Congratulations to all Green-Schools who have successfully been awarded a Green Flag or have renewed their Green Flag this year! We look forward to seeing you at the awards! By now, your school should have recieved an official invitation to an awards ceremony with details of the time and location. If not, please contact us. More>>

A rainy Monday afternoon saw a group of children from St Kevin’s National School, Laragh, Co. Wicklow, help the Environment Minister Phil Hogan to launch the Leave No Trace schools online teaching resource.

Thousands of students from all over Ireland will take part in walking initiatives to make the journey to their school a greener and healthier one during National Walk to School Week, May 21st – 25th. Green-Schools across the country will encourage pupils, parents and teachers to walk or park n’ stride to school by holding events such as Walk to School days, Walk on Wednesday, Feet First Fridays, sponsored walks and walking challenges.

An Taisce, The National Trust for Ireland, in partnership with the Department of Transport and the National Transport Authority were delighted to host this year’s Green-Schools Travel Competition Awards Ceremony in Tailors Hall, Dublin 8 on Tuesday 24th April at 10.30 am, to award the winning students in its national travel competition.

In November 2011, An Taisce launched the Green-Schools Woodland at Ballinreeshig Nature Farm, Co. Cork in conjunction with Will and Away Outdoor Education Company on our ‘Give a Tree Roots’ day. At the outset, 3,560 native trees were planted to represent each school in the Green-Schools programme. Students from pre-schools up to university level were present on the day, representing the wide-ranging impact of the Green-Schools programme.

May 22nd 2012 is International Day for Biological Diversity! The United Nations proclaimed May 22 The International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB) to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues.

St. Michael’s Boys National School is located in Mervue, Galway and it caters for boys from 2nd- 6th classes. Currently there are over 200 boys and 16 teachers in the school. St. Michael’s National School was one of the first schools in Ireland to be awarded the Green-Schools flag in 1997. St. Michael’s N.S. successfully completed the Green-Schools Water theme this year, and they used their work from their European Comenius water project for the Green-Schools theme.

Derinagree National School is a rural school in North Cork with 55 students and 5 staff, and have been working towards their first Green Flag for Litter & Waste Management by using innovative ways to inform and involve the whole school community about the topic. Their ‘Rot or Not?’ project saw them create a Waste Graveyard (Biodegradable/ Non- Biodegradable items) in the school and display it for everyone to see. All the classes were involved: Seniors in research; Middle Classes- ordering the timeline; Juniors- bringing in items for the waste graveyard. They used items like cardboard; plastic and even a nappy to show how long our waste takes before it breaks down and biodegrades.

Ballysteen National School based in County Limerick, heard just after Christmas that they have achieved their Renewal Green Flag for Travel and are looking forward to the awards ceremony in May, 2012. They not only walk, park and stride, cycle, park and cycle and carpool for their WOW/COW but now travel to school in a sustainable way most days

Do you think you have a photograph that shows how much you love where you live and captures how much your local area means to you? Is it a photograph that candidly captures the sense of purpose and success of your local community clean up or other such event? Is it a photograph of the positive interaction of the people on your street or area? Or is it a photograph that hints at unique aspects of your area and why you love where you live?