Green Schools

The Green School Committee is comprised of two representative students from 1^st to 6^th Class.  The Chairperson of the Green School Committee is Ms. Moya Walsh (3^rd and 4^th Class teacher).  As their teacher is co-ordinator the 3^rd and 4^th Class play a large role also and enhance the work of the committee.  It is the role of the committee members to report back to classes with ideas, get feedback on activities and inform them of decided actions.  The Green School Committee realises the importance of the whole school community’s involvement.  Every year the Green school work alongside the Tidy Towns Committee with the Spring Clean Up and have also been involved in the development of the community garden ‘An Cuinne Glas’.

Ballinahinch National School is currently working on their 5^th Green flag.  The theme for this is Biodiversity.  Alongside this we continue to work on previous themes; Litter and Waste Management, Energy Conservation, Water Conservation and Travel.

Before getting to work on the Biodiversity theme and making changes and improvements to the school environment, the Green School Committee carried out three essential actions

1. The Biodiversity Awareness Survey
2. An initial Habitat Map of the School Grounds
3. Revisit of previous themes.

In revisiting previous themes, it was felt that there was a need to address the classroom usage of bins.  The Committee and teaching staff felt that the bins weren’t been used correctly.  Each class has three bins; litter, waste and compost.  A representative from Clean Ireland gave a workshop to the Committee and 3^rd and 4^th classes on waste and recycling.  Following this the committee designed a presentation for the classes and presented it in groups to each of the classrooms.  This took the form of discussion, questioning and interactive involvement through a game.  They concluded their presentation with a video on the importance of recycling.