Harvest Time
We had a bumper harvest in the school garden this year. We harvested the last of the veg and made our own delicious soup. Such a great feeling of satisfaction for the children to reap the rewards of all their hard work and to enjoy their own tasty soup in school.
Grow At School Initiative
Pupils working hard in our school garden planting carrots, parsnips, broad beans, peas, turnips and various leafy greens. Our planter boxes, seeds and soil have all been provided by GIY. We are delighted to be taking part in their Grow At School Programme.
Working towards our 8th Green Flag:
Global Citizenship-Marine Environment
Action Day
Children took part in the BLAST Initiative (Bringing Live Art to Students and Teachers) with Laois Education Centre and artist Annie Holland. Annie focused on reducing both food and plastic waste. Children created their own tiles with environmental messages and pictures that they chose to portray. Our motto at Redwood NS is 'Reduce, Reuse, Refuse to use'. The results of our Action Day were on display for our official opening of our new extension. All were welcome on the day and among those who attended were Minister for Education Norma Foley, Bishop Fintan Monoghan, other dignitaries and members of our community.
Zero waste Lunches
As a DEIS school all pupils now enjoy a hot meal every day at school, provided by The Lunch Bag. All packaging, cutlery and napkins are 100% compostable and any food waste that occurs is donated to local pig and poultry farmers. Children bring their own drinks in reusable bottles. A waste free day was organised to make everyone aware of how to manage waste and reduce packaging and plastic use as much as possible.
Bicycle Recycling and Cycling skills
We accept donated bikes that children have grown out of and fix them if required. They are then available to all pupils to assist in learning to cycle. Here the children are participating in Cycle Right programme with Birr Outdoor Education centre.
A day out on our bikes:
We had a great day out on our bikes cycling to Redwood Bog where James Heenan gave us a very informative tour. On our way home we stopped off at Houlihan's farm to see their lovley pigs and newborn banbhs.
CLOTHES RECYCLING
We organised a clothing collection
in conjunction with Bag2school
and raised money for both the school
and Laura Lynn Foundation.
We also invited the community
to get involved by advertising it on the
local newspapers and newsletter.
We organised a clothing collection
in conjunction with Bag2school
and raised money for both the school
and Laura Lynn Foundation.
We also invited the community
to get involved by advertising it on the
local newspapers and newsletter.
In our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint the Junior Room made blackberry jam. We sourced blackberries near our school and we re-used yogurt containers to put the jam into. We are learning about reducing the amount of waste we produce and reusing where possible waste that we do produce. We also aim to use less plastic in our lives as so much plastic waste often ends up in our drains, rivers and oceans.
The blackberry jam was delicious, we loved making it and eating it!
The blackberry jam was delicious, we loved making it and eating it!
Our Senior room made stewed apple using locally sourced apples. We aim to reduce our use of plastic in our lives by preparing and cooking our own food, where possible, and cutting down on the use of packaging if we bought our food. We are very aware of the amount of plastic waste especially that ends up in our waterways affecting the lives of fish and creatures living in the water.
7th Green Flag- 'Global Citizenship-Energy'
We were delighted when we got word we had been awarded our 7th green flag for 'Global Citizenship-Energy' during lockdown. When we got back to school we proudly raised our flag, we also raised 7 pennants representing each of the flags we have earned on our green school journey so far: Litter & Waste, Energy, Water, Travel, Biodiversity, Global Citizenship-Litter & Waste and Global Citizenship-Energy.
Redwood Organic Market Garden
Action Day for Global Citizenship - Energy
Wild Food Mary - Day 1, 05th Sept 2019.
Our charity work towards Global Citizenship
Green Schools Expo - RDS
Working towards our 6th Green Flag!! - Global Citizenship
Mind the Gap
Our charity work
Every year we like to work with charities to help people all around the world that are not as lucky as we are. We are very grateful for our warm homes, our loving families, our health and our full bellies. We realise that not every child around the world has what we have so we like to fundraise for various different charities every year to show how thankful we are.
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TEAM HOPE is an Irish, Christian development aid charity, working with children, and through them, into their families and communities mainly across Eastern Europe, former Soviet Union and Africa. |
TEAM HOPE SHOEBOXES
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Jersey Day for GOAL
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Mission Statement of GOAL
"To work towards ensuring that the poorest and most vulnerable in our world and those affected by humanitarian crises have access to the fundamental rights of life, including but not limited to adequate shelter, food, water and sanitation, healthcare, education and economic opportunities." |
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Temple Street Children's University Hospital, founded in 1872, is a paediatric hospital that cares for 145000 sick children per year. We fundraise for them every year by dressing up for Halloween and every child brings in a donation. |
TRICK OR TREAT FOR TEMPLE STREET
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CHEERIOS BREAKFAST MORNING
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It’s a fun charity breakfast which is hosted across the country to help support the ISPCC Childline services which answers calls from children in need across Ireland 24 hours a day. |
Our fifth green flag!!
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Our outdoor classroom
We were very fortunate to be awarded a grant from the 'Local Agenda 21 Environmental Partnership Fund' from Tipperary county Council, to erect an outdoor classroom.
It's a fabulous way to be close to nature in an educational setting.
Biodiversity...................our life support system
Joanna Williams - Artist in Primary school scheme
Redwood N.S. were delighted when their application to Tipperary County Council for the Artist in Primary School Scheme was successful. The scheme involved the school working with an artist over 50 hours funded by Tipperary Co.Co.
We worked with artist Joanna Williams from Cloughjordan Ecovillage. Together we drew up a plan for the project and decided to delve into the theme of 'Biodiversity' as we are currently working towards this theme for our fifth green flag.
The project was very exciting and focused on three main areas (1)Biodiversity - exploring habitats through shadow play and puppetry (2) Using suitcase puppetry to examine planting and growing across the seasons (3) Examining the effects of pollution on our environment through Japanese style 'Bunraku' puppetry.
All classes from Junior infants up to 6th class were involved in the project and explored the themes in different ways. The shadow play and puppetry captured the children's imaginations as the various classes developed different shadow shows on different habitats - the pond, the garden, the sea and the forest. Joanna brought in projections and lots of materials and the children had great fun developing their shadow show to present to their friends in the other classes.
The suitcase puppetry was a new concept to the children and Joanna introduced it first by performing her own show ' The Sunflower Seed' which went down a treat! The junior room then worked on their project of planting and growing, while the senior room worked on a project based on the seasons and change.
The suitcase puppetry was quite challenging as it involved a lot of design and construction and under Joanna's guidance, the children created some very technical and inspiring pieces.
The final part of the project examined the use of drama to explore environmental issues such as pollution. The children had a lot of fun with different drama games and techniques and even some circus skills. They then went on to create some large scale puppets from newspapers in the Japanese style of Bunraku and which also reminded the children of 'Punch & Judy' style puppetry.
The whole project was very exciting and interesting. It was something very new for both pupils and teachers and a very rewarding experience. It was also very rewarding to explore the theme of 'Biodiversity' through art.
We worked with artist Joanna Williams from Cloughjordan Ecovillage. Together we drew up a plan for the project and decided to delve into the theme of 'Biodiversity' as we are currently working towards this theme for our fifth green flag.
The project was very exciting and focused on three main areas (1)Biodiversity - exploring habitats through shadow play and puppetry (2) Using suitcase puppetry to examine planting and growing across the seasons (3) Examining the effects of pollution on our environment through Japanese style 'Bunraku' puppetry.
All classes from Junior infants up to 6th class were involved in the project and explored the themes in different ways. The shadow play and puppetry captured the children's imaginations as the various classes developed different shadow shows on different habitats - the pond, the garden, the sea and the forest. Joanna brought in projections and lots of materials and the children had great fun developing their shadow show to present to their friends in the other classes.
The suitcase puppetry was a new concept to the children and Joanna introduced it first by performing her own show ' The Sunflower Seed' which went down a treat! The junior room then worked on their project of planting and growing, while the senior room worked on a project based on the seasons and change.
The suitcase puppetry was quite challenging as it involved a lot of design and construction and under Joanna's guidance, the children created some very technical and inspiring pieces.
The final part of the project examined the use of drama to explore environmental issues such as pollution. The children had a lot of fun with different drama games and techniques and even some circus skills. They then went on to create some large scale puppets from newspapers in the Japanese style of Bunraku and which also reminded the children of 'Punch & Judy' style puppetry.
The whole project was very exciting and interesting. It was something very new for both pupils and teachers and a very rewarding experience. It was also very rewarding to explore the theme of 'Biodiversity' through art.
It is the variation of all life forms from the tiniest of bugs, to the plants that they feed on, to the biggest whales in the sea.
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Planting seeds
Who says school is no fun??!!
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Planting turnips & carrots
3 little pigs...
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The start of our sunflower!
Spring Planting
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Visiting the pig farm
Filling our flowerpots!
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Dermot's calves.
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Biodiversity is our life support system |
Such a tough job!
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Trip to Portumna Forest Park The children and teachers visited the Portumna Forest Park for a nature walk. We had plenty to see and study and even managed to record a sighting of some deer on the school i-pads!! |
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Preparing our jungle garden with Declan Houlihan....
Making our habitat maps...
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We made our habitat maps last year and will make new ones again in Spring 2016 so we can see what sort of a difference WE have made to our own surrounding areas!!! |