Wildlife Week 2023

 Wildlife Week took place from the 1st - 8th December 2023. We were very lucky to have great help from Norman Clune of Monivea Tidytowns; he organised the first 'Monivea Wildlife Week'. The children were delighted to learn about lots of different animals, birds and mammals that are in the local area. Professor Colin Lawton gave a talk to the Senior classes on squirrels. John Carrig gave a talk on Owls and brought Erin the Barn Owl along for the children to see. We also had Patsy and Patricia from Tribes Beekeepers giving a talk on bees. Everyone had lots of fun and learned lots too!

Here are some photos of a great week!

Walk to School Week 2023

 Walk to School Week took place from the 2nd - 6th October 2023. We were very lucky that we had good weather for most of the week, which made it easier to walk to school or Park and Stride. We had a great turnout all week and a big THANK YOU to all of the parents, carers and children who put in a brilliant effort to walk or park in the village all week; every step counts! 

Walk on Wednesday was on 4th October and the children and parents were joined by teachers and  SNAs to walk from the village- thank you to everyone!

Each class recorded the mode of travel for each student for the week and displayed their 'Scores on the Doors' everyday. The winning class will be announced this week!

We will be submitting our overall number of walkers and those who did 'Park and Stride' to Green Schools Ireland over the coming days. Our best day was Tuesday 3rd October, when 45 % of children either walked or took part in 'Park and Stride' so well done to everyone! 

Globe Air Quality Monitoring Project

Monivea National School is currently taking part in the GLOBE project.

 Over 600 schools around Ireland have participated in this project to date. The campaign is coordinated by GLOBE Ireland, as part of The Environmental Education Unit (EEU) of An Taisce and is sponsored by the Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The GLOBE programme is an international science and education program, sponsored by NASA. 

What is the GLOBE Ireland Air Quality Campaign? 

The GLOBE Ireland Air Quality Campaign is a school-based citizen science project to assess traffic-related (nitrogen dioxide) air pollution outdoors at schools in Ireland. This is an educational project designed to raise awareness about air pollution; showcase the potential of citizen science to gather unique datasets and insights into our environment; and promote behaviour change. The Air Quality campaign started on September 26th, 2023 and runs for a month. 

Our Green Team have placed two tubes up outside the school, to collect air samples. They are analyzing and recording weather conditions, traffic conditions, cloud type and cloudncover twice a week as part of this project - you may see them in their green High-vis, counting cars in the car park and observing the weather just before home time.  

Raising the Green Flag 1st June 2022

 On 1st June 2022, we were delighted to raise the Green Flag at Monivea National School. This was the Green Flag for the Marine Environment and Global Citizenship. The whole school had watched the Green Flag online award ceremony on the 25th May. We were delighted to have Norman McKee from the Tidy Towns Association in Monivea present on the day for the raising of the Green Flag. The Green school Committee all spoke briefly on the day. The whole school watched the event and we were lucky to have a surprise visit from the ice-cream van on the day, as part of Active Schools week!

Action Day 29th April 2022

 The Green School's Committee held an Action Day on the Marine Environment theme, as part of our Green Flag for 2022. We were delighted to have a speaker from the Marine Institute, who was also Zoe's mum; Mairead Sullivan.

Some of the older classes shared their projects with everyone in the school. Their projects were about Marine animals, such as the humpback whale and the basking shark; others told us about Marine pollution and microbeads. Mairead told us all about her work at the Marine Institute and shared lots of information about Marine life around the Irish coast. The highlight of the day was when everyone got to see and touch real marine life, including a shark!

Well done Green School's committee for a great day!

Marine Environment

 

Marine Environment

We are currently working toward a Green flag for the Marine Environment and Global Citizenship. Each of the classes have been working on different themes, from creating sea art to investigating marine pollution causes and solutions.

We held a poster competition to find a School Marine Motto. It was very difficult to choose a winner, as the quality of entries was fantastic.  

John Egan's (4th Class) poster and motto were chosen in First place - 

'The ocean should be clean and blue and that is up to me and you'. 

Well done for the great effort that everyone put into these posters. The winners  received a small prize each and the winning posters are on display in the hall.

Our older classes have completed amazing projects, which took a lot of hard work and research. These projects ranged from Sea life around Ireland to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the impact microbeads have on our oceans. The projects are on display in the school hall - well done to everyone who took part!

Our younger classes worked creatively to complete fabulous Sea Art, as well as water and rain investigations. We are working on a display for these.

Mr. Wallace's Class investigated Large Sea Animals. They watched a video about The Blue Whale and imitated sea animal movements during P.E.

All of our Marine Environment work was connected to the curriculum in various ways and helped the children to have a better understanding of the marine world surrounding our country and the marine environment in the wider world.