Carrig National School

In 2004 Carrig National School was awarded its first green flag for reducing, reusing and recycling. The whole school, community and especially the hard working green committee, gathered together and did a number of different activities e.g.
Set up a recycling team to gather the recyclable rubbish
We invested in a composter for the food wastage
We recycled the papers from the local shop and got money for bringing them to the peat factory.
We had a litter squad that kept the school rubbish free and this led to our school winning the North Tipp tidy schools, three years in a row.
We wrote a rap and poems and stories on the motto: reduce, reuse and recycle
We recycled batteries, phones, clothes and toys
We have a healthy eating policy, no fizzy drinks or sweets, cutting down the amount of rubbish created.
It was a proud day for two committee members to receive the first green flag on behalf of our school.

In 2006 we challenged ourselves to work on getting our second green flag and the theme this time was “Energy”. Our school slogan was “Be cool, Switch on, Switch off save our fuel” The activities and events we undertook were
There were energy police who went around at the break times and made sure all the lights were turned off
We did a good fuels and bad fuels play
The fifth and sixth class did projects on energy
We based our Fís film that year on the conservation of energy
New windmills were being constructed on Knocksheegowna that year and we got follow the progress of their construction.
We made posters to remind ourselves to save energy.
We spoke to a local business man who works in back boilers who has a passion for renewable energy and he told us all about global warming
Again it was another proud occasion for Carrig National School to be awarded and to receive the second green flag.

In 2008 the green school theme was “Water Conservation” again a hardworking committee was elected and they got straight down to it! Our slogan this time was
“1,2 save our fuel 3,4 reduce more 5,6 water/pollution don’t mix 7,8 water is great and 9,10 start again”

We made loads of posters on ways to save water and water pollution and water droplets
We had water checkers
We made poems, stories and songs to do with water
Alphabet water to tell us all about water activities and how to save it
We wrote essays about “My life without water”
Water usage in our houses and maths bar charts
Yet again we were successful to achieve the third green flag and two children went to Dublin to receive the flag.

Last year we were one of the few schools in the country to be involved in the Green Home School initiative for which we earned yet another flag. There were 12 children involved on the committee this time and we met once a week on Tuesday to discuss how our families could be as green as our school! This flag was raised by Bishop Willie Walsh in June.

We are currently working towards the transport flag.