After been awarded the flag on the 20th of May, last Wednesday was the day the school would finally see all their work come to fruition, when the Green Flag was hoisted proudly over the school, and now blows fondly overlooking the town of Roscrea, serving as a reminder to us all, of what can be achieved, if the right commitment and determination is in place.
Ray Dempsey Chairman of the Schools Board Of Management did an excellent job as M.C for the morning. His first duty was to welcome the pupils to join the guests of the school, who were all gathered patiently in the lovely surrounds of the immaculately kept, schools playground.
Rev Arthur Minion officially commenced the celebrations through prayer, and afterwards offered his congratulations to the pupils, staff and everyone involved in helping bring about such a special day.
Those in attendance were then treated to some fantastic entertainment from the pupils, who welcomed their guests in their own unique way. Firstly we had the Green School Song, then we had a very well co-ordinated educational sketch on what it means to be green and how long it takes various everyday items to decompose, for example a wine bottle takes approximately 1000 years to breakdown and a tin can takes approximately fifty years to breakdown. The pupils then conveyed how art classes in particular proved to be very educational, as both teachers and students learned how to recycle waste and form lovely pieces of artwork from such things as shredded paper, empty toilet rolls, egg cartons, and pencil shreddings etc. Even old empty milk cartoons were cleaned, dried and used for sowing seeds, that have developed into lovely young flowers, and will take pride of place in the Schools fantastic garden over the coming weeks.
Co-Ordinator and Principal of the school Mrs Ethel Telford was next to speak. Mrs Telford said the school embarked upon the very demanding programme, which is administered by An Taisce, last September. She said the aim of the project was to Create environmental awareness in the schools curriculum, and to use this awareness to create an action program that would improve the school environment, reduce litter and waste, increase environmental awareness in the School and Local Community and to a lesser extent encourage others to follow in the footsteps of the school and be encouraged by St Cronans success to set up their own environmental awareness programmes
To achieve all this, the school first of all established a Green Schools Committee which met every Friday to review the work of the previous week and to set goals and objectives for the following week. This committee consisted of teachers, parents, members of the community and pupils from every class in the school, right up from junior infants to sixth class. The committee was chaired by Megan Colclough of 6th Class, who did a fantastic job, making sure everyone co-operated with each other, and knew what roles they had to play to help achieve the schools objectives.
The first job of the committee was to conduct an environmental review out of which an Action Plan was developed which focused very strongly on litter and waste management. This plan was monitored and evaluated on a continuous basis to ensure that the school was working towards its targeted goals and objectives, always baring in mind the motto of the three r's, reuse, reduce, recycle.
The school was also heavily involved in communicating and involving the wider community with their initiative. Roscrea Tidy Towns and in particular Mr Brendan Carmody proved to be a great catalyst for encouraging the school to come up with new ideas and develop existing ones. Deirdre Cox the Environmental Officer with North Tipperary County Council was also very supportive, and like Brendan proved to be a great source of inspiration and motivation for everyone involved in the Green Flag programme.
Concluding Mrs Telford, said she was elated when she heard the magnificent news a few weeks ago, that the school was going to be awarded the Green Flag. Mrs Telford said the award was a fitting tribute to the tremendous amount of hard work that has taken place on the part of parents, teachers, the wider community and most importantly the pupils of the school over the last few months. She then thanked everyone involved in organising the morning's celebrations and said she hoped that the day would be remembered as a milestone for the school, which future generations could learn from and build upon.
Mr Colm Creegan Schools Inspector then spoke and congratulated everyone in the school community on such a remarkable effort and achievement. He said it was a great honour for him to travel from Dublin to Roscrea and represent the department of education on such a proud and uplifting day. He wished the school well and said he had no doubt that the School's success would continue to grow and prosper.
Mayor Jim Casey echoed the comments of Colm Creegan and said it was a great privilege as Mayor of the County to represent the council at the day's celebrations. He said 1/3 of the schools in Tipperary were now participating in the green flag programme and he had no doubt St Cronan's National School would prove to be a great inspiration for not just the schools in the county, but for schools the length and breadth of Ireland. He said the green flag programme would continue to get the support of the council. Mayor Casey went on to say that the green flag was also fantastic means of practical learning, which encouraged better communication flows by involving the broader community such as the residents that live in proximity to the school etc.
Anne Murray recently elected President Of The ICA was guest of honour and had some lovely words of encouragement for the pupils and staff. She said she sincerely hoped that the good practices that the pupils have learned so far from the Green Flag initiative would stay with the pupils right through their teenage years and adult lives. Anne said she was most impressed by the involvement of so may people and wished the school every success for the future.
With the formalities over, the great moment then finally arrived. To a tremendous round of applause, the Green Flag was finally hoisted much to the delight of all those gathered to witness a most wonderful and memorable morning.
For more info on the story behind the recent sucess of St Cronan's National School, please click here.
