Biodiversity Cloontuskert National School

CLOONTUSKERT NS WINNER OF TIDY SCHOOLS

CLOONTUSKERT'S VERY OWN PLANT FOOD.

There was great excitement at the recent Tidy Schools Awards Ceremony when it was announced that Cloontuskert NS is this year's winner of the Tidy Schools Competition. Well done to everyone who has helped out to make this possible. We were delighted to pick up our latest flag and prize. Congratulations also to the local Tidy Towns Committee who picked up awards for all their hard work.

Pupils from the Senior Classes were delighted to announce to the school that our hard working worms have eventually, after months and months, produced worm tea, our very own organic plant food. This is the first time we have been able to collect the liquid and we look forward to using it in the spring to help our plants to grow healthy and strong.
The green fingered pupils explained to the classes that the worm tea/plant food is very concentrated and it will need to be diluted before we use it on the plants. A big thank you to our hard working worms who have been feasting on lots fruits, tea leaves and shredded paper every day. Thanks to all the pupils who have helped look after our important residents. Also a big thank you to the Murray family who looked after the worms over the summer. We hope they continue to produce lots more plant food for us.

Cloontuskert NS raises the Green Flag for Biodiversity

Cloontuskert National School Awarded Green Flag for Biodiversity

On Thursday 18th June, Cloontuskert National School was awarded its sixth Green Flag for Biodiversity. Pupils, teachers, parents and the Board of Management attended a special ceremony at the school where Roscommon County Footballer and St. Faithleach’s club member, Ciaráin Murtagh raised the Biodiversity Flag proudly outside the school.

Cloontuskert National School has been working on Biodiversity for the past two years. The pupils have all become experts in the area of Biodiversity and developed many initiatives in the school including a Bug Hotel, a Hedgehog Hotel, a Vegetable Garden, an Outdoor Classroom and a Frog Plaza.

Speaking at the ceremony, Andrée Gallagher, Principal of Cloontuskert National School, said “We are very proud to receive our sixth Green Flag for Biodiversity. This was very much a community initiative bringing together members of the community, including our pupils, staff, parents and Cloontuskert Tidy Towns to work on the project and raise awareness of the importance of Biodiversity in the locality. I want to say a special thank you to Marion Parker from Roscommon County Council for the funding and help and advice over the past two years.”

During the ceremony the pupils performed Hip – Hop Dancing which they have been learning over the past few months, followed by pieces of music under the direction of their music teacher, James Donoghue. After the flag was raised the children led their parents and guests around Cloontuskert National School’s Biodiversity trail which has over 30 stops relating to different aspects of the project.

Cloontuskert NS has been awarded the Green Flag for Biodiversity

A huge congratulations to everyone who worked so hard on our Biodiversity Project. We were awarded the GREEN FLAG on Tuesday 26th May. On behalf of our school, three of our committee members along with Ms Behan and Ms Gallagher attended the awards and very proudly returned to school with the new green flag and certificate. We are all looking forward to our flag raising day which will take place in June.

Biodiversity- Our next Green Flag

Over the next two years we are working towards the Biodiversity Green Flag.

For more information regarding this flag click here.

What is Biodiversity?

Our Biodiversity Green Schools Committee

The following is taken from the Green Schools Ireland website and explains what Biodiversity is, and, what our aims are when undertaking work for this flag. Scroll down to see some of the exciting steps we have taken to play our part in promoting and preserving the diverse range of plants and animals in our environment.

"Biodiversity is the huge variety and variation of life that surrounds us. Biodiversity is essential in keeping the environment healthy and fit for human life. Not only do we rely on biodiversity but our activities also have an effect on it. So whether your school is based in a city or in the country the Biodiversity theme hopes to connect you, your school and your wider community with the natural environment and cultivate a sense of wonder, appreciation and value for all the biodiversity around us.

The overall aim of the Biodiversity theme is for schools to increase awareness of the importance of biodiversity and for students and staff to come up with ways in which we can help biodiversity. This can be achieved through improving or preserving your local biodiversity whether it is in your school garden, at home, a green space in the city, your local beach, a river way etc. Schools will have the opportunity to play a vital role in promoting and preserving biodiversity both locally and globally."

- Taken from
http://www.greenschoolsireland.org/
themes/biodiversity.198.html

Our Bud Race. Which bud will open first? And the winner is ....

Irish seed potato experiment - Lumpar or Caitriona?

Today we began chitting 2 special seed potatoes. One is called Lumpar and the other a Caitriona. The Lumpar was the main potato grown in Ireland during famine times. It was not blight resistant but each seed potato yielded a very high crop. The Caitriona is another Irish potato that Mrs Behan thought would be nice to grow because her name is Caitriona. We are going to conduct an experiment by growing 1 Lumpar and 1 Caitriona in separate raised beds to see which is the highest yielding potato.

Committee Year 2: 2014-2015

Committee Year 1: 2013-2014

Our Biodiversity Green Code

In our school we love Biodiversity,

We always recycle or compost our tea,

We put it in our wormery,

And it helps us grow our broccoli,

So let's be clever and use our heads,

Without plants and animals we won't be fed!

Potatoes and peas, Please!

School Garden 2015 begins! The Potatoes are in and the lettuce is coming!

Poster competition for new features

Habitat Mapping - Year Two

Clearing out the Frog Plaza

Spring has sprung 2015!

There is an area in the school grounds that has always
been known as The Frog Pond. It is called that because
there used to be frog spawn there every year. Recently
the 5th and 6th class were given the task of cleaning
up the Frog Pond. It was all systems go !! Gloves on,
shovels out!! Time to get those hands dirty. It is all
part of our biodiversity project. We are trying to
encourage frogs into the Frog Pond once more.
We also made a new sign for the Frog Pond and
it is now called the Frog Plaza!!!

Look at our lovely window boxes and planters .... dazzling daffodils, pretty primroses and cool crocuses!

Anyone for a cup of worm tea?

We set up 3 wormeries in school. The fertilizer and worm tea that is produced by the worms composting our fruit peel, veg and tea leaves will be fantastic for our garden.

Here is how we setup the worm works wormery.

We shredded paper and put it into a basin to moisten it.
We put the coconut coir into a basin of water for five minutes.
After five minutes we squeezed the excess water out from the coconut coir.
We mixed the moist coconut coir with a handful soil/compost from the garden.
Now every time we feed the worms we put the food underneath a layer of shredded moist paper.

Worms move an amazing amount of soil for their small size. An earthworm can eat its own weight in soil every day!

Here is how to set up the homemade one....

What You Need:

Clear plastic 2-litre bottle (remove the label as best as you can)
A 5 litre water drum
Scissors
Sand, soft soil, garden soil, compost (as many different types of soil as you can find)
Water
Worms
Leaves
Piece of construction paper or cardboard

What You Do:

To get the worms, if you have a bare patch of earth, you may be able to find worms by watering the area and then placing a piece of cardboard, carpet, or wood over it. Wait a day and then lift the cardboard off the dirt to find the worms hidden underneath. Another way to obtain worms is to dig for them. While planting a garden or a tree, collect the worms you find as you go.
After you have collected your worms, build your wormery. Clean the soda bottle if you haven't already. Using the scissors, cut off the top of the bottle where it starts to taper to form the neck of the bottle.
Fill the bottle with alternating layers of soil and sand. Use at least two different types of soil, but the more you have the better.
Add water to the soil to get it damp, but not wet.
Place the leaves on top of the soil and then place the worms on the leaves. Cover the top of your wormery with construction paper or cardboard to make it dark for your worms.
Over the next few days and weeks, watch your worms tunnel through the bottle and see how long it takes for the layers to mix so that they are no longer distinguishable. You may even see them tunnel along the side of the bottle. If needed, add more water to keep the soil damp.
When you are done with your wormery, simply dump the entire contents (worms, too!) back in your garden.

Do you want to build a .... scarecrow??

Cloches for the raised beds

We erected a cloche over one of our raised beds and put the strawberry plant in under it ..... any experiment to see if it will survive the winter months in there! The word ‘cloche’ is French, meaning simply ‘bell’. A cloche is a type of cover used to provide protection to plants in adverse weather conditions such as frost and may also be used to hasten plants to maturity. Some cloches can be made from glass but our one is a larger cloche made from plastic.

Let's get planting... apple trees, a plum tree, heather and lavender.

Second class were busy carrying out the wishes of our Biodiversity Green Schools Committee.... They asked if we could have apple trees and a plum tree .... Their wish is our command! Hopefully the busy bees will get pollinating for us and we will have some ripe juicy apples and plums next September!

We also planted some lovely winter and spring flowering heather at the entrance to the mini-wood. When the biodiversity expert Martina Butler visited in November we learned that these would be native bogland plants and would thrive in the peat around our school.

Finally, we planted some lovely lavender.... because we know how much the bees love it, and we will need the help of the bees to pollinate our apple trees!

Biodiversity Day Science Week 2014

The pupils of Cloontuskert NS started off Science Week with a day devoted to the environmental awareness strand of the curriculum. On Monday Martina Butler, Heritage in Schools expert, visited the school and delivered a very interesting presentation to the school based on the bogs, one of the local habitats found near our school. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the presentation, contributing their own knowledge of the plants and animals which are found in the bogs.
Later on in the day Martina took groups out around the school environment to identify plants and animals which live and feed on the school grounds. The pupils had the opportunity to use key cards which helped them identify wild flowers and trees. Martina gave the pupils a lot of advice on what they could do to improve on their Biodiversity Project with a view to winning the next Green Flag for Biodiversity. The pupils and staff now have lots of ideas and have come up with a very exciting plan of work for the coming year. The Green Schools' Committee are looking forward to working and helping the classes throughout the year. Well done to everybody.

Gardening in Cloontuskert NS

We have many green fingered pupils here in Cloontuskert who love the chance to get out to the school garden. This year we started a new vegetable patch where we planted potatoes, radishes, lettuce, rocket, scallions, strawberries, onions. Some of the pupils also made up pretty window boxes and baskets to decorate the school. This wouldn't have happened without the support of our very helpful parents, Roscommon Co Co and of course our enthusiastic teachers.

Our new raised beds have arrived!

Under the watchful eye of teachers, we put together the flat pack raised beds that arrived today. Mrs. Behan said that this is why we made jigsaws in infants ... so that we could put together bigger puzzles with power tools in the senior room!!!

As a part of our Biodiversity Project we are learning how to become more self sufficient and aware of where our food comes from. We are very grateful to Roscommon County Council for enabling us to buy the raised bed and develop our school garden.

Habitat Mapping

As part of our Biodiversity Project we went outside and explored the different habitats in our school environment. Go to the art gallery page to see more of our brilliant maps.

Gardening

It's now Springtime and it's time to get our garden ready for planting. A team of green fingered pupils went out to the garden and covered the raised bed to keep the weeds at bay and also to help keep the soil warm for when it comes to planting.

Springtime in Cloontuskert

Snowdrops in the mini-wood.

Our Spring Clean Action Day 2014

We have been very busy in Cloontuskert NS keeping our school green and clean. We decided to give the exterior of the school a good clean up after the winter and thus revisit our Litter & Waste Flag work.

Heritage in Schools Day

Biodiversity Day

In December we had a Biodiversity Day with Michael Bell. We were looking at insects that were living under logs. We also were listening to see if we could hear natural sounds and unnatural sounds. We were talking about plants and animals near us outside. He gave us two booklets about minibeasts and biodiversity. We enjoyed looking at the different insects. Our favourite part of the day was looking at the antlers and dolphin back bone.

By Jack Murray & Sean