ECO Schools Award
Eco Team
2024-2025
Ryan Mallon, Annie Murphy, Aiyanna Dhillon, Joe Cunningham, Aeryn Schoner and James Trainor
Litter Pick
The boys and girls from P5,6,7 were hard at it again this week. The second week back and they were out carrying out another litter pick in the field! They collected another bag of rubbish for the black bin! Well done to everyone involved! Keep up the hard work!
Environmental Review
This week the Eco Team started to carry out the Environmental Review for this year. We went outside to survey the grounds to identify what we thought we could do this year as part of our eco work. They had some great ideas! Well done boys and girls!
Litter Pick
On the first week of term this year we had some boys and girls from P5/6/7 work independently to carry out a litter pick in the field to help keep our school clean. They give up their lunch time of their own accord to look after our environment. They have decided that they are going to carry out a litter pick every Tuesday for the rest of the year.
Bin Sign
Ryan Mallon kindly made some display posters for the bins in his classroom. These are to help the boys and girls in his class use the bins correctly. He worked on these posters at home of his own accord. Well done Ryan! Keep it up!
ECO-Team 2024
Eco Termly Update- What have we been up to?
LITTER PICK 4
Well done to the Eco Team who worked tirelessly today to clean up the school field after sports day last week. Great job looking after our local environment!
LITTER PICK 3
Well done to the Eco Team, who spent the afternoon collecting litter in our local area. They went up Aughrim Rd and Tullyframe Rd collecting all litter they could see.
LITTER PICK 2
Well done to the boys and girls from KS2 who kindly gave their lunch up to help clean up the school grounds and gather up all the litter in the school field.
Eco Friendly Classrooms
Today we announced the class that achieved the most points for ensuring their classroom was eco-friendly.
Primary 6 ensured that lights, taps and electronic devices were all turned off when not in use. They also ensured to keep doors and windows closed to keep heat in and they used the bins in their classroom correctly. Great work Primary 6! Keep it up! Congratulations on winning the special prize for your class.
Thank you to the Eco Team who give up time everyday during break and lunch to monitor each class and record results.
LITTER PICK 1
Well done to the girls from Primary 7 who give up their lunchtime to carry out a litter pick in the school field. Great work girls!
Snowball the Polar Bear
Have a look below at the poster made by our Eco Team. This poster is displayed in the school to help teach at the boys and girls about how their contributions have helped towards helping the polar bears.
Sustran's Big Walk and Wheel
Well done to everyone who took part in the Sustran's Big Walk and Wheel to school. Thank you to all the parents who participated and supported us in running this event.
Well done to everyone to contributed towards our fund for adopting a polar bear!
Today we received a certificate to highlight the amazing contribution our pupils have made to saving carbon and working towards a more sustainable Northern Ireland.
International Polar Bear Day
Climate Change is harming the environment. This means that animal habitats are being destroyed and this is causing animals to become extinct.
This year our Eco Team have decided to help polar bears. Climate Change has caused sea ice to decline by 40% over the last 30 years. If we don’t make changes, polar bears will become extinct.
The 27th of February was International Polar Bear Day. On this day, we asked that each child took 50p to school. This money was used adopt a polar bear and support the World Wildlife Fund in helping to maintain healthy habitats for polar bears to live in. Each class also made a class pledge to identify one thing they will do at home and in school to try and reduce Climate Change.
Climate Change and the Weather
This week the Eco Team visited each class. They carried out their presentation to teach the children about climate change and the weather. They listened and answered to any questions the children had. They then explained to each class how they could help to prevent climate change by making a few simple changes in school. They explained that each day at lunch they would be going around each classroom to check in and see how they are getting on implementing these changes in their classroom. They explained that they will be monitoring and recording the results each day and at the end of the term the class with the most points would win a prize.
The Eco Team then carried out a survey to check the children's understanding of the topic.
Click on the link below to see the Eco Team presentation and learn about climate change and the weather!
Saving Water
Today Pat from NI water came to our school. He delivered a fantastic talk on how to save water and reduce water waste. He even give us plastic water bottles to help us reduce our use of single use plastics. We learnt lots from this talk and can't wait to put our now knowledge into practise.
Well done to the boys and girls in P4,5,6 and 7 who took part in the online course from 'Keeping Northern Ireland Beautiful' called 'Your Climate Future – A Guide for Schools'
Energy Saving Week
This week was Energy Saving Week. Every pupil in the school was tasked with making simple changes in their home to try and reduce their energy consumption. Have a look below to see our results.
Eco Week
This week was ECO Week. To celebrate, ECO-UNESCO were offering free talks online all week. Our school signed up to two of the talks. The P4,5 and 7 children took part in the Climate Change 101 talk and the P6 children took part in the Waste-Free Living, Conquering Single-Use Plastics talk. The pupils throughly enjoyed both talks and learnt alot about the topics.
Schools' Environmental Poster Competition
Well done to all the P6 and 7 who took part in the enviromental poster competition this year! You worked hard. We wish you the best of luck.
Click on the links below to have a look at some of their work!
Hedgerow Heroes
Well done to all the primary 7 boys and girls who took part in the Hedgerow Heroes Competition. Best of Luck your entries were fantastic! Well done!
Waste Promotions Officer in Primary 1,2 and 3
Noel Lyons the Waste Promotions Officer with the Council visited our class this week. He reminded us about what type of rubbish goes into each bin. He showed us some items that were made from recycled materials, soft toys, drinks bottles, reusable folding straw. He helped us to create some plant pots from newspaper. We filled them from compost that was made from the waste that is found in our brown bins, and we sprinkled some cress seeds on top. We sat them on the windowsill and we are going to look after them and hopefully the cress will grow by next week.
Waste Promotions Officer in Primary 4 and 5
We had a great Eco talk by Noel from the NMDDC. We learned so many interesting facts about where our waste goes and had great fun making pyramids out of recycled materials.
Waste Promotions Officer in Primary 7
We had a visit from Noel Lyons, the Waste Promotions Officer. He showed us how to create lovely pencil cases, using left over cereal boxes. what a great way to save on waste !
Eco-Team 2022-2023
Dylan O'Hare, Joseph Murnion, Myleene Murphy, Annie-Rose Morgan, Lottie O'Hare, John Paul McCartan.
Congratulations to the Eco Team for receiving their Green Flag!
Clean and Tidy
Today we did a litter pick in the school field. We collected one bag of recyclable rubbish and 1 bag of general waste! Well done to the Eco-Team!
Cash for Clobber
A big 'Well done' and 'Thank you' to everyone who took part in our Cash for Clobber. Your hard work and kindness helped to raise £160 for the school.
Beach Clean at Cranfield Beach.
Today Primary 6 and 7 took part in a coastal workshop delivered by Ben Ryan and they thoroughly enjoyed the experience. They completed a workshop in school before boarding the bus for a fun filled day outside. The children wore hi-vis vests and were provided with gloves and litter pickers. Well done to everyone who took part! This is a great way to help protect our enviroment.
Paper Free Day
Today the Eco-Team held a Paper Free Day. The purpose of this was twofold. Firstly, they wanted to raise awareness of paper usage and reduce our paper waste. Secondly, they wanted to raise money in order to be able to purchase flowers to plant around the school to support biodiversity. This day was great fun. Each class also had an individual eco task to complete to help raise their awareness of biodiversity.
P1/2 made bug hotels.
P2 made bird feeders from toilet roll tubes.
P3/4 made bird feeders from fruit and garden wire.
P5/6/7 planted a range of different seeds.
Have a look below to see what each class got up to.
Thank you to everyone who donated.
Primary 1 and 2 Bug Hotels
Primary 2- Bird feeders
Primary 3/4 Bird Feeders
Primary 5 Planting seeds
Primary 6/7 Planting seeds
Paper Free Day
On Thursday we are holding a Paper Free Day. This day will help us to reduce the amount of paper we use in school and raise awareness of reducing waste. On this day we are also asking everyone to take in £1 to help us raise money to buy plants. We hope to plant these plants around the school to support the biodiversity.
On this day each class will also be completing a special activity to promot biodiversity. P1/2 will be making bug hotels, P2 will be making toilet roll bird feeders, P3/4 will be making bird feeders out of garden wire and P5/6/7 will be planting seed. We hope to let these seeds germinate indoors and then transport them outside for the months of May and June.
The Eco Team went to each class to explain this special day to them.
Eco Garden
Today the Eco Team worked on our Biodiversity garden. They tidied the area up in preparation for the addition of bug hotels, bird feeders and plants that will be created in each class on our Paper Free Day.
We are holding a Paper Free Day to reduce our paper waste and raise money to purchase plants to plant around the school grounds to support biodiversity.
Litterpick around Attical
2023 Environmental Youth Speak
The 2023 Environmental Youth Speak competition was held on Wednesday 29 March in Newcastle.
Over 36 participants and 8 secondary schools submitted their online presentations to the judges. Six schools and three secondary schools made it through to the finals.
Congratulations to our P7 James McMorrow who reached the finals! He did brilliantly he spoke confidently and really engaged the audience. We are all very proud of him.😀
Litter Pick
Great work from our Eco Team today who carried out our first litterpick of the year. We focused on the area around the school grounds. They collected 1 bag of recycable rubbish and 1 bag of general waste.
Keep up the hard work!
Clean and Tidy
A hugh thank you and well done to Hollie and Emily Rose, who gave up their time over the weekend to give our school pitch a clearn up! Well done girls!
Enviromental Youth Speech 2023
Single Use Plastics
Today we were very lucky to have a talk from Patrick McShane the Environmental Coordinator in Newry, Mourne and Down District Council. He talked to us about Single Use Plastics and how we can reduce our plastic waste. We really enjoyed this talk and found it very informative.
Eco Feedback Forms
Today we checked out the Eco Feedback forms to get ideas and contributions from other children in the school on how to make our school Eco Friendly.
Cash for Clobber
Thank you so to everyone who contributed to 'Cash for Clobber!'
We gathered 68 bags of 'Clobber'! Your support is greatly appreciated.
Save a Flush
NI Water kindly provided our school with 'Save a Flush Bags' to help us reduce water usage within our school. The Save a flush bags go into the cistern and help reduce the amount of water used in each flush. The Eco-Team went around the school to install them today. We hope to see a reduction in our water usage.
Reusable Water Bottles.
Thank you to NI Water for providing every child in our school with a reusable water bottle. This will help us to ensure we keep plastic waste to a minimum. Our Eco-Team went around the school to deliver them to each class today!
NI Water Classroom Visit
Today we received a visit from the NI water. We were taught all about the importance of water and it raised our awareness of importance of conserving water. We learnt about what can be put into the toilet and what can block the toilet. We discovered the importance of ensuring that we only can only put the '3Ps' in the toilet. We learnt a lot and are very grateful to NI water for the fantastic information session. They even left us with 100 reuseable water bottles.
Eco News
Today the Eco Team visited each classroom to chat to them about the following things:
1) How to reduce water waste in the school and show them the new water saving posters they made.
2) Explain the scheme 'Cash for Clobber' and provide letters for parents.
3) Remind the children of the Eco Code and provide a new copy for each class.
4) Explain our new Eco Feedback Form and where it is located in the school.
Cash for Clobber
This year we are partaking in the 'Cash for Clobber' scheme.
"Cash for Clobber" is a scheme from Cookstown Textile Recyclers in which bags are filled with unwanted clothes that would otherwise be sent to landfill. The materials gathered by Cookstown are either re-used or recycled. The “Cash for Clobber” scheme is run in conjunction with Eco-Schools Northern Ireland and aims to teach school children the environmental and social benefits of recycling while raising significant valuable funds for their school.
During January we are taking part in a special Cash for Clobber Challenge. Schools which collect the most textiles per pupil are in with a chance to win the annual ‘Cash for Clobber’ competition with fantastic prizes of up to £1,500.
If you have any unwanted items, you can put them into a black bin bag and bring them to school on either Thursday 26th or Friday 27th January. These will be collected by Cookstown Textile Recyclers, one of the Eco-school program partners, who will sort and recycle.
What can you put in the bag?
- All types of clothing
- Bags and shoes
- Hats and belts
- Towels and curtains
- Bed linen (sheets, pillowcases, duvet covers)
NO QUILTS OR PILLOWS and all items must be clean.
Perhaps you could encourage family and friends to donate their unwanted textiles too?
Many thanks for your continued support.
Miss Cunningham and The Eco Committee
Reducing Water Waste
We are working on saving water in our school. The Eco Team worked together to creat 3 posters to display near water sources within in the school. They showed them to each class and reminded the children of the importance of turing off taps, only flushing the toilet once and only putting toilet roll in the toilet. We hope that raising awareness will reduce water waste in our school. We are monitoring water usage and will continue to do so to assess the impact of raising awareness.
Energy Saving Week Schools Challenge
Well done to everyone who took part in the Energy Saving Week. All your hard work paid off as our school has won the runner up prize in the Energy Saving Week Schools Challenge. We will receive a willow tree samplings to plant, to enhance our grounds in school and make a positive change to the environment.
World Toilet Day
Today was World Toilet Day. Each class participated in a live virtual assembly to raise awareness throughout our school of the importance of toilets and raise awareness of the 4.2 billion people who still live without access to safe toilets. Each class got a chance to input their answers to take part in virtual live quizzes. This was great fun and we learnt a lot.
Water Butt
As part of our work on water reduction this year, we applied to get a water butt for our school. Thank you to NI Water for providing our school with this and talking to our Eco-Team to explain to them how to set it up and use it. We will now be using water from the water butt to water our plants during dry spells.
Environmentally Friendly Traffic Solution
Well done to the boys and girls who visited Stormont and identified the need for traffic lights in our local area. The solar panel traffic lights will be a great eco friendly addition to our community.
Plastic Free Under the Sea!
After weeks of hard work from everyone in school, the Eco-team finally completed their wonderful display.
Over the past few weeks/months, everyone in the school have pulled together and collected as many bottle lids as they could! We had every colour of the rainbow! The Eco-Team then carried out some research and planned what sort of a display they could make with the bottle lids. We decided to make a display with a message that continues to promote our focus on plastic reduction this year! Our display reads 'Plastic Free Under the Sea!
Well done to everyone involved and thank you for your help!
Be part of the solution, not the pollution
After numerous Litterpicks in the field behind our school, the Eco Team decided to make some posters to encourage no littering. They did a great job and included some fantastic detail. We displayed them in the field for visiters to see. Well done Eco Team!
Today primary 1 learnt about flowers and how they grow. We even got to plant some sunflower seeds. We can't wait to see what happens.
Today we carried out another litter pick in the field behind the school just in time for sports day. We collected a whole bag of recyclable waste and a whole bag of general waste.
Well done to the Eco-Team! Next week we will be making signs for the field to remind people not to litter.
Today the P6 and 7 boys and girls noticed lots of litter in the field. They set off to clean it up and collected 3 bags of litter. Well done boys and girls! Keep up the hard work!
Bottle Lid Art
Plastic Pollution is a big problem for the environment. Our Eco-Team decided to try and reduce plastic pollution by reusing plastic bottle lids to create art. Over the past few weeks every class in the school has been collecting plastic bottle lids. On Monday the Eco-team gathered them from each class and sorted them out by colour. We hope to start using the lids to make a beautiful display next week. Stay tuned to see the results. :)
Beach Clean and Cranfield
The P5,6 and 7 headed off to Cranfield beach today to take part in a beach clean. They carried out a survey on the waste types present on the beach before getting stuck in to remove the litter. They gathered a huge amount of waste that would have been extremely harmful for the animals and members of the public. Afterwards, they enjoyed some well deserved playtime in the park before heading back to school. What a productive day… 🌍👍
A huge thank you to Conor, Field Officer for Eco schools, for all of his help today.
Sustran Big Walk and Wheel Challenge.
Today marks the end of the Sustran Big Walk and Wheel Challenge. Thank you to everyone for their participation. Overall, the children made a fantastic 641 journeys.
Environmental Youth Speak Competition 2022
Absolutely fantastic work by Ella Murphy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9QpIsCn9vM&feature=youtu.be
Bin Monitors
Today Ella (P7) and Jack (P5) went around each class to present them with new bin labels made by our Eco-Team. They explained the importance of recycling and told the children what sort of things they can recycle. The children got a chance to ask Ella and Jack questions about how to recycle correctly. We had lots of fantastic questions.
Ella and Jack explained that bin monitors will be checking the bins after lunch on Tuesdays-Fridays to ensure that the bins are being used correctly.
Thank you for all your help Jack and Ella.
Clean Up Number 3
Adopt a Spot is a scheme that enables volunteers across Northern Ireland to adopt an area and look after it. Our Eco-Team pledged to adopt our school spot and do at least 4 litter picks for the year. Today we received our 'Adopt a spot' kit which provides us with the resources to support us in reaching this goal. Our kit contains: litterpickers, gloves, first aid kit, sharps box, bags and bucket.
Today we got started on our 3rd litter pick this year. Today we focused on cleaning the field behind the school.
Next week we hope to make some signs to remind people to recycle/bin their rubbish.
Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel 2022.
This morning seen the start of our Sustrans Big Walk and Wheel 2022. The challenge runs from 21 March to 1 April.
We had a great start to the challenge with lots of children out enjoying the walk to school in the lovely weather this morning. It was a great way to start the day and also helped us to protect the environment by reducing the number of cars on the road this morning. It was lovely to see the big smiles on the children's faces as they walked, cycled and scooted to school. Some of us even spotted some lambs on our walk.
Recycling Plastic.
We have lots of different bins in our classroom. We have a general waste bin, food bin, tissue bin and recycling bin. Sometimes we can get confused and put the wrong things in each bin.
Our Eco-Team have been working very hard to produce some videos to help you learn how to use the bins in our class correctly. Our focus this year is to reduce plastic pollution, so the videos they made focus on teaching how to recycle plastic.
Have a watch of the videos below to learn how to recycle.
If you have any questions, write them down and ask your teacher to pass them onto the Eco-Team.
Orlagh, Darcie and Ella
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dXYNQ1QnwNEiJApuHH7HIBL2OCQgox-5/view?usp=sharing
Charlie, Jack and Harry
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ldRrJyV0iFf_2Cx8cAuiFNpb357e2xXt/view?usp=sharing
UH OH
In our classrooms we have lots of different types of bins. We have been monitoring the plastic in our bins and discovered that lots of people have been putting plastic in the wrong bin. We worked together to think of some solutions to the problems. We decided to make some videos to teach the children how to recycle plastic correctly. Stay tuned to see what we create.
Litter Pick
Today we did another litter pick. We started in the school carpark and then moved on to the Tullyframe Road. We collected bag of recyclable materials and 1 bag of general waste. Well done Eco-Team!
Water Meter
We are trying to reduce water usage in our school. We started today by finding the water meter and recording the reading. This will help us to track how much water is being used in our school and help us to ensure that there are no leaks.
Litter Picking
Today we went on a litter pick around the school. We searched for any litter, and we collect it to put in the bin. Now our school is nice and tidy. Next week, we plan to do a litter pick in the field behind the school.
Plastic Promise
Today we made our Plastic Promise to put an end to throwaway plastics.
We pledged to
-bring reusable water bottles to school.
-switch to reusable lunch boxes.
-bring reusable plates and cutler to school.
A new addition to our garden
Today the Eco Team planted a Blossom Tree in our school grounds. We hope this helps the wildlife in our area. We watered the tree using recycled water to help reduce our water consumption.
Sharing our thoughts on Eco Issues with Newry, Mourne and Down District Council.
This week all the boys and girls in KS2 designed a leaf. On one side they wrote a promise about what they are going to do for the environment. On the other side they wrote what they think our local council could do to help the environment. The ideas were well thought out and leaves beautifully designed.
On Thursday 18th November 2021 our Eco Team got the opportunity to go to Newry, Mourne and Down District Council to present the leaves and their ideas. This was a great opportunity to get our fantastic ideas heard! Well done to everyone involved.
Primary 1 are introduced to Eco Schools.
COP26
Last week P6/7 composed a rap for the SDLP's campaign on the Climate Crisis... This fitted in perfectly with the end of their 'Rainforest' topic as they had been discussing the negative impacts deforestation has on the rainforest but also the wider world. The winners get to go to Stormont to discuss the issues with MLAs. Click the link below to watch the video. We hope you like it!
Adopt a Spot
This week we signed up to the 'Adopt a Spot' scheme and adopted our school and the area surrounding it.
Our school will take on the roll of protecting this area and reducing the impact we are having on the environment. We will carry out litter picks, and plant flowers where possible to protect this beautiful area.
Daily Mile Challenge
