Monitoring and Evaluating

Step 4: Monitoring and Evaluating

Litter and Water Flag: 

1.The previous themes have been monitored and were focused on heavily in the first year of the theme and first few weeks after holidays in September, November and January. To help maintain our Litter and Waste Flag: every class, from first upwards entered an art competition being run by Galway City Council. The theme of the competition is Keep Galway Litter Free (Coinnigh Gaillimh Glan). Some of our entries even made it onto the calendar!

2.We organized a whole school spring clean day.  We took advantage of the fine weather and headed out to clean up our local area in Doughiska. We all put on our gloves and brought a bag with us to put the rubbish into. Some of the locals we met thanked us as we cleaned the skatepark and the tennis court. We had great fun cleaning our local area and were very proud to see the area so clean when we had finished!

3.Junior and Senior infants reuse paper from the photocopier and old worksheets during Aistear time for the writing table. During aistear time the children are encouraged to make things from recycled materials for the junk art station. We are still working on our litter and waste and energy theme.  We have a recycling centre in the school to recycle: Mobile phones & Batteries.

Energy Flag: 

We are very proud to be flying our second green flag (energy). In order to achieve this award we have been:

1. Turning off lights when not needed.

2. Closing doors to keep the heat in.

3. Turning off interactive boards.

4. Curriculum work in the classroom

5. Energy monitors in every classroom. 

Water Flag: 

1. Each class has a “Water Wizard” to monitor running taps, watch water usage and ensure that taps are switched off after school.

2. We monitored and recorded the amount of water being used in the school by talking to Lucia, our School Building Manager.

3. BAM check for leaks in all school toilets every morning.

4.We introduced a new water filter in school so children can bring reusable containers and reduce the number of plastic bottles we use in the school.