Droichead Nua or Newbridge

Your Town

It’s easy to make a difference!

The Holy Family Secondary School has been awarded the coveted Green Flag School. This is the firsh Secondlevel School in the town to be awarded the Green Flag.

The school community are aware that when they were awarded the Green Flag they join the towns five existing Green Schools (which are all Primary Schools) in “Making a Difference” in Newbridge. The school are one of the few Secondary Schools in the County to have achieved the Green Flag.

The Green Flag inititiative is being co-ordinated by a Green School Committee consisting of representatives of the Teaching Staff, Transition Year Students, Green Team Members, and the School Caretaker. The wider community is also represented on the Green School Committee by the inclusion of representatives of the Parents, and the Tidy Towns Association. By including the Whole School Community, and involving the wider community served by the school. The work of the School Community is also being supported by Dara Wyer who is Kildare County Councils Environmental Awareness Officer.

The School Community is very aware that the Green-Schools project is a long-term programme and that now that the school have achieved the award it will need to be renewed every two years.

Like all Green Schools the school community in the Holy Family Secondary School are "Making a Difference", and they are deserving of the support of the local community.

Newbridge Tidy Towns Association wishes the Green School well, and are sure that they will fly the flag proudly over the first Green Flag Secondary School in Newbridge.

Achievements so far:
The School have changed their waste removal and recycling procedures to ensure optimum levels of recycling are achieved.

All waste paper produced in the school, including paper from the School Office, Staff Room and Classrooms is being recycled. As part of this initiative the Transition Year Students empty paper recycling bins in the Staff Room and Classrooms weekly, and the School Caretaker removes Office Waste paper for recycling. As a result of this new procedure the School have increased their recycling levels from ONE 1,100 litre bin to FOUR 1,100 litre bins per month.

The School Community now recycle Batteries, Mobile Phones, Photocopier & Printer Cartridges. The Battery collection bin has already been emptied once (February 2007), and is well on the way to being filled again. Mobile Phones are being recycled through the Jack & Jill Foundation. Mobile Phones were also collected by the Computer Department which helped them procure more computer equipment for the school. In April the school found a company to recycle Photocopier & Printer Cartridges.

Dara Wyer, who is Kildare County Councils Environmental Awareness Officer, has visited the school and explained the seven steps which need to be achieved prior to applying for the Green Flag. This involved speaking to the transition year students who ensure that everybody was aware of exactly what was necessary to achieve the Green Flag. The school is also collaborating with the Chamber of Commerce by collecting old books in English, which will be sent to African and Indian children.

Step 1 Green School Committee
While the school community have been working on various projects which will all contribute to the overall goal of achieving the Green Flag for some time - the first full (formal) Green School Committee meeting has now taken place, and this committee will re-convene again after the summer holidays.

A School initiative designed to reduce spending on items with “logos” was very successful, with the monies saved used to purchase some 325 trees for an African Charity. This initiative will greatly help the African Families who have benefited from the planting of these trees. The school community are also aware that these trees will have a significant positive impact on the local environment where they have been planted.

Step 2 Environmental Reviews
Environmental Reviews involved a day of action during National Spring Clean in April, in all upwards of eighty students assisted by a number of teachers cleaned the school grounds, and the grounds to the front of the Holy Family Convent which is a listed building adjacent to the school. The group also cleaned Locker areas, corridors, the main hall, dining areas and the 6th year social area.

What was found during this day of action?
Outdoors the waste in the main consisted of cigarette butts, sweet wrappers, chuppa-chuba sticks, bottles and cans – much of which was recycled.
Indoors the girls found sweet wrappers, crisp bags etc.

This review also identified areas where further action was necessary to improve recycling and the school environment generally. Much of this is covered later in “Work in Progress”

Step 3 Action Plan & Step 4 Monitoring & Evaluation
The School Community have adopted a list of objectives, which are being monitored by the Transition Year Students and the Green School Co-ordinator, many of the actions planned have been achieved or are well on the way to being achieved. The Green School Committee considered a comprehensive report prepared by the Transition Year Students which outlined progress to date.

Step 5 Curriculum Work
Curriculum work forms a core part of the Green School project, and as part of this work the following was achieved:

Mrs. Joyce brought in a play in Irish on the topic of recycling, which the students found very interesting.

Language Teachers covered the topic of recycling and the environment with senior students.

Geography Teachers covered the environment widely as part of the curriculum.

CSPE Teachers covered the subject at the start of the year and permitted their classes to become involved in the day of action during National Spring Clean in April. CSPE students have been very active in promoting Fair Trade in the school.

Step 6 Informing & Involving
The School Community are very active in making sure that everyone is aware of the Green School initiative, and the following has been achieved so far:

The school ran a Green Day to formally launch the Green Flag campaign.

A report was sent to local papers explaining the work the school was doing.

An article explaining the Green School campaign was included in the school newsletter.

Teachers cleaned various items from the staffroom – and re-using and recycling was the focus of this exercise.

A team of teachers have been meting monthly to support the Transition Year and Green Team Members, and coming up with suggestions on how to get things done!

Transition Tear Students have carried out numerous interviews to gauge the amount of knowledge students had about recycling and waste minimisation, whether they were recycling at home and how much the students knew about the schools campaign to achieve Green School Status. While the results of these surveys were very encouraging, it was decided that further advertising, information campaigns and announcements at school assemblies was required.

Step 7 Green Code
The School Community are currently preparing their statement of the schools commitment to environmental good habits


The School Community are continuing with their projects to achieve the Green Flag in 2007, here are some of the projects being worked on at present:

Reducing Waste to Landfill:
To reduce waste bins going to landfill is a high priority, the school currently fill FIVE 1,100 litre bins every week. Therefore it is planned to introduce recycling bins for bottles and cans in the lunch areas, main hall and 6th year social area in the next academic year, and an extra 1,100 litre recycling bin is on order for September.

Appointment of Green Monitors:
It is proposed to elect “Green Monitors” in each classroom; this will be done in conjunction with the elections for Class Prefect / Vice Prefect. The Green monitors will control the use of recycling bins, and will report to the Transition Year and Recycling Team any issues which need to be addressed and pass on any suggestions received from the students.

Informing and involving:
Projects to keep everyone involved are planned for next September; these will include preparation and erection of posters on the topics of recycling, waste minimisation etc. Further in-school advertising, information campaigns and announcements at school assemblies are planned for September.

It is planned to initiate some recycling games during the next school year and to organise a competition among the students to design a recycling logo for the Holy Family Secondary School.

Droichead Nua or Newbridge - Your Town – It’s easy to make a difference!