This article is from page 24 of the 2006-06-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 24 JPG
THE students of Scoil Chriost Rí Cloughleigh were celebrating this week when their Green Flag status was honoured with a flag raising ceremony on Tuesday last. Among those in attendance at the celebrations were Senator Timmy Dooley, Mayor of Clare, Pat Keane, Mayor of Ennis, Frankie Neylon and Bishop Willie Walsh.
The Green Flag, an internationally recognised status, is awarded by An Taisce to schools who undertake the Green-Schools programme. The Green-Schools programme is an international environmental education programme, which promotes awareness of environmental issues for primary and secondary school students. It aims to help students apply what they have learned about environmental awareness to their day-to-day lives, both at school and in their own homes.
The students of Scoil Chriost Rí Cloughleigh gained this presitigous status by successfully completing a seven-step progamme, through spearheading a recycling campaign with the aim of reducing waste produced by the school. This included recycling tetrapak cartons, batteries and printer cartidges as well as finding imaginative uses for their litter. The school not only makes regular trips to the recycling centre in Ennis and the landfill facility at Ballyduffbeg, Inagh, but they also publish a newsletter to raise awareness of environmental issues in their community.
Teacher Connor Healy said that “the award was down to all the hard work put in by the children over the past two years. They put in a massive effort.”
To date 2,300 school have participated in the programme, while 900 have already been awarded the Green Flag status.