October 2012

• Informed the PA committee about Green schools and Biodiversity.
• The Green Schools co-ordinator Fiona Lang gave a short talk at the AGM on Green schools and introduced our new theme of Biodiversity. Dr Paul Kelly then gave a presentation on Biodiversity and how it affects us.
• Registered with ‘One Million Trees in a Day’ project to get a native Irish tree for our school grounds

November 2012

• A Biodiversity Awareness survey was sent out to staff and students to assess the school’s knowledge of Biodiversity and our environment
• Dr Paul Kelly visited the school and gave a talk on Biodiversity to a number of classes.
• Informed the staff of the Biodiversity theme.
• Collected the awareness surveys and examined the results.

January 2013

• In January the Green Schools committee was set up 
• We set up our new Green schools noticeboard and informed the whole school of our new theme.
• Jim Callery, the Wicklow environmental officer visited the green school committee and gave us some great tips on how to increase Biodiversity in our school grounds.

February 2013

• Niall Hatch from BirdWatch Ireland gave a talk on identifying birds in our school grounds.
• St. Brigid’s became a member of BirdWatch Ireland.
• A team from the Wicklow Mountain National Park came to the school and gave talks on Biodiversity.
• Green schools wrote an article for the school newsletter to let staff, students and parents know what our new theme was all about.
• The Gardening club was set up and we created a new school garden.

March 2013

• We made a Habitat map of our school grounds.
• Ms. O’Malley’s 4th class did an amazing environmental project called on ‘Our Future 2020’ which includes work on composting and recycling, energy and water conservation and much more. They won the People’s Choice Award for Improving the Environment at the ECO-UNESCO young environmentalists.

April  2013

• The Green school wardens were elected.
• We set up our Green schools blog.
• Together with Greystones Tidy Towns, we participated in An Taisce’s national spring clean event by cleaning up the South beach in Greystones.

May 2012

• Ms. Beausang’s 2nd class did great work on biodiversity and food chains.
• We had a field trip to Kilruddery Farm and Gardens where we went on a Bug Hunt and found loads of mini-beasts. We also learnt about the birds and animals in the woods. We had great fun in the farm feeding the chickens, petting the lambs and learning about all the animals.
• We made posters on ‘What Biodiversity means to me’. They are available to view on our blog and on the Green Schools noticeboard.
• May 22nd is International Biodiversity day so we are having a Biodiversity Action Day!
• Here are some of things that we did on our Biodiversity Action Day: Bird boxes, feeders and tables. Bee homes, butterfly & lacewing houses. Insect hotels and log piles. Organic garden, a native Irish wildflower patch, fruit garden and a scented garden for the bees and butterflies.

June 2013

• We watered our new garden and checked to see if our seeds are growing.
• We filled the bird feeders and watched all the new bird visitors to our yard.
• We checked our scented flower and wildflower patches for any insect visitors.
• We had our Bike Week Competition. Everyone who cycled to school during bike week was entered into a raffle to win a bike. We had two lucky winners – one from the junior classes and one from the senior classes.
• Summer holidays!

August 2013

• Building work started in the school grounds. We will monitor the effect this has on the Biodiversity.
• Back to school! We need to teach our new Junior Infants all about Green schools.

September 2013

• The Green schools committee had its first meeting of the new year and welcomed new members.
• A class in Belgium contacted us and sent us posters showing us their green work and how it compared to the work we do in our school in Greystones.
• New wardens were elected for Litter, Compost, Energy, Garden, Water, Travel, Birds and Insect monitoring.
• We examined the fruits of our labour from the vegetable patch and checked to see how our garden grew over the summer holidays.
• A class in Australlia contacted our blog and told us that they were very impressed with our green work.

October 2013

• We chose our Biodiversity mascot and named her Brigid the Biodiversity Bee.
• Brigid the bee made a video of her visit to the school. She will visit every classroom to see their green school work.
• We learnt all about bees and how important they are for the environment.
• Our guest blogger, Jessica Wang, told us how to make the garden into a biology class.
• The green team made a ladybird home and a bird feeder out of recyclable materials.
• We set up a new leaf pile and mini-beast hotel for the insects.
• A competition was held for the whole school to find our Green Code for Biodiversity.
• St. Brigids were awarded a Water Box from Veolia Ireland for our Green school work.
• We participated in ‘Eat Local’ Day with our Belgian friends. We learnt all about food miles and how it is better to eat local fruit and vegetables in season.

 

November 2013

• We held a ‘Less Waste’ Day with our Belgian friends and learnt all about repairing, reducing, reusing and recycling.
• We examined the effect of the building work on the biodiversity of our school grounds.
• The school did a fund-raising event for the Typhoon in the Philippines and we learnt all about climate change.
• We had a visit from our local Pharmacist who told us all about disposing of medical waste safely so that it does not affect us or our environment.

December 2013

• The whole school made Recycled Christmas decorations for the Wicklow County Council competition.
• As part of the Heritage in Schools scheme, Eric Dempsey, a leading bird expert came to the school and gave talks to a number of classes on Birds and Biodiversity.
• The Green Team did the second Habitat map of the school grounds to show how we have tried to increase biodiversity in our local environment.

January 2014

• The school adopted an endangered species, the Snow Leopard, from Dublin Zoo to tie in with our Green code ‘ Don’t let species go extinct, in this world we are all linked.
• We arranged a date for our renewal visit from An Taisce. The inspector will visit the school on Thursday 27th February to find out what we know about biodiversity.
• Staff and students completed the second Biodiversity Awareness Survey. We will compare the results from our first survey in 2012 with our latest survey results to see how much the whole school has learnt about biodiversity.
• We learnt about Ireland’s protected areas – National Parks, SACs, SPAs and NHAs.
• The Green team planted an Apple Tree in our school garden. We hope this will attract more insects and birds to our school grounds.
• Michael, our caretaker, put up our new Bat box. We are looking forward to bats taking up residence in their new home.
• We had a Snow Leopard Project competition. The winner received a day pass to Dublin Zoo and a cuddly Qiemo snow leopard.
• The Green team carried out a checklist survey of each classroom to ensure that all signage was up and visible to remind students to stay green.

February 2014

• Ms. Caffrey’s 6th class analysed the results of our Biodiversity awareness surveys from 2012 and 2014. They produced pie charts to show how well we have all done.
• All the classes are learning about Species and their Habitats e.g. Owls, Penguins, Pandas, Irish mammals, etc. 
• We discovered that Ireland had aliens or invasive species and how they threatening our native habitats and species e.g Grey Squirrel.
• Our Pollination station was set up.
• Ms. Teehan’s class are finding out about our local Blue Flag beach in Greystones.
• Thanks to Qiemo, the whole school is discovering what local, national and international species are endangered.
•  We are getting ready for our Renewal visit from the Environmental officer to assess the school for our green flag. We have been busy little bees 😉

March 2014

• Polly the polar bear from St. Peter’s N.S in Bray and Brigid the biodiversity bee work together to teach the schools about threatened and endangered species.