St Aidan’s has formed a Green Schools Committee in an effort to make the school more environmentally friendly and sustainable. It was formed in September of last year. A new committee formed this year with new members including some of our First years. We are delighted to have achieved the Green Flag for ‘Global Citizenship, Litter and Waste’ last year.
We have made some serious improvements around the school. For example, we held a poster competition for Clean Air Week to get people thinking about how they can improve the quality of the air around the school. Our winners are photographed here, being presented their prizes by members of our committee.
As well as this, we have informed students about how to properly recycle their waste and what rubbish goes into what bin. There are green waste bins in every room and they are collected every Tuesday and Thursday by our TY colleagues. We have recently modified two Green wheelie bins for bottle and can collections. Our intention is to avail of the return scheme to raise funds for projects like our Immersion trip to India. More information to follow about this.
Additionally, we are looking for ways to save energy around the school, such as turning the lights off before leaving a classroom and dimming down the brightness on TV screens. This is to aid us in our quest to win a new green flag for ‘Global Citizenship and Energy’ next year. We also hold biweekly meetings at lunchtime to set out goals and further understand how to reduce the school’s carbon footprint.
The school has recently been granted 6kw of solar panels from the School’s Photovoltaic Scheme being run by the SEAI and the Department of Education. These panels will be installed and up and running before June and will help to ease the cost of our electricity bill and allow us to offset the power stored during the summer.