Green-Schools Travel Awards Ceremony - St. Colmcille’s Senior NS Win for Cycling

07/05/2013

Archived item. This item is published here for historical reasons. The information below may be out of date.

Minister of State, Alan Kelly T.D. celebrates with students at the

Green-Schools Travel Awards Ceremony

St. Colmcille’s Senior NS Win for Cycling

An Taisce, in partnership with the Department of Transport and the National Transport Authority, were delighted to host this year’s Green-Schools Travel Competition Awards Ceremony in Croke Park, Dublin onTuesday 23rd April at 11am, to award the winning schools in its national travel competition which saw St. Colmcille’s Senior National School, Knocklyon win in the Cycling category and Belgrove Senior Boys School awarded the title of Ireland’s Travel School of the Year for 2013

At a special awards ceremony Mr. Alan Kelly, T.D., Minister of State with special responsibility for Public and Commuter Transport, presented prizes, trophies and certificates of achievement to the winning students in the An Taisce Green-Schools Travel competition. (Full list of winners below)

There was an overwhelming response to the competition this year, which called for schools to explain why they deserved the title of Ireland’s Travel School of the Year 2013, a claim they were asked to back up with statistics showing their school’s shift from non-sustainable to sustainable modes of transport.

There were seven category winners and seven runners-up in this year’s competition with awards presented to schools for their outstanding work promoting particular modes of transport including: walking, cycling, park ‘n’ stride, carpooling and a combination of modes.

Congratulating the winners and runners-up in each category Minister Kelly said:

“Seeing the innovative ways these students have taken up the challenge of making their commute to and from school active and sustainable is very encouraging. The schools have shown that, regardless of whether your school is located in an urban or rural environment, sustainable transport is an option.”

Mr. Anthony Purcell, Acting Green-Schools Travel Manager commented:

“These schools have demonstrated how to create a real shift from private car based school travel to more sustainable modes by applying the Green-Schools methodology and today’s winners represent all schools implementing the programme throughout Ireland.”

Congratulating St. Colmcille’s on their achievement Green-Schools Travel officer Kathryn Poxon added:

“St Colmcille’s Senior National School in Knocklyon is one of the largest primary schools in Ireland with over 700 pupils. They got their Green Flag for Travel in 2009 and have expanded their Travel programme since then. The school’s biggest achievement has been in encouraging safe cycling to school and their most recent surveys show that cycling has increased from five per cent to 30 per cent of the school population. On one of their COW days, they broke records and had over 400 cyclists. St. Colmcille’s carries out regular ‘Travel Challenges’ where walkers and cyclists earn points towards prizes for travelling ‘green’ and monitoring of walkers, park and striders and wheelers is ongoing with their great results displayed around school.

“They even have an X factor style Green-School song contest to celebrate the Green-School themes. St Colmcille’s, under the stewardship of their enthusiastic Green-Schools coordinator Annmarie O’Gara have truly taken hold of the Travel theme and run or even ‘cycled’ off with it!”

The competition forms part of the overall Green-Schools Travel programme which recorded an average 28 per cent reduction in car journeys to school between 2011 and 2012.

Overall winner, Belgrove Senior Boys impressed the judges with their creative mix of projects, events and actions that has led to 88 per cent of their pupils travelling to the school in a sustainable way.

Scoil Chlochair Mhuire, Carrigtwohill, Co. Cork was awarded the title of ‘Walking School of the Year’, while St Colmcille’s Senior National School in Knocklyon won ‘Cycling School of the the Year’ for an excellent safe cycling programme which has led to 30 per cent of pupils now cycling to school. ENDS

EDITORS NOTES:

Award winners:

Ireland’s Travel School of the Year: Belgrove Senior Boys School, Clontarf

Green-Schools Travel

An Taisce has been working on the national Green-Schools Travel programme, which focuses on promoting sustainable travel on the school run, since September 2008. The Travel theme is funded by the Department of Transport and supported by the National Transport Authority. The programme is delivered through the successful Green-Schools programme, known internationally as Eco-Schools, in partnership with Local Authorities.

To date, over 1100 primary and secondary schools countrywide have or are taking part in the Green-Schools Travel programme, implementing sustainable travel action plans in their schools. The ultimate aim of the Green-Schools Travel programme is to encourage students, parents and teachers to walk, cycle, Park ‘n’ Stride, use public transport or car pool instead of using the private car on the school run.

An Taisce

An Taisce, the National Trust for Ireland, is an environmental charity, with a range of interests, extending from the natural heritage of land, air, water, flora and fauna, to the heritage of buildings and gardens. Through its local, national and international networks, An Taisce seeks to educate, inform and lead public opinion on the environment, and influence policy and development. Strategies to achieve these aims include awareness and education programmes. As the Irish member of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), An Taisce co-ordinates the Green-Schools programme as well as well as other environmental education programmes such as Blue Flag, Green Homes, Green Communities and National Spring Clean, in Ireland. See www.antaisce.org for further information.

Green-Schools

The Green-Schools programme is known internationally as Eco-Schools, and is operating in over 50 countries around the world including almost all EU member states, Africa, South America, Oceania and Asia. In Ireland, over 3,700 schools are registered in the programme, with represents 93% of Irish schools. The Irish Green-Schools programme is one of the most successful in the international network – with over 2,500 Green Flags currently flying in Irish schools.

Students in awarded Green-Schools in Ireland are less likely to drop litter, and are more likely to partake in environmental projects; to conserve water and energy; to travel to school in a sustainable way; and to think about the environment when making a purchase, compared to their non-Green School counterparts.

Further information on this research is available from www.eco-schools.org or www.greenschoolsireland.org. For further information on Green-Schools Travel contact Ciara Norton or Green-Schools Travel team on 01 400 2222

Images

• 
  Green School
• 
  Green School Winners