Amber Flag
lisa ward
Well-Being Week

green schools

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Minibeast Hunting in 1st class

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Today 1st class made the most of the weather and got outside to do some minibeast hunting. The children worked in groups to see if there were any spiders, insects or other creepy crawlies on the school grounds. We used magnifying glasses to find the minibeasts, the best place we found was under rocks and pieces of wood. We used pooters and magnifying pots to collect them. It was great fun! We collected so many worms, woodlice, millipedes (these were really really fast!), centipedes, spiders, ants and ladybirds. We then gave them some food in the form of leaves and places to hide under rocks and soil. Take a look at our pictures below.

With the help of the magnifying boxes, we were able to view our minibeasts in great detail. When we got back into the class we viewed what we had collected and drew some really detailed pictures before releasing them back into nature again.

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Biodiversity day in Nuns Cross

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Today we were visited by the lovely Mairead today who took us on a trail of the school grounds in search of minibeasts. We had great fun searching for minibeasts and we couldn’t believe our eyes with the variety of insects we discovered. Have a look below.

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New Raised Bed

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We are delighted the first addition to the front part of our garden as part of our over plan to make it a sensory garden for our school.

At Nun’s Cross. we are fully inclusive and it is important for us to ensure that all our children are able to fully enjoy all aspects of school. For some children, running around, playing ball games and being loud with their friends is not their idea of enjoyable playtime. This space will serve as a quieter space for children to spend their outdoor time in a calm space, away from the fast running and loud noises of traditional playtime.

This colourful raised bed has been filled with beautiful flowers which will continue to bloom over the coming month as we add more to this area of our playground. It will help us to keep this area of the playground at a slower and quieter pace than the rest of the outdoor space. We would like to thank all of the parents who contributed to the fundraising efforts last year in order to enhance our outdoor area and we are excited for the rest of the additions to come! Bi thank you, also, to our amazing PTA, without whose efforts none of this would be possible!

Bird Friendly Garden

We absolutely love our school garden and we love all the wildlife we share it with too! From frogs in our pond to bird and bat boxes around the school grounds we enjoy all the opportunities we can to help look after our wildlife friends! This week we were delighted to have the addition of bird feeders to the garden. Ellie, who is a keen garden bird fan, was the instigator in this addition and she very generously donated a large number of feeders and nut free bird food. All of the feeders have been carefully placed around the school grounds and filled with yummy treats for our small friends to enjoy! Watch out if you’re in the garden to see what birds you might spot at the feeders!

Green-School Awards Ceremony

On Tuesday 5th October, the staff and students of Nun’s Cross were delighted to have the opportunity to attend a virtual award ceremony for our SIXTH Green Flag.

The children on the committee, with the help of everyone in the school community, were very excited to be involved in earning the Green Flag for Global Citizenship: Litter and Waste. We enjoyed watching the ceremony and looking out for any mentions of our school. We enjoyed joining in with the live interactive elements, sending our responses to different questions in, and seeing them appear on the screen. The organisers kept us waiting while announcing all the different schools who had earned flags, but being the second last school mentioned meant that we gave an even louder cheer.

A huge congratulations and thank you to all involved in earning this flag. We look forward to begin working towards our seventh flag which will be for Global Citizenship: Energy.

World Bee Day

We had lots of fun celebrating World Bee Day on Thursday 20th May. The rain couldn’t stop us exploring the world of bees and completing so many un-BEE-lievable activities.

BEE-autiful Writing

Many classes decided to use bees as a stimulus for writing. Junior infants wrote some fantastic sentences based on a bee picture. Senior infants created some exciting acrostic poems about bees. 1st and 2nd class spend the morning learning about different bees and the lifecycle of bees before writing their own pieces about bees. 3rd class learnt lots of bee facts too and displayed them like a huge honeycomb. 

Buzzing about our Pictures

We had lots of bee artwork created throughout the school. We have some incredible artists in the school who blew us away with their creations.


Yummy Honey

1st and 2nd class became honey connoisseurs for the afternoon tasting and comparing 2 types of honey. They used their sense of smell, sight and taste to differentiate between the brands and some of the children had a clear favourite. We were spoilt to even have a piece of honeycomb brought into us on Friday.

New Additions to our Green-Schools Flagpole

In Nun’s Cross, we are delighted to be a Green-School and fly our green flag with great pride at the front on the school.

We are currently working towards our sixth green flag, but we thought it was very important to acknowledge the great effort that has gone into achieving our 5 previous flags.

As soon as we came across the pennant flags, we knew that they would be a brilliant addition to help show the great achievements we have had in the Green-Schools programme to date. Each pennant represents one of the Green-Schools themes that we have completed.

Green: Litter and Waste

Yellow: Energy

Blue: Water

Maroon: Travel

Mint: Biodiversity

 

We are going to continue working hard over the remainder of this school year and will hope to continue the success and add another pennant to our flagpole.

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Green-Schools Remote Day of Action

This year Nun’s Cross National School held a remote day of action which was organised by the Green-Schools Committee. We are currently working towards our 6th Green Flag and decided to use this lockdown as an opportunity to take action in protecting our planet and to learn about our role as global citizens.

 On 11th February, the school community took action from their own homes. The children and their families chose activities that interested them most. We had many families go on recycling and Fairtrade symbol scavenger hunts, and others noticed the save water symbol so added that to their scavenger hunt. It was amazing to see all of the different items that can be recycled and very interesting to learn about the different Fairtrade products that we might have in our homes.

Other families decided that with the cold weather approaching, it would be a good time to build bird houses, bird feeders and bug hotels. Others used this opportunity as a reminder to refill their bird feeders. Some families managed to take photos of the birds exploring their new bird feeders.


 Another activity that many families took part in was creating recycled crafts or fashion. We had old tops being upcycled into bags, hair bands and chicken clothes, while others turned recyclable materials into castles, monsters and so much more. We even had someone upcycle a chair into a table.

We had litter pick-ups around our local areas which gave us some very surprising and sad findings in some cases. We had some very full bags of rubbish after tidying a small area which was a bit upsetting, but we are glad to know that the waste has been disposed of properly now. We even had members of the school community sending messages out to their family to pick up any rubbish they might see when walking. As global citizens, it is very important to know that our actions can have an impact on others and an action like this can have a positive impact on the environment.

We had lots of fun on our day of action, but we will remember that every day is a day that we can take action in caring for our planet.

Thank you to everyone who was involved and sent in the wonderful photos.

Cleaning the Pond

The Green-Schools Committee has been very busy the last two Fridays cleaning out our pond.

Each year we need to spend some time cleaning out the weeds, leaves, PE equipment and much more from the pond to make space for the frogs who will return in the new year to lay their frogspawn.

It was cold and muddy, but we had a lot of fun. Our new members from 1st and 2nd class enjoyed joining the committee for the first time this year and being allowed walk in the pond.

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Spring has sprung at Nuns Cross NS

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On our return from mid term, spring was most definitely in the air. We noticed lots of changes around our yard and gardens. Most notably we noticed that our pond was inhabited with loads of frog spawn. We also noticed bright yellow daffodils and a number of other flowers starting to open up.

24 Hours of Reality Climate Presentation for 3rd-6th Class

 

On November 21st, Raoul Empey, father of Thibaud and Marius, joined former US Vice President Al Gore and The Climate Reality Project for 24 Hours of Reality: Truth in Action, a global conversation about the climate crisis and its solutions in communities around the world.

For one full day, Vice President Gore and members of Climate Reality’s network of more than 20,000 Climate Reality Leaders from 154 countries participated by sharing the presentation first made famous by the Academy Award-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, in their own communities across the globe. 

Over 1,000 Climate Reality Leaders presented across the globe in community centres, places of worship, homes, schools, businesses, and even on social media. Climate Reality Leaders put truth into action and brought the hopeful message about today’s climate solutions directly to their friends, family, and neighbours.

As a trained Climate Reality Leader, Raoul Empey, presented to the older students in 3rd-6th Class, with the hope of inspiring local action. The children will also have the opportunity at a later date to participate in planting some trees in a local Native Woodlands Scheme in Ashford, as well as spur meaningful action under the school’s green flag.

Raoul’s presentation focused on the local impacts and solutions of the climate crisis in Ireland, especially as they relate to our children. It was thoroughly enjoyed by all the students and very inspirational.

“I have two environmentally minded boys at Nuns Cross, Thibaud aged 10 and Marius aged 8. Naturally I am concerned for their future and that of their friends in a heated world. The scientists and politicians have been speaking about climate change since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 – that’s nearly 30 years – to little effect. Compare what children like Greta Thunberg have done in one year under the school climate strike movement Fridays for Future. Climate change is happening now, and it is their future we are talking about.”

“Millions of people around the world are fed up and demanding urgent action on the climate crisis,” said Al Gore. “The tide is turning, thanks to dedicated activists speaking truth to power every day – including the tireless work of more than 20,000 highly trained and dedicated Climate Reality Leaders. I’m thrilled that this year’s 24 Hours will lift up the voices of the inspiring people carrying the climate movement on their shoulders, and I’m honored to join them for this exciting day of grassroots action and education.”

Those who attend the presentations have the option to have a tree planted on their behalf through a collaboration between The Climate Reality Project and One Tree Planted.

 

 

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Climate Action Week in Nuns Cross

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Over the past couple of weeks our Green Schools Committee have been promoting Climate Action Week in our school. As part of this, students were tasked with writing some climate action poems which were read out at assembly this morning. Take a look at our class winners below…

I think it is fair to say that the world and our futures are in great hands!

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10 Ways to help pollinators

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All classes were visited by two very responsible students who attended the Bee Festival in Ashford this weekend. They took some information leaflets for our school and gave a very informative talk on how we can all do our bit to help pollinators in our environment. There are some very easy ways in which we can all do our bit to help - how will you help?

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Green Schools

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New Green Flag

The green schools committee were delighted to show the rest of the school our new green flag! Well done to the committee, Ms Heaphy and all the children for their continued commitment to biodiversity in our school.

Green School Award Ceremony

On Wednesday 22nd May, 3 representatives from the Green School Committee travelled to the Helix in DCU for the Green School Award Ceremony. There were over 60 schools represented with a total of 81 flags presented this year for different Green School categories.

Nun’s Cross were working towards the biodiversity flag, the fifth in the Green School series.

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It was an engaging and inspiring day with speakers from Irish Water and Climate Change ambassadors who spoke of their desire to encourage and inspire each person to make a change no matter how small. This was a powerful message reiterated many times throughout the ceremony – one person really can make a difference and through communication we can make these impacts even bigger by working together.

It was interesting to see what other schools have achieved for their flags and it has given us some ideas as we begin working towards the Global Citizenship flag.

International Bee Day

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International Bee Day took place this week and 5th and 6th class discovered just how important bees are to us. We worked together to make a collaborative bee display and designed some important notices to help people learn why bees are important to us and to help people learn how to save bees.

Nun’s Cross are going plastic free

Exciting news – Nun’s Cross is going plastic free and to tell you more we have Elsa and Noah from our Green Schools Committee:

Nun’s Cross has decided to become a plastic free school because it is better for the environment. 5th and 6th class went on beach clean recently and we collected a disgusting amount of plastic. We were horrified at the large amount of waste on our local beach and thought if the school went plastic free it would help our environment.

To become a plastic free school, we have 3 asks:

  1. We ask that all children have reusable water bottles/drink bottles. 60 million plastic drink bottles end up in landfill everyday around the world. Using reusable bottles will dramatically improve this.

  2. No plastic in lunch boxes. Don’t add plastic such as cling film to items in lunch boxes, you could use bees wax paper instead!

  3. Don’t use plastic straws! If you really have to have a straw use paper or bamboo ones instead!

We hope that by following these 3 asks, the school will have a huge reduction in plastic waste which will help the environment for all of us

Beach Clean Up!

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A few weeks ago Nun’s Cross signed up with The National Spring Clean and we received some bin bags, gloves and hi-vis vests. Today 5th and 6th class, along with some of their teachers, took part in a beach clean up along a 5km stretch from Killoughter to Wicklow Town. Our aim was to help improve our environment and protect the wildlife in the area from being harmed by litter making its way into their habitats.

Our access to the beach ended up being off road so we warmed our legs up with a nice long walk before beginning our task.

We set ourselves up into groups and we set off along the beach equipped with litter pickers, bin bags and tally charts to catalogue all the litter we collected.

We worked hard and unfortunately we found lots of things to be collected – mainly plastics, which are not biodegradable and can have devastating effects on sea life! We collected as much as we could, although some of our bags got full and others gave way to the heavy load!

We left a huge pile of rubbish for the County Council to collect, but this is all rubbish that will not end up in the sea or in the mouths of wildlife!

The owners at The Brass Fox very kindly allowed us to use their toilets and wash our hands before we had a picnic lunch on the green outside their premises. And they went one step further and treated all the children to hot chocolate to reward them for their efforts. We all agreed that is was the nicest hot chocolate we have ever had! Huge thanks to the Brass Fox for ending our day on such a positive note, a whole community working together to make our planet cleaner for all!

After our litter pick, and using our tally sheets, we categorised everything we collected into a variety of material types and then analysed our results.

Our most common material, by far, was plastic. We found some odd materials too like spray paint cans, barbecue grills and a large door hinge. We found that all of our waste was collected on the Killoughter end of the beach, with very little waste being found towards the Murrough end of the stretch. We concluded that this is likely to be because, even though the Wicklow end of the beach has much heavier people traffic, it also has more people looking after it through the likes of The Tidy Towns Committee and kind hearted local residents and has bins for people to dispose of their rubbish. We also spoke about how litter can travel down the length of the beach and would have much less of a chance of being collected and disposed of correctly due to the lack of people that far down the beach and lack of bins for litter to be disposed of correctly.

We are delighted to see all that we collected and think about how we have helped to prevent it ending up in the oceans and harming wildlife

Biodiversity talk by Tom Gallagher

The children in Nun’s Cross had a real treat this week with a visit from Tom Gallagher who is an expert in all things biodiversity, with a special interest in birds and plants. He told us lots of interesting facts about the plants and animals living in our school garden and in our local area and we picked up loads of tips on how we can help support biodiversity in school and at home.

Did you know:

  1. The sound of the Hummingbird Moth can only be heard by women!

  2. The swift bird fly’s non-stop for three whole years, never landing once. It eats, sleeps and drinks while flying!

  3. In one fistful of soil, there is up to 10,000,000,000,000 micro creatures which are responsible for all things that grow!

  4. A dragon fly has 1,500 lenses in each eye. It can see 360 degrees, can fly forwards and backwards and hover!

  5. Woodpeckers have not lived in Ireland for many years but have recently returned and are now living in Wicklow!

A huge thanks to Tom for coming in and sharing some of his knowledge with us!

Biodiversity Action Day in Nun’s Cross

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The weather looked a bit shaky but that didn’t  dampen the children’s enthusiasm for our day of work in the school garden.

Following on from our fund raising cake sale, each class was given a job or task in the garden. All the jobs had the same end result, improving our schools biodiversity which is our aim for our new Green Schools Flag.

We all worked in various areas. We under took the mammoth task of refreshing all the wood work in our school garden in order to help brighten up the environment. The children did a great job and worked really hard.

Junior and Senior Infants planted wildflowers and bulbs in a new flower bed at the edge of the school ‘forest’. The topsoil was kindly donated by a parent.  We also undertook some planting in order to create a wild flower area to help protect bees and other insects which love all the colourful flowers which will grow here over the spring and summer seasons.

And not forgetting out flying friends! We have been so delighted with the amazing contribution from parents and local community organisations such at Ashford Tidy Towns who have donated over 20 bird and bat boxes of all kinds. The children added some colour to them and we are very grateful to a parent volunteer for offering his time to put them all into the tress around our school. We cant wait to spot some birds making them their home! 1st and 2nd class were in charge of painting these.

Another area were jobs to help look after the insects in our garden. The bug hotel got a make over and I am sure all our little critters will be much more comfortable in their refurbished home! We also added an additional bug hotel, we are sure they will love the colours! The children in 3rd and 4th class each brought in something for the existing bug hotel and repainted it also.

5th and 6th class made sure that the pond was sufficiently clear of weeds for the frogspawn to continue their cycle as well as painting the fences, flower pots, PE shed and buddy bench that are in the school garden.

Another area were jobs to help look after the insects in our garden. The bug hotel got a make over and I am sure all our little critters will be much more comfortable in their refurbished home! We also added an additional bug hotel, we are sure they will love the colours!

We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has made this day possible, in any way. And all of the work wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work of all the children. We are sure you will all agree that they have done a 5 star job!