Global Citizenship

Flag Raising Ceremony 14-6-13

 

 Today we raised our second green flag for Global Citizenship. 

Over the last 2 years we have been working hard and have reduced our water use in the school by 42%. We did this by

•fixing leaks

•turning off taps when not in use

•being more careful not to waste water in our school. 

We have raised awareness amongst our pupils, staff and parents on global issues by

•doing projects on fair trade, water shortages in Africa, the EU and the UN

•carrying out a nationality survey and doing projects on the various countries the pupils of our school have connections with. 

We have maintained our first flag for litter and waste by

•having litter wardens in our school

•6^th class collecting the recycling from the classrooms every afternoon

•our Clean Classroom Competition

•helping our community with clean ups of the walkways and the Point.

Although the rain poured down it didn’t dampen our spirits and the ceremony went ahead.  Conor Middleton raised the flag.  There were many people from the local and wider community who joined us in celebrating our great achievement.  These included Birgit O’Driscoll from An Taisce Green Schools, members of the Tidy Towns Committee, Development Committee and Community Association, John Fitzgerald and Gabby our gardener.  We also had representatives from our Board of Management and Parents Council.

 

Green Flag May 2013

 

Liam Connolly, Cillian Deane and Liam Cotter travelled with Miss Maher to collect our second green flag and certificate at a ceremony in the Silver Springs Hotel.

 

Walk for Water March 2013

 

On Tuesday 19^th March 2013 fourth class went on a walk for water.  Birgit O’Driscoll and Sandy from An Taisce came in to talk to us beforehand.  Birgit talked about the different types of water in the world- salt water, fresh water and ice water.  97% of the world’s water is in our seas and oceans, this is salt water and we can’t drink it.  2.3% of our water is in ice and glaciers which is too dirty and cold to drink.  0.7% of our water is in lakes and rivers, this is fresh water which we can use and drink.  Sandy talked to us about the lifecycle of the salmon and how they survive in our rivers.   We all got blue Walk for Water backpacks and carried 3litres of water each to remind us of the women and children who have to walk miles every day to get clean fresh water in developing countries.

We walked from school to the water house in front of Hassets where we met the local water caretaker John Fitzgerald.  He explained to us how the water system works in Crosshaven. Our water comes from the River Lee at Inniscarra.  It is treated before leaving the Storage Reservoir in large underground pipes to consumers all over Cork Harbour and City. There is another reservoir at Carrshill where water is stored and supplied to us in Crosshaven.  He took us up The Glenn to the pump house.  This is where water is pumped up to Goat’s Cross before it goes to the houses and businesses in the locality.   John turned off the pump so we could hear him speak and he said ‘Right now the taps in Crosshaven are not working!’

Then we went to the Crosshaven Walkway and walked to Limekiln Corner.  Birgit took a short film of us shouting ‘We are Crosshaven Boys National School and we are taking the walk’.  This will be shown at the UN World Water Day event in The Hague, Netherlands on Friday 22^nd March 2013 where there will be many leaders and special guests from around the world including Mary Robinson.   

 by Conor Deane, Ethan Berkery-Kelly, Ronan O’Donoghue, Robert Twomey and Patrick Cotter.

 

From The Carrigdhoun 6th April 2013

 

Committee 2012-2013

 

Here is our committee for the Global Citizenship flag:

Projects

 

Each class did a project under the Global Citizenship/water theme:

                   Story of the banana+ Fair Trade-Junior Infants        

        Story of chocolate+ Fair Trade- Senior Infants

    

                   Water shortages in Africa-1^st class                            

                            

                                                                                        Italy-2^nd class

                                                                                     Spain-3rd class                                                              

        

                                                                                        China- 4th class

                                                                  The EU and its Institutions-5th class

                     

                                                                                      The UN 6th class

 

Nationalities

 

The following countries were researched after we conducted a Nationality Survey in our school.  Some of our pupils are from these countries, and in some cases it was parents and grandparents that were originally from the country.  All the classes were involved in doing the projects which were displayed on the Green Schools Noticeboard for everyone to see.

Denmark, Germany, Scotland, England, Poland, New Zealand, Peru, America, Pakistan, Australia, Spain, France

 

Nationality projects on the Green Schools Noticeboard

 

Action Plan

 

Action	Person/Group   Responsible	Timeframe	Achieved
Ballinreeshig Farm planting trees	Miss Maher+ committee members	March 2012	√
Water meter reading	Miss Maher +              Mr Ashman	May 2012 January 2013	√
Conduct leak test	Committee members	June 2012	√
Fix leaking pipes	Mr Fahy	December 2012	√
Reduce water use in our school by 10% at least	All classes	March 2013	Reduced by 42%
The Story of the banana+ Fair Trade	Junior Infants	September 2012	√
The Story of chocolate + Fair Trade	Senior Infants	October 2012	√
Water pollution/shortages in Africa	1st class	November 2012	√
Learn about Italy	2nd class	December 2012	√
Learn about Spain	3rd class	January 2013	√
Learn about China + Fair Trade	4th class	February 2013	√
Learn about EU+its institutions	5th class	March 2013	√
Learn about The UN	6th class	April 2013	√
Postcard competition	All classes	October 2012	√
Silver Springs Day of Action	Miss Maher+ committee members	November 2012	√
Collect bottles for greenhouse	Jay Kelly + all classes	October-December 2012	√
Check the taps are turned off every day	Committee members	Ongoing	√
Register for National Spring Clean	Miss Maher	March 2012 March 2013	√
Inform parents of our efforts through our   newsletter	Miss Maher	Termly	ongoing
Monitor attitudes by repeating awareness survey	4th, 5th, 6th   classes	March 2012 March 2013	√
Invite our local MEP to our school	Mr Fahy, Miss Maher	2013	Awaiting date from Mr Crowley
Turn off the urinals every evening	Mr Fahy, Miss Daly	November 2012	√

 

Our Water Use

 

 

Day of Action

 

Three of our boys attended a day of action for Global Citizenship in the Silver Springs Hotel

On Wednesday November 17^th 2012, Ryan McCann, Liam Connolly and Ethan Berkery-Kelly, along with Miss Maher, went to the Convention Centre in The Silver Springs Hotel to talk about the Green Schools Action Day.

When we arrived at the Convention Centre there was a man dressed up as planet earth.  This was to highlight all the different Green Schools Programmes taking place in Ireland and around the world.  We had our picture taken with him.  He led us to a room where everyone taking part was showing their presentations. Most of them were about conserving water, others were about peace in the world and some concerned pollution and climate change in the Arctic Circle.  We learned that 70% of the world’s water is salt water, and 30% of that water is fresh water.  We also learned that Asia is the most densely populated part of the world with the least amount of food.  North America has the most food but the least number of people to eat it. 

The group then played a game called ‘Just Food Café’.  This was really fun because everyone was given a topic and you had to comment on what was fair and unfair about it.  There was a picture of an African baby with no food who was starving.  We all agreed that this was sad and wrong.  There was also a cartoon of a man with lots of junk food which we thought was very unfair to the African child.  We talked about Fair Trade and how important it is.

The second topic was a picture of a pig farmer and we agreed that his type of farming which was ‘free range’ was a good thing because instead of cooping the pigs up in cages, they got to run around and have a nice life.

After this we wandered around looking at the stations in the room where you could do lots of cool and interesting things.  It was nice to talk to children from other schools.  Our favourite station was an animation station where you could make your own messages and animate them.  We did a ‘Stop Pollution-Enjoy Food’ message which was animated and then shown at the end of the convention.  We also sent a postcard to the president of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, about the need for people to buy local food as it would cut down on pollution from trucks and cargo planes used to transport foreign foods to Ireland.

All in all we had a great day and one we will remember!

by Ethan Berkery-Kelly, Liam Connolly and Ryan McCann

 

The President of Ireland and Queen of England both wrote us back letters in response to the postcards we sent on the day.

 

 

 

 

Postcard Competition

 

Four of our boys won the Global Citizenship postcard competition.  Their winning postcards were printed like real postcards for them to keep!

 

 

Ballinreeshig Farm

 

Four of our boys attended a tree planning event in the Green Schools Woodland on Ballinreeshig Farm

On 20^th March 2012, Jay Kelly, Jack Kavanagh-Horgan, Michael Toomey and Harry O’Connell travelled to Ballinreeshig Farm near Ballygarvan with Miss Maher for a tree planting event.  When we arrived we put on our wellies.  William and Dan brought us to a field to do a nature hunt where we found everything on the list like medicine, poison, shelter, berries, fresh water, something to start a fire and something to eat.  Then we went to a place where people lived over hundreds of years ago.  We played a game called bats and midges.  After this we went to look for rabbits.  We had to move really quietly and slowly so they couldn’t hear us coming.  We saw two rabbits in the field.  Next we went on a walk through a forest with lots of briars and trees we had to climb over and under.  We had to make a shelter in the forest for a fairy.  We went back to the camp fire where it was time for lunch.  William taught us how to start a fire using a piece of wood and some metal.

When we were finished lunch, and were warmed up from the fire, we went to plant the trees.  We planted the last 200 hundred out of 2000 trees in the area.  Some of the schools had to leave then but we stayed and planted the last tree.  It was a great day out.

by Jay Kelly, Jack Kavanagh-Horgan and Michael Toomey

 

Green Code

by James Coakley and Liam O’Flynn (1st class)