Prouddayfor everyoneat Presentation school
IT was a proud day for the pupils and staff of Presentation Primary School, Ballymakenny when they raised their fifth Green Flag on October 24th. A flag raising ceremony was held to celebrate the prestigious flag from An Taisce and it proved a real day of celebration.
The Green Schools programme is an award scheme that acknowledges long-term whole-school action for the environment. Biodiversity is the fifth Green-Schools theme. This flag looks at increasing awareness of the importance of native plants, animals and habitats and enhancing biodiversity on the school grounds.
There was great excitement as Derek Mooney, presenter of Mooney Goes Wild, RTE Radio 1, attended the event, recording the speeches made for his Sunday night show. Pupils from the Green-Schools committee described the tasks they completed to achieve this flag. These included creating a bug hotel, making bird feeders, planting vegetables in their new raised beds and designing a Celtic garden with native Irish plants.
As part of the ceremony, the Green Flag was blessed by School Chaplain, Fr.Maciej. Fiona White, Green-Schools co-ordinator in the school, thanked all those involved in the school’s Greenflag programme. The new flag was raised by Philip McCabe and former principal, Muireann Maguire. Also in attendance were representatives of the school’s Board of Management and Parents’ Association, a number of retired teachers and principals of local schools.
The celebration concluded with the children singing ‘An Brat Glas’. Their cheers could be heard nearby when principal Nora Molloy announced that the ice-cream van would be arriving after break.
Meanwhile the school has already started working towards their sixth Green Flag for global citizenship.
The ceremony was included on the Mooney Goes Wild show on Sunday, October 29th. Those wishing to hear the ceremony can find the podcast on the RTÉ radio website.