This article is from page 30 of the 2007-10-23 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 30 JPG
IT WAS a proud day at St Mochulla’s National School in Tulla on Friday when staff and pupils raised their second Green Flag.
The school took their energy use to task to earn the accolade and in the process, cut their power and heating bills by 12.5 per cent.
“Staff parents and pupils were all involved,” said school Principal, Bri- an lorpey.
The pupils designed draught ex- cluders for the doors while reflective
panels were put behind all the radia- tors in the school.
Children formed an SOS – switch off switches – squad and patrolled the school in the morning to make sure there were no lights burning un- necessarily and did the same at going home time to ensure that computers and electrical equipment was not left on standby.
The staff room boiler was fitted with a timer and the schools ther- mostats were regularly monitored to make sure the heat had not been turned up too much.
“A parent came in and gave us a talk about how he is saving energy in his house with things like solar panels – it was very interesting,” said Brian.
Tulla Goalie, Phillip Brennan, did the honours in raising the flag at a special ceremony on Friday.
The school got it’s first Green Flag two years ago after the staff and 262 pupils got involved in reducing the school’s waste mountain.
The Green Flag scheme 1s approved by An Tasice in conjunction with lo- cal authorities and Clare County
Council came to the school to in- spect and approve the energy savings before the flag could be awarded.
And the clean, green school won’t stop there. “Having achieved our second flag, we’re now moving to get our third which is for reducing water waste,’ said Brian.