Green School
Dunboyne Junior Primary School recently was awarded another Green Flag and Active Flag and on June 27th the whole school took part in the celebration of raising these flags.
Green flags are an international symbol of a school’s environmental sustainability and are awarded to schools for helping children to become more environmentally responsible. The Department of Education and skills awards the Active Schools Flag to schools that strive to achieve a physically active school community. The awards of these accolades are testament to the hard work of both the Active School Committee and Green School Committee and of course their co-ordinators
Ms. Karen Ruane, Ms. Maire Healy and Ms. Caroline Mannion. We would like to convey our thanks to Teresa Molohan, Games Promotion Officer, Dunboyne GAA who co-ordinated coaching our Second Classes in skills of GAA football and we had great weather for a change and the activity was enjoyed by all. Also we would like to thank the children from the Senior School who lead our class groups in daily exercise.
The pupils celebrated their achievements!
Green flags are an international symbol of a school’s environmental sustainability and are awarded to schools for helping children to become more environmentally responsible. The Department of Education and skills awards the Active Schools Flag to schools that strive to achieve a physically active school community. The awards of these accolades are testament to the hard work of both the Active School Committee and Green School Committee and of course their co-ordinators
Ms. Karen Ruane, Ms. Maire Healy and Ms. Caroline Mannion. We would like to convey our thanks to Teresa Molohan, Games Promotion Officer, Dunboyne GAA who co-ordinated coaching our Second Classes in skills of GAA football and we had great weather for a change and the activity was enjoyed by all. Also we would like to thank the children from the Senior School who lead our class groups in daily exercise.
The pupils celebrated their achievements!
Remember March 14th is National Scoot to School day! Please try to scoot to school. Park your scooters behind rooms 1-3 and ensure your name is on them!
Many thanks, Green School Committee
Many thanks, Green School Committee
We are working on our fourth green flag for travel at the moment. By promoting sustainable transport modes (walking, cycling or car-pooling) the school will improve pupils’ safety, health and fitness. Our school encourages us to cycle and/or walk to school as much as possible.
Walking/cycling is a great way to maintain and increase fitness levels. It is also a great way to awaken and exercise your brain. Children who walk and/or cycle are more alert and ready to learn. Fridays are our OFF days (ON FOOT FRIDAYS). Everyone is encouraged to walk, scoot or cycle to school on these days. You can also park an stride if you live too far away. This is where you park: at train station, church or library and walk from there. On our OFF days we count how everyone came to school and the winning classes at each level get a trophy on their board. The winning classes at the end of year will get a prize.
This is our travel code "CO2 is not cool, cycle, scoot or walk to school"
Carpooling is also another way to save on fuel and stop pollution. Families and friends can take turns on bringing a number of students to school in one car rather than using multiple cars. The more often we use our cars, we use more fuel which pollutes our country and the area where we live. It also saves money and keeps it in our pockets.
Always be aware that we have public transport to take us on excursions and long journeys. It is more cost effective but kinder to our environment. It also allows you to socialise more and make new buddies.
Don’t use fuel, Carpool or walk to school.
Walking/cycling is a great way to maintain and increase fitness levels. It is also a great way to awaken and exercise your brain. Children who walk and/or cycle are more alert and ready to learn. Fridays are our OFF days (ON FOOT FRIDAYS). Everyone is encouraged to walk, scoot or cycle to school on these days. You can also park an stride if you live too far away. This is where you park: at train station, church or library and walk from there. On our OFF days we count how everyone came to school and the winning classes at each level get a trophy on their board. The winning classes at the end of year will get a prize.
This is our travel code "CO2 is not cool, cycle, scoot or walk to school"
Carpooling is also another way to save on fuel and stop pollution. Families and friends can take turns on bringing a number of students to school in one car rather than using multiple cars. The more often we use our cars, we use more fuel which pollutes our country and the area where we live. It also saves money and keeps it in our pockets.
Always be aware that we have public transport to take us on excursions and long journeys. It is more cost effective but kinder to our environment. It also allows you to socialise more and make new buddies.
Don’t use fuel, Carpool or walk to school.
Whole School Travel Action Day
As you are aware we are holding our Travel Action Day on the Friday, 9th of March. This is the most important OFF day of all. Our school will become a car free zone on that day and our travel officer will be in the school. Everyone has to make their best effort to walk or park and stride to school. That includes teachers-no cars are allowed to park in the yard on the day!! Hopefully the weather will be good to us!
Whole School:
1. We will have two major park and stride points, the train station and the church carpark. We will all congregate there and walk together to school at 9.10. Parents will still have to walk with their children. The children may dress all in green on the day and should wear a hi-vis jacket if they have one. We are also encouraging children to design posters for the walk either in school or at home that they can carry on the day. A group photo will be taken at both park and stride points.
2. Once in the yard, we will do ‘Wake and Shake’ to some music to get us all warmed up. We will also ask all the pupils to say the Travel Code so please practice this beforehand with your class. The Green School committee will pick the winning class tomorrow and a copy of the code will be distributed to every class. Please learn it.
3. Every teacher will be given an activity pack. There will be colouring pages, activity sheets and a quiz in it. It would be beneficial to dedicate some part of the day to discussing and learning about transport. There will be sheets on this in your pack on this also, please feel free to pick and choose from the pack. Other ideas include; discuss journeys to school around the world or the history of transport (videos on youtube), nature walks etc.
4. Every child will be given a runner to decorate on the day. The children can write their name on the sole of the runner and colour it in. Once cut out we would like all runners to create a whole school display outside the classrooms. So please display the runners in a single continuous line outside your classroom underneath the notice board if there is one or at that level if there isn’t one! Hopefully there will be enough runners to go around the whole school. I will display my runners on Thursday so you can get the idea! Fingers crossed it will work! I will have extra blue tack in my room if you need it and please ask if this sounds confusing!
5. New green school advice posters will be distributed to all classes before the day. Please ensure they are on display in your room for the travel officer to see.
Competition:
I have prizes in my room so please choose one child from your class who you feel deserves a prize for the effort they made dressing up. Please send this child to room 14 at 12.30 p.m. to claim a small prize.
Junior Infants:
Travel Officer, Caroline Murphy will take each Junior Infant class for half an hour to play a Giant Travel Floor game with them.
Time Class Location
9.30 – 10.00 Ms Taylor Outside if it is dry or in the hall if not.
10.00 – 10.30 Ms Ruane
10.30 – 11.00 Ms McFadden
11.15 – 11.45 Ms Mannion
Senior Infants:
We are trying to make contact with our lollipop lady and our Community Garda so hopefully they will give a talk to your classes on the day. Times etc to follow.
First and Second Classes:
We are encouraging all first and second classes to carry out their 8 laps on the day ideally between little and big break. As the 8 laps make 1km, this would mean that we will have ran over 200km in school on the day which would be a great feat!
Green School Committee
The Green School Committee will carry out their most important OFF day count to date. Hopefully this will be the best one for every class and they might all get trophies on the board!!!
Renewal Visit
Our travel officer will be back then on Wednesday 14th to carry out our renewal visit. She will spend an hour or two with the Green School Committee and may visit some classes. Please remind your classes of all our green school practices; like recycling in school, to bring home their rubbish, to save energy in their rooms, to turn off the taps etc.
Lastly, a big thank you to Ms Farrell, Ms Grogan, Ms Ruane, the green school committee and our travel officer Caroline Murphy for all their help in organising this day! We hope it is an enjoyable day for everyone.
Caroline Mannion, Green School Co-Ordinator.
As you are aware we are holding our Travel Action Day on the Friday, 9th of March. This is the most important OFF day of all. Our school will become a car free zone on that day and our travel officer will be in the school. Everyone has to make their best effort to walk or park and stride to school. That includes teachers-no cars are allowed to park in the yard on the day!! Hopefully the weather will be good to us!
Whole School:
1. We will have two major park and stride points, the train station and the church carpark. We will all congregate there and walk together to school at 9.10. Parents will still have to walk with their children. The children may dress all in green on the day and should wear a hi-vis jacket if they have one. We are also encouraging children to design posters for the walk either in school or at home that they can carry on the day. A group photo will be taken at both park and stride points.
2. Once in the yard, we will do ‘Wake and Shake’ to some music to get us all warmed up. We will also ask all the pupils to say the Travel Code so please practice this beforehand with your class. The Green School committee will pick the winning class tomorrow and a copy of the code will be distributed to every class. Please learn it.
3. Every teacher will be given an activity pack. There will be colouring pages, activity sheets and a quiz in it. It would be beneficial to dedicate some part of the day to discussing and learning about transport. There will be sheets on this in your pack on this also, please feel free to pick and choose from the pack. Other ideas include; discuss journeys to school around the world or the history of transport (videos on youtube), nature walks etc.
4. Every child will be given a runner to decorate on the day. The children can write their name on the sole of the runner and colour it in. Once cut out we would like all runners to create a whole school display outside the classrooms. So please display the runners in a single continuous line outside your classroom underneath the notice board if there is one or at that level if there isn’t one! Hopefully there will be enough runners to go around the whole school. I will display my runners on Thursday so you can get the idea! Fingers crossed it will work! I will have extra blue tack in my room if you need it and please ask if this sounds confusing!
5. New green school advice posters will be distributed to all classes before the day. Please ensure they are on display in your room for the travel officer to see.
Competition:
I have prizes in my room so please choose one child from your class who you feel deserves a prize for the effort they made dressing up. Please send this child to room 14 at 12.30 p.m. to claim a small prize.
Junior Infants:
Travel Officer, Caroline Murphy will take each Junior Infant class for half an hour to play a Giant Travel Floor game with them.
Time Class Location
9.30 – 10.00 Ms Taylor Outside if it is dry or in the hall if not.
10.00 – 10.30 Ms Ruane
10.30 – 11.00 Ms McFadden
11.15 – 11.45 Ms Mannion
Senior Infants:
We are trying to make contact with our lollipop lady and our Community Garda so hopefully they will give a talk to your classes on the day. Times etc to follow.
First and Second Classes:
We are encouraging all first and second classes to carry out their 8 laps on the day ideally between little and big break. As the 8 laps make 1km, this would mean that we will have ran over 200km in school on the day which would be a great feat!
Green School Committee
The Green School Committee will carry out their most important OFF day count to date. Hopefully this will be the best one for every class and they might all get trophies on the board!!!
Renewal Visit
Our travel officer will be back then on Wednesday 14th to carry out our renewal visit. She will spend an hour or two with the Green School Committee and may visit some classes. Please remind your classes of all our green school practices; like recycling in school, to bring home their rubbish, to save energy in their rooms, to turn off the taps etc.
Lastly, a big thank you to Ms Farrell, Ms Grogan, Ms Ruane, the green school committee and our travel officer Caroline Murphy for all their help in organising this day! We hope it is an enjoyable day for everyone.
Caroline Mannion, Green School Co-Ordinator.