Green Schools
Theme 5 - Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the fifth theme of the Green-Schools programme. As with the previous themes, you will see that Biodiversity cross-cuts and integrates with the rest of the themes in many ways.
What is Biodiversity? The meaning of ‘Biodiversity’ is easier to understand when we break the word down; “bio” refers to life and ‘living things’ and “Diversity” means just that: range or variety. The word refers to the huge variety and variation of life that is all around us.
Why is Biodiversity so important and why should we conserve it? A high level of diversity among plants, animals and all living things is essential for maintaining a healthy functioning environment, fit for human life. This includes diversity within species, between species and diversity of ecosystems.
We rely on living things to provide some of the most important needs in our daily lives; from the wooden beams that keep our homes standing, to the cotton fibres in our clothes, and from the oxygen that we breath to the food on our plates. We interact with and have an impact on living things, directly and indirectly every day through our lifestyles; e.g. the food we choose to eat or how we manage our gardens. Being aware of this interaction, and making choices to support wildlife and our natural environments is very important.
We held our Biodiversity Action Day On Thursday 22nd February 2024 - This day was an action packed day which included a Nature Trail, Potato planting, Reading Nature books and Green Quiz. The Whole school made a Wildlife board displaying the animal life in every layer. Five members of The Tidy Towns committee participated in our Action Day- They led the Nature Trails, supplied the sacks that the potatoes were planted in and helped plant the potatoes. We are most grateful for all their support and help. We hope our potatoes can be harvested in June. We look forward to sampling our produce!!
Outdoor Wildlife Bird Signs have been purchased from 'Biodiversity in Schools'. These signs will be incorporated into our new Biodiversity/Sensory Garden. We also hope to incorporate a sign of our Action Day Motto.
The school children came up with a great Biodiversity Motto. Some of the 6th class boys wrote and performed a great Biodiversity Rap. The events of our Action Day were recorded, this video captures the excitement and the learning on this day!! Please click on the following link to view the Video of our Biodiversity Action Day
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ckSTuGfsN32ahN7afpdPi0s_VVxZ58kb/view?usp=sharing
Green School Action Day.pdfGreen School Moto.pdfActionDay24_0.mp42023/2024
Beehives - 2 members of Newtown Tidy Towns came to the school with empty beehives and gave a talk to all the students. It was great to see the beehives, we were enthralled with the talk and the knowledge that these members had on bees. We are most grateful to them.
Bird Camera & Bird Boxes - Tony Kennelly visited our school in June and he suggested in addition to our bird feeders that we should get bird boxes. 4 bird boxes were bought and they have been installed around the school grounds. 1 of the boxes has been fitted with a bird camera. We hope a bird will nest there. We will be able to view the activity inside this box via the bird feathers app.
Green Schools Officer visit to school - David McIllwraith visited the school on Friday 24th November to see the progress being made. As part of our Action Day he suggested that we should do some new planting in our new Sensory/Biodiversity garden.
Biodiversity Action Day - Thursday 22nd February (See below)
On March 4th & 5th Geoff Hunt, an ecologist from Heritage Ireland visited us. Each class got a 90 minute presentation. Presentations were held both indoors & outdoors Geoff taught us lots about native wildflowers, native birds and did a minibeast hunt with 2nd class. All the children really enjoyed his visit.
Our Green Schools Biodiversity Flag application has now been completed & submitted to Green Schools Ireland.
2022/2023
Birdfeeders were bought and placed in both school yards, two in each yard. Two feeders contain fat balls and the other two birdseed. A rota was set up and the pupils took turns feeding the birds twice a week. It was very interesting observing the birds coming and going. It was noted that house martins and robins are the most frequent visitors. It was also noted that fat balls are the birds favourite food.
A Bug Hotel was made using materials supplied by the children. It turned out beautifully. An in-school art competition was held to decide on murals for the side panels of the hotel.
The Potato Garden was set. We would like to thank the parents and members of the community who provided topsoil, made the raised beds & supplied fertilizer. We look forward with anticipation to a good crop of potatoes in June.
We also set some Wild Flowers. We hope we will attract lots of pollinators.
The Green School Committee asked the pupils in all classes to take part in a Lenten sustainability programme. For some classes this involved partaking in webinars such as 'Springwatch' and 'Talking trees' by An Taisce, and the interactive 'Salmon Sanctuaries' by Streamscape Coomhola. A big thank you to all the children, their families and the staff who undertook the various initiatives, such as recycling, planting, nature walks and water conservation.