf Programme—Ms. Kenneally and Ms. O’Connell’s 5th classes took part in this programme throughout the year covering environmental issues and learning about forests which included a visit to Curraghchase Forest Park.

Food Dudes Healthy Eating Programme

The Great Plant Hunt

Beat the Street Campaign

10 at 10 Operation Transformation

Be Safe be Seen— Hi Viz vests and armbands given to all children

TLC5 (Team Limerick Clean up) initiative sponsored by JP McManus…..where our classes took to cleaning up our school grounds.

FINALLY we were awarded our 5th flag —BIODIVERSITY on May 14th…...our committee will be back in full swing again in September!!

A huge thank you to Mrs Bernard who was the driving force behind all of the above and much more during the year.

5th Green Flag Awarded

On Tuesday May 14th Mrs. Bernard, Martina Condell and two Fifth Class pupils Ritu Hossain from Mr.Kennedy's and Vanessa Corluka from Ms. O'Connell's/Ms. Kenneally’s travelled to Cork to collect the 5th Green Flag on behalf of St.Paul's N.S. from An Taisce.

The Munster awards ceremony was held in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Little Island and was organised by the Green Schools organisation. The various Green Schools initiatives are held in conjunction with the Environmental Departments of the different City and County Councils. The St.Paul's contingent were delighted to meet Nadia Sakni from Limerick City and County Council to say ‘Thank You’ for helping to arrange the  renewal visit for our Biodiversity Flag and for sending us supplies for our TLC5 clean up.

We would love if all the children from our Green School's committee  had been allowed to attend the Awards ceremony, unfortunately numbers were strictly reserved to 4 per school as there were so many recipients.

St. Paul's now have 5 flags as Follows : 1. Litter and Waste 2. Energy 3.Water 4. Travel and Transport. 5. Biodiversity

The next theme in our environmental journey  is Global Citizenship : Litter and Waste. Are we up for the challenge ??? Of course we are.

A huge thank you to Mrs Bernard and her team and everyone in the school for their help and support in obtaining this flag.

Oct 2018....

FOOD DUDES

I’m sure by now the children will have told you, the parents, all about our exciting healthy eating initiative called Food Dudes. What is it?

The programme is based on repeated tastings of fruit and vegetables, exposure to positive role models and rewards .with effective and long lasting results. The Research Unit in Bangor University in Wales has developed the programme and it has won a “counteracting obesity award” from the World Hewalth organization .This is the 3rd time that our school has taken part.

Pupils from J.Inf. to 1st class will receive 16 days of prepared fruit and vegetables, in individual portion packs.

Pupils from 2nd to 6th Class who have previously availed of the programme will receive 8 days fruit and vegetables as a refresher course, to remind them to incorporate more variety into their daily diet, especially their lunch boxes.

Please take a look at the Food Dudes website.......

https://http://www.fooddudes.ie/main.html/

As you can see, it is hugely accessible and provides all the information, background research with a special section for both children and parents.

We know we can rely on parents to support this highly innovative healthy eating initiative.

Sept 2018....

The Green School Committee will continue on from last year’s hectic schedule and as always are at the forefront in leading the way toward protecting our environment. The Committee is spearheaded by our teacher Ms. Bernard.

They will take part again this year in the LEAF programme – Learning About Forests (our school was lucky enough to be chosen for the 3rd year). This programme explores forests as a whole and looks at the topic of Biodiversity, Water, Climate, Products and Community and the actions we can undertake to help protect and enhance our forests.

Running parallel with these events they will be aiming to obtain our 5th flag ‘Biodiversity’ by the end of the academic year.

WELCOME TO THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2017/2018

Our new Green School Committee for 2017/2018

March to May Update....

Just prior to Easter , many classes in school took part in TLC4.

This was a wonderful initiative, sponsored by J.P McManus and administered through Limerick City and County Council. Many of you will have noticed environmental work throughout various communities on Good Friday .

Our school completed the final phase of our project on Wednesday May 2nd. This involved children from Ms.Kenneally's 4th class cleaning up the area around the grotto and refurbishing the paint work.The children were so enthusiastic, and really worked hard to spruce up the grotto in time for Our Lady's special month of May.There might have been a few paint splashes on clothes , but I'm sure Michelangelo's parents forgave him !!!

February 2018 Update....

Lots of children received their Hi-Viz jackets courtesy of Limerick City/County Council. A big thanks to Karen Butler, the Road Safety Officer for organising delivery of the jackets to schools.

The Green Committee were active in calculating the number of jackets needed in individual classes and distributing them to the children. Some of the senior children opted for arm –bans instead of jackets. Whichever your chose, remember our motto ‘BE SAFE, BE SEEN’.

As we are finally seeing an end to the big Winter Freeze, there are lots of signs of early Spring to be enjoyed in our environment—buds on trees, daffodils and crocuses beginning to flower. Check out our website and app for some fab pictures of Ms. Ryan’s Senior Infants enjoying a healthy nature walk and noting the signs of Spring

January 2018 Update....

LEAF Our Learning About Forests (LEAF) programme continued this term with Ms. Kelly's 3rd class. Our LEAF coordinator Ray Foley came to school on Thursday January 11th and spent the day with the class. The children learned about our native tree species and explored a number of bio-diversity themes. There were lots of opportunities for active hands on work, and the children wrapped up warmly and investigated the many trees in our school surroundings. We are hoping to  pass on some of Ray's extensive knowledge and expertise to other classes in the coming weeks.

BE SAFE BE SEEN

As parents are aware, it is still quite dark these mornings as the children are walking to school. In order to help raise awareness on the importance of increasing visibility to help our children stay safe on these dark winter mornings, we have organised for Hi Viz jackets to be delivered to school. Limerick City and County Council will deliver 200 jackets and additional arm bands later this week. I urge ALL parents and children to search at home and locate jackets and arm bands that we previously distributed. There won't be enough to go around but I'm sure lots of homes already have some neon lurking in the coat press !!!! Please help keep our children safe this winter.

10 at 10

In cooperation with Operation Transformation, many classes will encourage children to be active and healthy on a daily basis. Not all classes can take part each day as we have swimming lessons, Literacy lift off and a variety of other in class initiatives .We will however be encouraging the children to take part in at least 10 minutes physical activity every day as Operation Transformation fever grips the country. Keep the Change !!!

November 2017 Update....

Our interest in and commitment to raising awareness of and protecting our environment continues in St. Paul’s School. A huge thanks to all the parents and children who took part in our Beat the Street campaign. It was a huge success and hopefully many of you are continuing to walk around our beautiful city when you get the chance.

Children from all classes have enjoyed learning about the trees and plants in our new school surroundings. Lots of children collected conkers from the horse chestnut trees and helicopters from sycamore trees. Any parents who are out and about in Curraghchase or other local forest parks are encouraged to point out the different trees to the children and while there are still some Autumn leaves and seeds around allow the children to collect and sow the seeds.

Our Green school committee have been very busy this week. Our senior members Miriam, Jane and Elliot helped to organise a MAJOR survey of pupils from J.Inf to 4th class. This survey was developed by An Taisce and is called The Great Plant Hunt. 3 children from each class completed the survey to represent a good cross section of our pupils’ knowledge on the theme of Biodiversity. The survey was class differentiated and was designed to establish the children’s knowledge about our natural environment; it involved recognising and naming trees, plants, insects and birds. Our plan for our Green School Biodiversity flag is to establish what our pupils know at the beginning of the process and re-survey after our awareness raising programme and see how we have progressed!!!

Finally, we would like to present our brand new Green School Committee for the 2017-2018 year. Looking well children. !!!!!!

September 2017 Update....

As we settle in to our new surroundings, it is an exciting time for our whole school community and particularly the environmentalists among us. The Green School Committee will as usual be at the forefront in leading the way towards protecting our environment and raising awareness among the wider school community.

Continuing last year’s innovative LEAF programme, the good news is that our school has been selected to continue our involvement for a second year. 

This year the main difference is that one class only will be allowed take part,maximum number of 30 students.

On Sept 25th, Ray Ray Foley from the LEAF project visited our school. He will be working with Anne-Marie Kelly's 3rd class during the year, covering environmental issues and delivering the Learning about Forests programme.

The programme will explore forests as a whole and look at the topics of Biodiversity, Water, Climate Change, Products and Community and the actions we can undertake to help protect our forests.

Learning about Forests - Outline of timeline of Key Events

Mid-September: Introductory call/visit Sept 2017 – End May 2018: School Based Workshop Sept 2017 – End May 2018: Autumn or Spring/Early Summer Forest Visits to Coillte’s Curragh Chase Forest Park, Co. Limerick May – End of Year Report June- Presentation of Certificates to schools and oral evaluation.  Proposed short gathering of teachers to evaluate programme.

Running parallel with these events, we intend to reinstate the original version of our Green school committee, which will comprise of students from 2nd to 6th, staff members and hopefully parental involvement. We have many opportunities to explore and it is wonderful to see so many children walking, cycling and using public transport to get to school. We have some exciting plans including possible involvement in the Beat the Streets Limerick campaign.

We will keep you updated on all up-coming events via our newsletter and website.

Leaf Programme

Our Learning About Forests (LEAF) Programme culminated in an exciting trip to Curraghchase for Mr.Tobin’s 3rd and Mrs Bernard’s 4th classes on Wednesday May 24th.

The children took part in three activities during the Forest Based Workshop (FBW). An Taisce kindly sponsored both the tutors and the bus to the venue so we are extremely grateful for the opportunity, particularly since only 35 schools in Ireland have been chosen for this pilot project.

We have now completed Year 1 of the programme and have registered for Year 2, scheduled to begin in September 2017. Our LEAF End of Year report noted the wonderful learning and sense of achievement the children gleaned from their involvement.

Topics ranged from Climate change, Native Irish Trees, information on preservation work with Endangered Species and their re-introduction to the wild to practical work like weaving with willows ( See school website) and making necklaces from wood. We learned the folklore surrounding trees and the History of the De Vere - Hunt family. It has proved an enriching experience for the children and a great boost to our Biodiversity theme.

Sept 2016

Following a hugely successful year where we were awarded our 4th Green flag for Transport, the Green School committee will begin work for our 5th flag in the coming weeks.

This time our school will focus on the theme of Biodiversity. Given our urban setting and temporary relocation plans this will be a huge challenge, but given our past successes and the boundless enthusiasm of the children we will no doubt be equal to the task.

We encourage all our pupils and their parents to become actively involved in creating an environmentally friendly school, so watch this space for regular updates.

Earth Day 2016

Limerick City and County Council marked Earth Day 2016 on Friday (22nd April) by hosting a waste prevention and recycling event at Mungret Recycling Centre.

‘Students from St Paul’s Primary School Dooradoyle at the Mungret Recycling Centre for World Earth Day on April 22nd. Visitors on the day also had a chance to learn about composting and food waste at the Stopfoodwaste kitchen and view examples of Upcycled furniture courtesy of Back2New Upcycling in Newcastle West. Limerick Smarter Travel hosted a bicycle reuse and repair stand and Security in Shredding shredded confidential items'. Picture: Oisin McHugh/FusionShooters’

Green School Exhibition, RDS, Dublin

Six Primary Schools from all over Ireland were chosen to exhibit their Green School work in the RDS at the Green School’s EXPO in February 2016.

Ms. Bernard applied on behalf of St. Paul’s Green School’s Committee (our entry included statistical information from our 'Walk on Wednesdays', information and slideshows from our ‘Waterworld’ dress up Day and much more

WONDERFUL NEWS….WE WERE CHOSEN AS ONE OF THE SIX SCHOOLS !!

Fantastic work by the committee and all the pupils in our school.

Thank You to our Outgoing Committee

As we head towards our Halloween Break, we wish to take this opportunity to thank the outgoing G.S committee for all their hard work and dedication. They have acted as energy, litter and water monitors and really helped to improve waste management both in our school and within the broader school community. They did this through good example, providing information to classmates and parents and ENCOURAGING AN INTEREST IN ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES. WELL DONE TO YOU ALL. THE WORLD IS LITERALLY A BETTER PLACE FOR YOUR COMMITTMENT.

OUR NEW COMMITTEE WILL TAKE UP duties after the mid term break.

Meetings are being held for pupils interested in being involved during the week and all prospective members will be given an opportunity to present their views and vision on improving our transport options as a school community.

An Taisce will send a rep also this week to review our current status.

Continued success to all our budding environmentalists who showed huge commitment already this term through involvement in National Tree Day activities.

'Plant a Tree' Day - October 8th

The Tree Council of Ireland supported by Tetra Pak, is delighted to launch Tetra Pak Tree Day themed a True Friend of the Environment - Bí dílis don dúlra', which will take place on Thursday, 8 October.

To celebrate Tetra Pak Tree Day classes throughout the school for the next few weeks will be busy planting in recycled Milk Cartons, completing Environmental Crossword Puzzles & activities and much more.......

To kick start the event Ms. Bernard's class will begin planting tomorrow, Oct 8th.

log on to http://www.treeday.ie for more information.

Green School Flags

St. Paul’s National School has been part of the Green School Programme for a number of years resulting in 3 Green Flag awards for our school.

These flags are a culmination of hard work by our dedicated Green School Committee under the guidance of Ms. Margaret Bernard, our Green School’s Co-ordinator.

This year we are now focusing on our 4th Green Flag - TRAVEL

Walk on Wednesday - Green School Update

Our Green School Committee co-ordinated by Ms. Bernard will launch their 'Walk to School' initative again very shortly.

Please take part in our WEEKLY WOW (Walk on Wednesday) and walk to school with your child/children or if old enough allow them to walk with some friends.

Three safe walking routes have been identified and parents are being asked to leave the car at home or ‘PARK AND STRIDE’ from the designated points.

The 3 starting points (all leaving at 8.30am) are 1. Raheen Church 2. Garryowen Rugby Club 3. Huntsfield Roundabout via Stoneyhurst/Lawndale Drive

A REMINDER from the Committee :-)

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