St Louis Girls National School Monaghan are currently busy working towards attaining the prestigious Green Flag for Energy. St Louis G.N.S was awarded the Green Flag for Litter and Waste Management two years ago and have expanded their comprehensive Waste and Litter Environmental programme to take account of Energy Management.

On Wednesday 7th November the Green Schools Committee in St Louis G.N.S facilitated an “Energy Day” for all classes in the school. Wednesday 7th of November was Eco Schools World Day of Action. For the first time ever 52 countries from all around the world who are involved in the Green Schools Programme held an action Day on the same day highlighting the success of the Green Schools programme and the huge positive impact made by the schools involved.

In St Louis G.N.S the Green Schools Committee highlighted the need to move from reliance on non-renewable fossil fuels to using renewable energy from the sun, wind and water and how by doing this we can all make a difference to our environment.

The Green Schools Committee members demonstrated a series of experiments which showed how effective insulation is in preventing heat escaping and how the lack of insulation wastes a lot of energy.

This was followed by a demonstration of how acid rain affects plants and buildings. A number of experiments showed how chemical energy is converted to heat energy releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The most popular experiment was “The Erupting Volcano” experiment, which shocked and excited the attentive audience!
There was a demonstration of how composting works which illustrated how composting is a great way of using the sun’s energy to reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill, whilst helping other plants to grow.

The Green Schools Committee organised the competitions for all the classes in the school.

The Second Classes designed door hangers to remind everyone to close doors and keep heat in when entering and exiting the school building. The winners in this category were Orla Sherry and Jessica Leane.

The Third Classes designed “Energy Helper “ badges to be worn by the Energy Helpers in each class. The winners were Gránia Curran and Karina Blazejewska.
The Fourth Classes designed templates to put around the light switches to remind everyone to turn off the lights when they are not needed. Colleen Moffett and Deimante Pudziaviate won this competition.

The Fifth and Sixth Classes designed posters to be displayed around the school, encouraging everybody to save energy. The winners of the poster competition were Gertruda Kalvynaite, Áine Mc Elwaine, Rebecca Mc Kenna and Elena Blazeviciute

A competition was held to compose a green code for St. Louis G.N.S., with energy as the theme. The winner was of this competition was Gabija Ragaliauskyte from Third class with the following Green Code.

“St. Louis Girls are energy helpers, Saving energy is cool! Switch off lights and radiators Save energy for our school!”

However on the day, everybody who attended was a winner as everybody learned that it is possible for each person to make a difference to the world by saving energy, whilst enjoying all the fun activities!

The Green Schools Committee are to be complimented on the manner in which they implement the Schools’ Litter and Waste Management Programme as well as the Energy Programme on a daily basis in St Louis G.N.S.