Green Week at KCS
Last week from Monday 20th until Friday 25th of March our Green Team organised a week full of activities for Green Week.
Monday as part of National Green Week started off with students from different year groups helping plant 60 native trees in a new hedgerow helping to boost biodiversity in the school. This empowers students to take action for the climate and biodiversity crises with hands-on learning that can be replicated in future, helping students reconnect with nature while also reducing eco- anxiety. Tuesday involved a Ground Graffiti Workshop and this coincided with World Water Day. Students prepared stencils to paint images on the ground beside storm drains in the school. We are going to add " The Sea Starts Here. Don't Litter", to the images to remind everyone that litter, especially plastic litter goes down drains and eventually empties into the sea affecting wildlife and ecosystems. The images will start appearing around the school in the coming weeks with students coming in over the Easter holidays to paint them.
On Wednesday 22nd of March, Green Week was in full swing as Ms Houlihan, Ms O’Shea, Ms Fitzpatrick, Ms. McKenna, Mr. Harvey and Ms Coughlan organised a small group of primary school students to visit the school and get involved in some student-led activities to promote sustainability during Junior COP 2023. The events included tree-planting led by Klaus Harvey and TY students Fionn Lichtsinn Doyle and Emer Prior, where primary schoolers helped to plant a hedgerow that has reached almost 70 native trees in a green-belt on the school grounds. “The students were hesitant to get their shoes and hands dirty at first but once they got past that they were very enthusiastic and seemed interested in the value of hedgerows for biodiversity” said Fionn Lichtsinn Doyle. Other activities were held in the gym, where a dozen of our Second, Third and TY students showed off their BTYS and Young Environmentalist Awards projects and encouraged our visitors to partake in some games and activities. TY student Daithi Broderick held one of these activities; when asked about the importance of Green Week Daithi explained that “tree planting with the 1st and 2nd years helped spread awareness about the decline of biodiversity in Ireland and helped them learn valuable skills that will help them boost biodiversity throughout their life.” Additionally on Wednesday we had a Powerdown day at KCS. We compared our energy use at the end of the day to the previous Wednesday and found a reduction of 40%. Huge well done to everyone in our school community for making a huge effort on the day. On World water day we also calculated our water use as 14 litres, per person per day and asked that people remember that water is a valuable resource and to turn off the taps when not in use. We would like to get our water use down to 11 litres per person per day.
On Thursday our Meitheal leaders delivered a presentation on the importance of preserving water and asked their first year groups to fill out Drops of Hope which involved filling out their hope for the future in relation to sustainability. They also showed a short video and did a quiz using some resources from Green Schools. Lastly, Friday involved a Workshop called “Brave Blue World” which was delivered to our Green Team.
Overall, Green Week was a busy, interactive and engaging week for all involved and we are already looking forward to next year KCS Green Week.
