Garden Project - January~February 2010

Our lovely school has reopened its doors to welcome back its pupils after the end of year holiday. We are staring this New Year 2010 with smiles awaiting patiently for the summer to arrive.

When nature creates a Season called winter with a purpose for hibernation, so does the nature of things to follow the same way.
Frost, cold & ice was our scenery up until a few weeks back and with this changing weather, nature had slowed down and so did we.

While spring is our new season and nature awakens so does the nature of life & people.
The general energy of people towards creating and offering flowing ideas flourishes like little seeds to become great designs; and so our garden project and its group have joined forces again and with this new spring energy we are making our “last year’s” talks, planning and goals into little steps of reality.

The excitement has started; we chose the best place to locate the raised beds based on the weather/ sun light/ protection from the elements etc...
We had little teams carrying different type of work.
Our individual skills within the team naturally brought all these little jobs to be completed effortlessly & in synchronization and brought back together with a natural flow. Its amazing team work!!!!!!

• We had a team sourcing the wood for the raised bed, in charge of building them and bringing them to the school. The wood was donated to the school.
• Another team sourced the soil and the manure which was kindly donated and organized for it to be delivered to the school.
• Another one sourced funding from both An Taisce – Green Communities (Direct) & Bord Bia – Irish Food Board (indirect – DVD & seeds). An Taisce – Green Communities came to the school to give advice on how to fill out the funding application and was impressed with the work we aim to achieve.
• Another Team went to visit local garden centers & one phone call also resulted in a donation of Apple trees from Llewyn’s.
• Some parents have also started planting seeds of various vegetables.








Saturday the 6th February is the day we started digging the ground to get the plot ready for the raised beds, place the raised bed, and put the top soil in.
What a day!!!!!! It rained and rained the all morning, it was cold and humid...... But let me tell you this did not stop the team being at the school offloading the top soil, carrying it to the raised bed, digging the ground where the raised beds are placed etc……

The shovels were out along with the wheelbarrows & the strong muscles…
A lovely community spirit reminding us of the old ways was present.

The lactic acid was also present in the muscles the next day, it was all worth it thought...

We met again on Friday 12th February and finished carrying the top soil into the three raised bed. The sun accompanied us this day however it was cold.

Next will be the planning of what to plant, where and also of the seedlings and planting of seeds. Watching them grow, nurturing them etc…………..
The children are fully getting involved and more on this next month…

A team of parents is proposing an after school/school hours educational activity based around the garden, sustainability, wildlife etc… this would be excellent for the children in helping them with Math, Biology, nutrition, weather, environment, studying the natural world etc...
This would incorporate and link the work already being done by Claire one of our teacher on the An Taisce- Green schools project and Jean one of our teacher on the Irish Wildlife Trust – School Grounds Development project.

Most of the material proposed on the garden activities would be taken from the Bord Bia website where they have designed an amazing Teacher’s resource curricular Linkage and are providing educational worksheets. Please find below the link to their website and you can notice how well this has been designed for the children.

The Green Schools project is coordinated by Claire, and Claire is looking for the Parent’s Association to help out with this project. A team of parents will be meeting with Claire shortly to see how we can help her with running this project. It is very exciting…

Jean has organized for the Irish Wildlife Trust to call over to the school and help out in designing a Wildlife Garden including building bird houses, planting hedges etc… This is such an exciting project.

While the Green Schools project will provide an education based around sustainability and environmental issues, the IWT on how to protect our Wildlife environment and learning about wild plants/flowers and animals, our garden project will provide the education and practice around sustainable living and also on healthy eating and nutrition etc…

The three of them linked together would make a wonderful and powerful educational tool for the children; these three projects are naturally intertwined.
We are proposing to help on these three projects with both an after school extra curricular activity as well as helping the teachers within school hours activities.
A team of parents will be meeting with Jean shortly to see how we can put everything together and come up with a great plan.

Hopefully we will have more news on these projects next month, we are hoping a lot more parents are going to find these interesting and join us.

Pasted below is the General overview of each program which is copied from their website.

The IWT - Conserving Ireland’s Wildlife and Habitats
The Irish Wildlife Trust is dedicated to creating a better future for Ireland’s wildlife by motivating and supporting people to take action for wildlife, through education, lobbying and the encouragement of research into all aspects of wildlife and conservation. We acquire and manage nature reserves to safeguard species and habitats. We work in partnership with other organisations to conserve and enhance wildlife in the wider countryside and urban environments.
Every school yard has the potential to be rich in wildlife, a mini nature reserve that is free from people after 3pm mid week, weekends and school holidays. It can be a complete haven for the likes of foxes, hedgehogs, frogs and newts. Birds, butterflies and moths would also love it.
With help from our team of wildlife experts, the Irish wildlife trust can help you transform your school grounds to mini nature reserve. From window boxes, bird feeding stations, wildflowers areas to tree nurseries, the trust will work with the teachers and children to create or enhance an area that will not only benefit wildlife but also the schools biodiversity audit.
Our wildlife designs are also followed up with hand-outs that help the school with the after care and management of the area, the hand-outs can also be used to run class activities through the various curriculum links.

Bord Bia – Irish Food Board
Working on its main topics - Design, Plan and Create Garden, Organic Gardening, Food
Production, Soil, Water, Healthy Eating, the Eco System and Sustainable Development,
will in a very enjoyable and practical way awaken the child’s sense of wonder and
natural curiosity. It will give him or her scope to express fully his or her individual talents
and expertise; it will make him or her an active agent in his/her own learning; and it will
be an excellent base for further knowledge. The rich experience of such environment based learning will add enormously to the relevance and effectiveness of the child’s
learning. It is ideal for children with special needs. The use of language, talk and
discussion in all aspects of the project will be a central strategy. The project will enhance
the pupil’s information, communication and technology skills. The collaborative project
work will stimulate the children by hearing the opinions, ideas and problems of others
and will facilitate the child’s social and personal development. This practical project, that
parents and the school community can easily identify with, will make the child more
self-aware as a learner and facilitate assessment of his or her own progress as a student.
A spiral approach is used. This is a technique where first the basic facts of a subject are
learned, without worrying about details. Then as learning progresses, more and more
details are introduced, while at the same time these details are related to the basics,
which are re-emphasised many times to help get them into long-term memory.


An Taisce – Green Communities
The aim of the Green Communities programme is to engage Local Communities Groups and facilitate them to improve the quality of the local environment through reducing their group activity carbon footprint and enhancing their local biodiversity.

An Taisce - Green School
The aim of Green-Schools is to increase students’ and participant awareness of environmental issues through classroom studies and to transfer this knowledge into positive environmental action in the school and also in the wider community. Schools that have successfully completed all the elements of the programme are awarded the ‘Green-Flag’. This award has now become a well-recognised Eco-Label. The award has to be renewed every two years.