Eco-Council

Sacred Heart Primary School's Eco Council was created in order to tackle the environmental concerns held by staff, parents and children of the school and to make the most of our wonderful school grounds.

 Our Aims

• Increase the amount of children to use an active travel method.
• Participate in outdoor learning, particularly through Forest School. 
• Protect and care for the oceans 

Kai and Cora (P1)

Eimear and Flynn (P2)

Jude and Laetare (P3)

Logan and Orlaith (P4)

Fionn and Niamh (P5)

Cailie and Eoin (P6)

Adam and Isla (P7)

A huge thank you to Charlie Byrne who kickstarted our Big Battery Hunt by bringing in over 100 batteries. Thank you Charlie! 

P1: Laughlin & Eimile

P2: Logan & Orlaith

P3: Hugh & Caoimhe

P4: Kasia & Seth

P5: Farrah & Noah

P6: Padraig & Niamh

P7: Cara & Kasey

*** Eco Council 2022/23 ***

After a week of canvassing, electioneering and voting, we can now announce that the newly elected Eco Council for 2022/23 is as follows:

P1 - Orlaith and Arthur
P2 - Caoimhe and Luke
P3 - Caragh and Darragh
P4 - Hannah and Ruadhán
P5 - Elsie and Jude
P6 - Christopher and Beth
P7 - Ramona and Oisin

Congratulations to you all on your new appointments!

Primary 6 and 7 all participated in the internal heats of this year’s Environmental Youth Speak. The theme was ‘I am a climate change champion and it is my mission to stop the world from getting hotter!’ Each child prepared and delivered a short speech on this important environmental issue. A big well done to everyone! 

Not so long ago our Eco Council decided to write a letter to the world famous environmental advocate David Attenborough. Known for his ground breaking and award winning television documentaries, the Eco Council wanted to make him aware of all the great environmental work that they were doing for our school, the local community and beyond.

Much to everyone’s amazement, we received a letter in the post today from none other than Mr Attenborough himself! Our Eco Council Chairperson Niall (P7) is pictured with it.

His reply was as follows: 

“Dear children of Sacred Heart Primary School,

Thank you very much for your letter. I am glad that you are learning all about the problems facing our planet and the things that you can do to help protect it. We all need to play our part in stopping climate change and plastic pollution, and the things that you are doing in school will certainly help. Thank you all for your hard work.

With best wishes,

David Attenborough. “

It was with great pride that we learned this morning that our P6 pupil Effie McMullan was officially announced as the ‘Junior Winner’ of the Environmental Poster Competition. Effie emerged on top among 1000’s of other entries from across the council area.

As winner, Effie’s picture will be framed and mounted and she will also receive a £50 voucher prize for her efforts. More strikingly, her winning poster will be displayed on billboards throughout the district in 2022.

Well done Effie on a superb achievement!

We were delighted to learn this morning that we have officially been awarded the 'Silver' award in the Woodland Trust's Green Tree Scheme.

It was only in June that we received the 'Bronze' accolade so everyone was ecstatic to hear that we achieved the next grade so quickly.

A huge congratulations to our new Eco Council members!

P1 - Fionn Woods

        Aliaith Horrigan

P2 - Annie Prior

       Declan Og Roche

P3 - Casey Rogan

       Austin O'Hare

P4 - April Rogan 

       Darragh Tumelty

P5 - Cara Trainor 

       Kasey O'Neill

P6 - Kayden Trainor 

       Effie McMullan 

P7 - Mikaela Hanna

        Niall Tumelty

For the first week of Eco Club we decided to find out how many different species of plants we have on our school grounds. We used the iPads to identify over 26 but we guess that there is so much more! In the second week we designed our own plant pots and planted some flowers.

We were delighted to learn over the summer that we have received the bronze award for our participation in the Green Tree School scheme with the Woodland Trust.

This achievement is recognition for the hard work carried out by our very active Eco Council.

We will now progress toward our silver, gold and platinum awards in the 2021/22 school year.

Well done!

Today our school Eco-Council were proud to unveil our official Green Flag. The flag accreditation is the result of a lot of hard work that was undertaken in the past year by the school Eco-Council.

Sacred Heart have made a host of eco based improvements to school life in recent times and the awarding of the flag is testament to to the progress and achievement in this area.

Well done everyone

Home Learning

Despite school closure it is great to see so many of our pupils engaging in outdoor learning and other eco activities! Pupils have been taking on the various Eco-Schools NI projects, along with creating their own activities. See below for a variety of pictures and videos! 

Eco Council 2019/20 - Term 2 update

We have had an even busier term 2 with lots of meetings and planning taking place. The Eco Council began the term with a short and informative assembly detailing the important work that council has completed so far. We organised a ‘Ditch the Dark Day’ with a fantastic turn out. As a group we made the decision to enter the Environmental Youth competition and have been meeting to prepare for this. The whole school showcased their eco knowledge by taking part in the 100 Days of School celebration. This year we decided upon an eco theme and were very impressed with the thought and creativity that went into these projects. Sustrans champions have been chosen and will be announced shortly. With the good weather we have been making greater use of our fantastic outdoor classroom and excellent outdoor learning has been taking place.

The Eco Club have also been very busy. They packed our new bug hotel with different materials to encourage biodiversity. They have also been designing and creating their own bird feeders and plant pots.

We have lots of more exciting events planned. Keep checking back for updates on ‘the Big Spring Clean’, ‘Translink Travel Challenge’ and ‘The Big Pedal.’ Until then, have a look at some of our photos below.

Eco Council 2019/20 - Term 1 update

The Eco Council have been working hard all term to complete the application form to renew the Green Flag.

Pupils have met on many occasions and elected a chairperson, Nathan Stone, and a minute taker, Emily Tumelty. Congratulations! They have also been busy completing an environmental review which helped to form an action plan for the coming year. We decided to focus on outdoor learning, biodiversity and healthy living. The council have gathered data on these topics so that we can see how we can improve. We also came up with a new and improved Eco-Code which you can view below!

Mr. Brennan and the Eco-Club have also been very busy. They have been focusing on the biodiversity around our school. Not only have they completed, bird and insect surveys but they also have been trying to increase biodiversity by making seed bombs and bird feeders.

We have a lot more planned for the next two terms so keep checking back for more updates.

Eco Council Update 10th May

• Down District Council came to school and provided two workshops for all the children; Recycling and Composting. The Eco Council will carry out a litter pick on 16th May in the local area.

• Children have attended football tournaments, after school clubs to ensure our target of Healthy Living is achieved.

• Compost bins have now been established in all classrooms.

Eco Council 31st March 2017

• Eco Council have planted new flowers in the Eco Garden.

• Mr Murdock made beautiful bird tables.

• New bird feeders have been purchased.

• Sacred Heart made a bug hotel.

• Eco Council used old wellies and planted flowers.

• Sacred Heart has now got their own clothes bank.

Eco Council Update 30th January 2017

• As part of our Sustrans Programme we took part in “Ditch the Dark” and “Dr Bike” day.

• Graham from Actisport delivered a fun workshop on skills from a variety of sports such as basketball, rugby, tennis and football. The children were very active and had a great time!

• Sustrans have issued High Vis Vests to all pupils.

Ditch the Dark Day

All children and scooters were fantastic.  Well done to all!!!!

Dr Bike Day

On Tuesday 22nd November, Emma will be in school to provide free bike safety checks.  This is a brilliant opportunity to ensure your child's bike is in good working condition!

Ditch the Dark Day

The Eco Council is organising a "Ditch the Dark Day" on Friday 18th Novemeber.  This is an event were the children will dress up in bright, shiny and reflective clothing.  They can even decorate their bikes and scooters.  The aim is to raise awareness of safe travel to school at this time of year.

Eco Council Update 31st October 2016

• The Eco decided on Chairperson (Niall McLaughlin) and Vice Chair (Claire Flanagan).

• The Eco Council completed the Environmental Review and designed an Eco Code and Action Plan.

• We have planted pansies outside P.1 area.

• We decided that our new topic for this academic year will “Healthy Living.”

• We are now part of the Sustrans programme.

Sustrans

We had Emma Keenan from Sustrans into talk about all the exciting things we are going to do as part of the active schools programme.  She brought along her bike Marmaduke and some of us had a spin on it.