St Paul's Primary & Nursery School (Slievemore): Going green for the day

Location: 1 Moss Park, Derry, BT47 6SX

Website: http://www.stpaulsps.net/

Entry Date: 10 May 2018

For a full day of teaching on 16 March 2018, St Paul's Primary & Nursery School (Slievemore) didn’t use electricity! The school was holding a special Green Day to mark Waste Week 2018. All lessons during the day were either taught outside or inside in a way that did not directly use any energy. To make things even more special, pupils were given permission to leave their usual uniform at home and come to school wearing green in return for making a £1 donation to the NSPCC.

Throughout the day, pupils engaged in activities that incorporated learning about the environment and sustainability. An active and fun ceili dancing assembly was held to help promote the school’s healthy living goals. The whole school, from nursery to P7, used their little green fingers to plant vegetables in the school’s garden. Photos of this were later shared with the primary’s partner school in Zambia, Lusaka Primary School. This school has its own garden too, which teachers from St Paul’s helped to create during a recent visit to Zambia.

Green Day also involved every year group going out into the local community to take part in a litter pick. Pupils collected a huge haul of rubbish, making sure to sort it into recyclable and non-recyclable waste with the help of their teachers. A prize was offered to the best litter pickers: this was won by P2 this as they collected over 24kg of waste! They will now get to go on well-deserved field trip to the local park.

Even for those who didn’t win a prize, it was a fun and memorable day, with lots of learning opportunities.