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Well-Being Week

green schools

Biodiversity talk by Tom Gallagher

The children in Nun’s Cross had a real treat this week with a visit from Tom Gallagher who is an expert in all things biodiversity, with a special interest in birds and plants. He told us lots of interesting facts about the plants and animals living in our school garden and in our local area and we picked up loads of tips on how we can help support biodiversity in school and at home.

Did you know:

  1. The sound of the Hummingbird Moth can only be heard by women!

  2. The swift bird fly’s non-stop for three whole years, never landing once. It eats, sleeps and drinks while flying!

  3. In one fistful of soil, there is up to 10,000,000,000,000 micro creatures which are responsible for all things that grow!

  4. A dragon fly has 1,500 lenses in each eye. It can see 360 degrees, can fly forwards and backwards and hover!

  5. Woodpeckers have not lived in Ireland for many years but have recently returned and are now living in Wicklow!

A huge thanks to Tom for coming in and sharing some of his knowledge with us!

Biodiversity Action Day in Nun’s Cross

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The weather looked a bit shaky but that didn’t  dampen the children’s enthusiasm for our day of work in the school garden.

Following on from our fund raising cake sale, each class was given a job or task in the garden. All the jobs had the same end result, improving our schools biodiversity which is our aim for our new Green Schools Flag.

We all worked in various areas. We under took the mammoth task of refreshing all the wood work in our school garden in order to help brighten up the environment. The children did a great job and worked really hard.

Junior and Senior Infants planted wildflowers and bulbs in a new flower bed at the edge of the school ‘forest’. The topsoil was kindly donated by a parent.  We also undertook some planting in order to create a wild flower area to help protect bees and other insects which love all the colourful flowers which will grow here over the spring and summer seasons.

And not forgetting out flying friends! We have been so delighted with the amazing contribution from parents and local community organisations such at Ashford Tidy Towns who have donated over 20 bird and bat boxes of all kinds. The children added some colour to them and we are very grateful to a parent volunteer for offering his time to put them all into the tress around our school. We cant wait to spot some birds making them their home! 1st and 2nd class were in charge of painting these.

Another area were jobs to help look after the insects in our garden. The bug hotel got a make over and I am sure all our little critters will be much more comfortable in their refurbished home! We also added an additional bug hotel, we are sure they will love the colours! The children in 3rd and 4th class each brought in something for the existing bug hotel and repainted it also.

5th and 6th class made sure that the pond was sufficiently clear of weeds for the frogspawn to continue their cycle as well as painting the fences, flower pots, PE shed and buddy bench that are in the school garden.

Another area were jobs to help look after the insects in our garden. The bug hotel got a make over and I am sure all our little critters will be much more comfortable in their refurbished home! We also added an additional bug hotel, we are sure they will love the colours!

We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has made this day possible, in any way. And all of the work wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work of all the children. We are sure you will all agree that they have done a 5 star job!

Trees in Ireland (2nd class)

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We had had great fun today in second class learning about trees in Ireland. Afterwards, we went outside to investigate how many different types of native trees we had in the on our school grounds.

!!! Important Green Schools Announcement !!!

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Today we received a letter in the post telling us that we have been successful in getting our Green Schools Biodiversity flag.  This is the 5th Green flag and only a small handful of schools are committed enough to achieve such a feat.  This is very exciting news and I would like to say a huge well done and congratulations to Ms Heaphy and the Green Schools Committee who have been working tirelessly to achieve this status for the school.  Also, we would like to say a huge thank you to the whole school community who help us to carry out our action plan and keep our school become greener each year.  Without the efforts of all students and their parents this huge achievement would not be possible.

With this, a representative group of 4 will travel to the Helix, DCU campus, Dublin 9 to be presented with this flag from An Taisce on behalf of the school.  This will take place on the 22nd of May.