Green Schools Biodiversity Week

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Green Schools Biodiversity Week

Green Schools Biodiversity Week runs from Monday 29th January to Friday 2nd February 2018.

 

Biodiversity Week 2018

The Green Schools committee is endeavouring to secure a Biodiversity Flag this year. A large part of securing this flag involves activities and events that occurred in and around Biodiversity Week this year. Biodiversity week ran from 29th January – 2nd February 2018. The Green Schools committee worked extremely hard in the weeks coming up to and throughout Biodiversity Week. Each member of the committee was assigned tasks, and endeavoured to complete these tasks to the best of their abilities.

We took a five prong approach towards spreading awareness of Biodiversity in the school.

  1. Informing Students and Staff
  • Posters and signs were displayed around the school.
  • Informative pieces, interesting facts and crosswords were placed in all tutor folders each morning to raise awareness.
  • Informative postcards were placed on tables in the canteen and staffroom.
  • National Sustainability Summit – January 31st. Four students were brought by Ms. Duggan to gain a greater insight into the role of sustainability in the world we live in today. A piece about this day was written by one of the students and will appear in the Griffin, the school yearbook.
  1. Cross-curricular
  • Teachers were asked to link biodiversity to any areas of their own subject, this occurred mainly in CSPE, Geography, Science and Business Studies.
  1. Biodiversity Assembly
  • An assembly was held in the canteen, as the hall was out of use, for Form I to III.
  • Students from the Green Schools committee were involved in parts of the assembly, including Richard Sheahan and Patricia O Reilly.
  • William Despard of The Bretzel Bakery was a guest speaker and spoke about running a sustainable company. He brought in his green car, electric trike, and samples of the bread for staff and students to try.
  • Darragh, one of the school architects spoke to the students on how the planning of the new schoolhouse will incorporate features to enhance the biodiversity of the school, as well as how biodiversity is a key area to look at in engineering.
  1. Biodiversity Survey
  • The original biodiversity survey completed before biodiversity week was handed out again to all forms during an extended registration, the week after Biodiversity Week. This data was compiled by Form II students during maths class, and the results can be seen on the Green Schools noticeboard outside the library. The results show a marked increase in understanding and knowledge of Biodiversity from the first survey.
  1. Planting of flowers/insect hotel
  • All Form I and II members of the committee were involved in planting bulbs/pots to create new Biodiversity in the school.
  • An insect hotel was also installed near the flower bed at the front of the school to give a home for insects and increase the diversity in that area.

Overall, the members of the Green Schools committee feel that Biodiversity Week was a great success. We will continue to raise awareness and inform our fellow students about Biodiversity, and in particular the Biodiversity that exists at Sandford Park School.