Students from Scoil Chonglais were delighted to attend and take part in the day’s discussions and activities focused on sustainability and protecting our environment.
A highlight of the event was the keynote address by Jennifer Whitmore TD, who spoke about the importance of youth voices in shaping a greener future.
Well done to all involved in organising such a fantastic and important event!
Motto: The world needs a solution to Global Pollution
The Green Flag initiative is a Europe-based programme designed to encourage students and staff to take action to make their schools more environmentally aware. It operates under FEEE in conjunction with An Taisce and operates broadly in the same way as the Blue Flag programme for beaches.
Schools work on a particular theme for 2 years after which they undergo an assessment to decide whether or not they have reached flag standard.
The programme is run by the school’s Green Committee which consists of 2 students who have been democratically elected from each year group. 1st year representatives are elected in early October. The Committee meets regularly to organise events to highlight the chosen theme. They also attend workshops organised by various environmental agencies.
Scoil Chonglais has been involved in the programme since 2000. We were the second secondary school in Co. Wicklow and the third in the country to be awarded the prestigious flag.
To date, we have achieved 9 Green Flags under the categories of Water, Water, Energy, Climate Change, Transport, Biodiversity, Global Citizenship Litter and Waste and Global Citizenship Energy. As well as this we were awarded the prestigious award of Eastern Midlands Regional winners for the Green Schools efforts.
At present, we are working on the theme of Global Citizenship – Marine Environment and hope to be awarded a 10th green flag in the next two years.
As a result of our involvement in the Green Schools Programme all paper, and plastic cans are now recycled in the school and the amount of waste going to landfills has been significantly reduced. A number of areas in the school have been planted and are both aesthetically pleasing and environmentally friendly as well.
