The Senior Room have been doing a lot of work over the past 2 years on protecting our pollinators. We have used the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan to guide us in our studies. https://pollinators.ie/ The children understand the importance of providing shelter, food and safety for our pollinators around our school and home. We were very lucky to have local beekeeper, PJ McLoughlin, in the school to talk to us about beekeeping and pollination during different times of the year.

Over the past 2 years, the Senior Room have worked hard to create shelter for our bees in hedgerows, minibeast hotels and ‘No Mow Zones’ around the school. We have identified pollinator friendly plants like ivy, rowan, blackthorn, whitethorn, dandelion and clover and made sure that they are plentiful throughout the year for the bees. We have planted pollinator friendly plants around the school like lavendar, heather and crocus. While growing our own food and plants at school, we have ensured not to use any pesticides, which we have learned are harmful to our pollinators. Instead, we have used eggshells and orange peel to keep the slugs at bay.

Our 6th Class children are creating a mural to promote our Green School Motto, “Don’t mow, just sow.”