Green School Programme at Knollcrest Nursery

Knollcrest Nursery and Afterschool in Moycullen, Co Galway, joined the Green School Programme in January 2006;
In October 2009 we submitted our application to An Taisce.

The inspiration for us to go for the Green Flag came when the local Primary School started to work towards it. We made some enquiries with our local Environmental officer regarding a Pre-school and After School Service
taking on the Green Flag Programme.

The Green School Programme offers a controlled way in which environmental issues can be integrated into every aspects of the pre school curriculum, into school life and also outside of school.It is designed to make environmental awareness part of school life and thereby making
it a part of everyday life.

One of the stages of the Green school programme was to find out what the situation was in the crèche in relation to litter and waste.

We did this by:

–    Carrying out waste surveys.
–    Carrying out litter surveys.
–    Distinguishing between litter and waste.
–    Decided on where each type of waste was to be disposed.

We then decided on our Action Plan: This involved a time table with lists of targets to be achieved during the year,
and what we would like to achieve in the crèche.We made reducing litter our priority.

The experience of the Green schools programme has benefited the crèche enormously in
terms of enrichment for the children. The children have a daily schedule in place which
allows each child their own individual opportunity to play a part in the recycling activities
of the crèche.

Each room has three bins:

1.    Recycling
2.    Landfill
3.    Compost

This allows each child to learn to sort the various type of waste produced by the crèche and to know what material can be recycled.

Through their curriculum, the children are learning about various eco issues connected with the litter and waste theme.
The children also use recycling material for their arts and craft activities.It is most important to highlight that the Green school programme is an ongoing process.Every September we have a new intake of children, so we have to introduce them to our progress on the Green flag scheme and explain to them the importance of recycling.

Over all the progress has helped both staff and children to work together to improve our environment. In Knollcrest Nursery, children as young as two years of age attend our service; they are introduced to the importance of recycling and caring for our environment at this very young age.

Having the experience of doing the Green Schools Programme, Knollcrest Nursery and After-school has benefited by the awareness of our environment.

As a Result we now have:

–    Less litter around our crèche.
–    Less waste going to landfill.
–    More recycling material for Arts and Crafts.
–    More awareness and a greater appreciation of our environment.

Update 2012

Knollcrest are planning in conjunction with An Taisce to continue with the next phase of the Green Schools Programme, and hoping to focus on Water.

Environmental awareness is an on-going daily practice in their service with the children helping and teaching each other about what materials to put in which bins, with the younger children asking the older children for advice.

 Some of the older children also bring in horse manure from their riding stables to help with the composting and the children are in teams assigned to a different bin to help with the maintenance of them.