Breaking News! We have been awarded our Green Flag! Flag was presented on the 26th of May in Athlone!! Well done to the Green Schools Committee!

 

Our school was opened in 2009 after relocating a short distance from the old school in the village. This school served the community well for over 50 years, but as the numbers increased the decision was made to relocate to a larger site off the main road. We are now very fortunate to have a state of the art school with lots of space for learning and playing. We are currently a 5 teacher school with fulltime Learning support teacher and Resource teacher. On account of our school being a new build we are lucky enough to have all the new modern fittings and fixtures in place that help with modern day environmental issues. Our school is easy to heat with its modern grass roof. It has the latest in lighting that uses very little energy as it will brighten or dims according to the light outside.

 

In September 2013 we a started work on our new theme; Water. Although we are fortunate enough to have a modern school we did eventually discover areas where water could be conserved. Big changes would have to be made! The first step to be taken was the forming of a Green Schools Committee. Our committees are mostly formed with pupils from the fifth and sixth class room and committee members have come and gone in this period due to pupils moving on to secondary school. The starting committee in 2013 were, Marcus Feeney, Aisling O Connor, Hannah O Dowd, Caoimhe O Dowd, Shane Beirne, Paul Molloy, Cuan Feely and Ellis Conway. We want to thank these committee members for the work they did. Hopefully they will be able to come back for the raising of our third green flag!

The current Green schools committee are as follows: Mary Collins, Katelyn Gannon, Rhys Gannon, Tommy Beirne, Conan Fitzpatrick, Nessa Flynn, Leanne O Dowd, Sophia O Dowd, Daragh O Beirne, Phelim Flynn, Kirsty Mc Henry and Conor Creighton.

 

Environmental Review

In 2013 the committee carried out an environmental review of the school. This review was aimed mostly at water conservation and what we could find as weaknesses or areas for improvement in our school. We also took the opportunity to review the work being carried out around the school as regards the previous themes which had taken part in. These areas being Litter And Waste and Energy. We drew up an environmental review sheet to use and committee members broke up into groups to visit all the classrooms around the school. An example of the environmental sheet is as follows:

A Green Schools Classroom Environmental Review    Room:    _________

1.      Did you identify any leaks in the toilets?          ____________

2.      Did you identify any leaks in the toilet sink?    ____________

3.      Were there any taps running?                              ____________

4.      Is there any evidence of the classroom sink leaking? _______

5.      Was the classroom sink  running?                    ____________

6.      Are there three bins in the classroom?  ________________

7.      Are the bins being used correctly?   ___________________

8.      Were the lights on in the bathroom?  __________________

9.      Were the lights on in the classroom?   __________________

10.    Were there electrical appliances left on? __________

 

The environmental review was useful for showing areas we needed to improve as regards water usage around the school but it also highlighted areas for improvement on previous themes covered. No leaks were found in the school on carrying out the environmental review but two taps were found to be running. Also some lights and appliances were found to be on when they could have been switched off as well as bins that were being used incorrectly. The environmental review was important if we were to have an action plan for the school in order to obtain a third green flag and also to maintain the good work we had already carried out in order get our first two green flags.

 Carrying out a leak test

The most important part of the environmental review was to make sure that we did not have any leaks in the school. Although our school is new and we were not expecting to find any leaks it was important that we carried out this test. Firstly we had to find where the school meter was for our school. On investigation with our class teacher and schools co-ordinator Mr. Kelleher, we found the main pipe running into the school but no water meter existed. This would have explained why we were getting no water bills..!! Mr. Kelleher spoke to Ms. Parker in Roscommon CO. Co. at a Green Schools Seminar and she said that she would send out the men from the water division of Roscommon Co.Co. to take a look and to fit a meter.

On the 24th of November 2013, the meter was fitted to our school water line. As a result of this being done we would now be able to conduct a leak test. We took a look at the Green Schools website in order to find out how to do this. Basically we had to read the meter in school when everybody was gone home and read it again before school opened the following morning. If the meter had not changed we would know we had no leak. We read the meter on the 3rd of December and then the following morning on the 4th of December. We noticed we had some sort of a leak. There seemed to be water being used while we were at home. Mr. Kelleher asked us to think about it but we could not give any reason for the problem. It turned out that the urinals in the toilets would have been using water while the school was closed. Also the cleaner for our school would have used water in the cleaning of the school as well as flush the toilets after cleaning. It was decided that the only way we would get an accurate reading would be if we turned off the water in the urinals. It also got us thinking straight away about the water being wasted during the night. We postponed our leak test at this time.

Removal of urinals

After carrying out our first leak test it bought a different problem to light and this was the amount of water being used by the urinals, particularly when there was nobody in the school. We decided that it would be a good idea to install a device on each urinal in the school to turn off the water on each system when the school was closed. One shut off valve was installed in the boy’s toilet between Ms. O Hagan’s room and Mr. Kelleher’s room at the time. The shut off valve was turned off after school one evening, but it was not a success as it flooded the bathroom overnight. The decision was then taken by the Principal Ms. Gannon and the Green Schools committee to remove all the urinals altogether. This was a big decision but seeing that each boy’s bathroom in the school had another ordinary toilet in every classroom and that only one person is allowed to the toilet at anytime, it made sense to remove them. Ms. Gannon kindly got a plumber in one weekend and he removed them all. This was to be the turning point in our school campaign to reduce our water usage.

 Leak test part 2

After we removed the urinals, Mr. Kelleher thought that we now might get a much more accurate reading from our leak test. Two weeks after we removed the urinals we carried out a leak test again. We read the meter after school and again in the morning before school began. This time, no water had been used apart from a few litres which were used by the cleaner that evening to clean the school. We now knew we were not losing any water.

School audit to check for external leaks

In order to make sure that we had no leaking taps or sinks we carried out an audit of our school. The results were good with no leaks reported. One of the hardest items to audit though is the toilet. A toilet can be constantly dumping water into the bowl without us knowing it. Usually a small adjustment can fix this. In order to find if a toilet is leaking we needed to use food colouring. We put the food colouring into the cistern before school ended and left it there during the night. We chose black as our colour as this would show up easily. It was exciting to see what was going to happen. If the toilet had a small leak the black food colouring would be in the toilet bowl the following morning when school opened. We checked the toilets to see if there was any black water but the water was clear. Again this was a good result and also a good experiment. Anybody could use this test at home to see if toilets are leaking. Most houses would have food colouring in the baking press..!!

Harmful substances to the environment

During Geography and Science lessons in class we often learn about the various ways water can be polluted. Many famers put fertilisers and slurry on the land that can have harmful side effects for our rivers, lakes and water tables. Also pollution from big factories can kill the fish in our rivers. Sometimes we forget that we can do more in our homes to help reduce pollution in our river, stream and lakes. Every day we use chemicals and pollutants in our homes that we could avoid. It was decided in our class that we would have a go at making our own toilet cleaner for the toilets in our school. We consulted YouTube for some ideas and soon we learned how we could make some of our cool cleaning agents. We got a plastic bottle and filled it with some water. We added some lemon juice for a nice aroma, some baking powder for cleaning power and a few drops of vinegar. All these additives are a lot less harmful to the environment than some of the cleaning agents we buy in our shops. We christened our new cleaning agent, “Croghan Bang”!! Anyone can do it. And it is a lot cheaper than what you buy in shops.

How much water do we use in class?

The Greens schools committee decided to carry out a survey to see how much water we would typically use in our class in a day. Firstly we had to determine how much water we use in our toilet every time we flush the toilet. It was discovered when we measure the water in our cistern that it holds 6 litres of water. The toilets in the senior rooms are ordinary toilets and are not fitted with water saving flush, where as all the other toilets in the school are. There is a big flush and a small flush. Firstly we installed hippo bags to reduce the water being in our cisterns. This reduced the water by three litres on each flush and the toilet still worked fine. So every time we flush we use three litres of water. We also measured how much water we use when we wash our hands. We did this by measuring how many times one pupils pushed the tap in order to wash their hand thoroughly. We then filled a jug using the same amount of pushes. It worked out at 800ml for a proper hand wash.

 

To carry out the survey we made two record sheets and put them up for a day beside our bathroom. Every time somebody used the toilet and washed their hands they had to tick the sheet. This gave us a very good idea of the amount of water we were using in a day. The toilet was used 23 times which is 23×3 litres. This came to 69 litres. It could have been 138 litres if we were not using hippo bags. This is saving of nearly 70 litres of water which is very good. The sink was used 24 times for washing hands. This came to 17.6 litres. This means that an average classroom would use about 86 litres of water. For thirty people in one room, we considered this quite good.  The use of the hippo bag is amazing. If we save 70 litres a day, that means we can save 350 litres a week. There are 38 school weeks, 38 x 350 is 13300 litres in a school year. If we times that by 5 classrooms, it is a saving of 66,500 litres without us even noticing. From very small adjustments we could make very big savings.

 

How have we reduced our water usage to date?

Our first water meter reading from Veolia was sent to us on the 19th of February 2013. It was for an 82 day period. In this period we used 167000 litres. This worked out at 2036 litres per day which worked out with the amount of people in the school at the time as 27.5 litres per person. After this we had the urinals removed so we were expecting to see many different changes to our water usage. As well this, our school pupils were aware of the task in hand of reducing water and everyone was more careful about leaving taps on and wasting water.

Our next bill was for a period of 93 days was received on the 22nd of May 2013. Our usage was down to 134000 litres. This was a reduction 33000 litres for a longer period of time. We now had our school working at 1440 litres per day which worked out at 19.4 litres of water per person. The next period was for 77 days and we were now down to 1311 litres of water per day. This meant that each person was using 17.8 litres per day. We maintained this for the next bill period and in January 2014 we make a further improvement of getting water usage down to 13.1 litres per person. By the 10th of April 2014 we were down to 11.5 litres of water per person but our next bill period brought a few surprises. Our water usage went back to a very high level. We were using 22.05 per person which was bringing us back to where we started in 2013. We called a meeting straight away to determine the problem. A leak test was carried out but no leak was found. No toilets or sinks were identified as leaking in our school at the time. After further discussions we discovered a few different activities that made our usage go up. During the period we had a visit from our local fire brigade as part of an action day to show the importance of good water supply. As a result the fire brigade used a lot of water doing demonstrations with all the pupils in school. Also we had added an additional classroom to our school due to rising numbers and the builders were working in the school for three months. They used a lot of water during the building period. As we were into the summer period a lot extra water was being used to water the plants in the poly tunnel. And finally we now had an extra classroom where additional toilets and sinks were now working and using water. An additional bathroom had also been added to Ms. O Hagan’s room bringing water usage up also. With all this in mind, we were determined to reduce water usage for our next period and were rewarded on the 18th of November when for our longest bill period to date of 127 days we only used 98000 litres. This was our lowest ever. It worked out at 771 litres of water per day which worked out at 9.75 litres of water per person.

Our teacher looked up what we should be using according to Department of Education guidelines and we were very happy with what he found out. The Dept. recommends that 19.1 litres of water per person in schools would be considered a reasonable amount of water and good practice and that 11.5 litres would be considered extremely good. We are now down to 9.74 litres of water per person which means that we are well below extremely good practice. We were all delighted with the good news. Our Green schools water campaign was working. We had reduced our water usage by 2/3’s. This was a huge saving in treated water and a huge saving for our board of management.

 

Green School Code

Our Green code was decided with the help of our committee and a vote from the pupils. Pupils in the school were asked to come up with a slogan for the theme “Water”. Once the slogans had been made up the pupils were given the chance to vote on the slogan in order to pick one. The Green school code is:

 

TURN OFF THE HOSE OR THE GREEN FLAG GOES!