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Hi Alison I Love the idea of an eco team. Its a bit more up to date than the green schools committees. we also do a Christmas jumper swap in our school. it takes the pressure of parents and also encourages sustainable fashion.
Climate change is having a major effect on my local area. Over recent years we have seen an increase in flooding and there has been an increase in storm damage to the town. This year the sports complex roof completely collapsed due to an extreme amount of snowfall in a short period of time. We are also having a lot of school closures due to storms and snow days. This never happened when I was a child.
In terms of SSE, our school needs to evaluate what they are doing to help stop this climate crisis. We need to encourage different initiatives throughout the school. We recently installed a return bottle bank in our school to encourage pupils to recycle their plastic bottles. Other ideas like this also need to be included. It is also a priority to ensure that our children are being taught about this pressing issue and encouraged to make change.
Tralee international resource centre is a wonderful organisation with a vision to create an inclusive community where similarities and differences are understood and accepted. Their mission is to support and advocate for the international community and to facilitate inclusion and understanding between people. They have an amazing mix of different cultures working together. They run English classes, music classes, women’s groups, art and craft classes and much more. They organise different events which involve and invite the whole community.
In our school we have a welcome wall with hello written in many different languages representing the different languages and cultures in our school. I would encourage any class that has pupils from any different countries to research the country and chat about reasons why others come to live in Ireland. we could share this information during our assembly with the rest of the school if the pupils feel comfortable sharing. Reminding pupils about all the people who left Ireland over the centuries and encouraging the pupils to accept and include new children.
I love the idea of having a multicultural event in school to celebrate all the different cultures in the school community.
The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) I would like to explore with my students is SDG 13: Climate Action, i feel it directly impacts their lives both locally and globally. Here in Ireland, children are becoming increasingly aware of climate-related changes such as extreme levels of rainfall, storms that are more frequent and stronger, and very unpredictable weather patterns. These changes affect their local environment and can influence their daily routines, safety, and sense of stability. we had numerous school closures due to severe weather over the last number of years which was unheard of when i was at school.
it is important to note and explore with the children that globally, children in more vulnerable countries face even more severe consequences of climate change. They face droughts, food and water shortages, and displacement threaten their health, education, and long-term opportunities.
To support Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) to 2030 Priority Action Area 5: Accelerating Local Level Action, I plan on implementing a research project on fast fashion. i hope to open the students eyes to the damage it does to the planet and encourage them to look in charity and vintage shops first when buying clothes. this is something i have only recently started doing myself and i would like to explore the topic with them.
I really like the idea of comparing the vast amount of rainfall we get with the droughts and wildfires in other countries.
Gender stereotypes significantly shape children’s development from a very young age, influencing how they see themselves, how others treat them, and the choices they feel are available to them. These stereotypes are often subtle and pervasive, reinforced by family, media, school, toys, and language. Boys are often discouraged from expressing emotions which can have major impacts on their mental health. Grisl may be praised for being quiet, pretty, or kind, but not always for being assertive or curious, shaping how they view their value in the world. They often get called bossy or annoying for speaking their mind or trying to speaking Toys marketed by gender (e.g., trucks for boys, dolls for girls) influence children’s interests and skills.
I have seen first hand in my own family that dads don’t want their children playing with dolls and toy kitchens. Kids naturally play with different types of toys. I found that by having the toys available to play with in a mixed way helps them chose all sorts of toys. Don’t have a girls and a boys section of toys.
Development Education can significantly contribute to school self evaluation by promoting core values such as inclusion, collaboration, kindness, acceptance, and openness. Embedding these themes within the classroom and the wider school community helps to cultivate a welcoming and supportive environment. In such a space, children learn that society should not—and will not—limit their potential or prevent them from becoming who they aspire to be.
That is crazy that even teachers commented on his hair. this is why it is important for all teachers to be involved in the teaching of development education- they need to educate themselves also
I really like the idea of integrating Development Education through cross-curricular projects tied to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), using real-world case studies to promote empathy, debate, and action.
Development education is important because it empowers individuals and communities to understand and engage with global issues in a critical, informed, and transformative way.
It builds global citizenship by helping people see themselves as part of a global community, with rights and responsibilities that go beyond borders. It promotes solidarity, empathy, and a strong commitment to justice, equality, and human rights.
It raises awareness of global inequalities by highlighting the root causes of poverty, climate change, migration, conflict, and injustice—rather than just focusing on the symptoms. It encourages critical thinking about power structures, colonial histories, and the ongoing role of the Global North in sustaining global injustices.
Development education also promotes active citizenship. It moves beyond charity and saviourism, instead fostering long-term, justice-based action. It inspires people to advocate, campaign, vote, volunteer, and make ethical decisions in their everyday lives.
I plan on using the lessons in this course to create a short course for the level 2 learning programme. I will teach it as an individual course but also link it to other areas of the curriculum. In literacy you can explore many different areas of this topic using novels, reading comprehensions and research projects. In science, topics such as energy and ecology provide opportunities to explore the environmental practices of different countries.
I would encourage other L2LP teachers to use the short course and also speak with other class level teachers about the course and explain how it can benefit all students in our school.
Thanks for this information. i had never used Duchas website before but i will from now on! great resources on it.
Consider how many Songs / Poems /Art can you think of to connect us with the Night Sky?
I have always been intrigued by the night sky, clearly so have many others when you consider the amount of poems, songs and art inspired by the night sky.
Here is a list of songs I can think of based on or inspired by the night sky.
Wake Up in the Sky- Gucci Mane, Bruno Mars, and Kodak Black
A Sky Full of Stars – Coldplay
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds – The Beatles
Children of the Sky- Bob Sinclair featuring Steve Edwards
Bigger Than the Whole Sky – Taylor Swift
Burning in the Skies – Linkin Park Kiss the Sky – Jason Derulo
Sky – Sonique
We even see the sky mentioned in nursery rhymes! Twinkl twinkl little star
When I think about Art depicting the night sky the first image i think about is starry starry night by Vincent Van Gogh. It really is such a beautiful piece showing us the night sky with out light pollution! Café Terrace at Night is another piece Van gogh showing us the night sky.
Others include
Kandinsky – Moonlit Night
Monet – Seascape
Bonnard – Night Landscape
Elsheimer – The Flight into Egypt
There are numerous poems also worth mentioning.
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by Wordsworth.
The Starlit Night by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Twas the night before Christmas.
Firework Night by Enid BlytonI think it is a good idea to have lessons on what biodiversity is. The pupils don’t always fully understand what it means and they might not know what to look for if they are exploring the biodiversity of an area.
How you would engage your learners to explore biodiversity in your local area and
the possible impacts of light pollution on local biodiversity.We are very lucky where we live because there are many areas close to use with rich biodiversity to explore. We Have a wetlands area within walking distance and a forest a short distance away.
The school itself has a very rich biodiversity as we have a very active green schools and horticulture committee. Major works have been done around the school over the past number of years. I would begin with a walk around the school grounds and ask the children what plants and insects they can see. Each child would have a map of the school grounds where they could write or draw what they found. We have different areas in the school that we can explore – The pond area (man-made!) the wooden area, the teachers garden, the polytunnel and the hares corner. We will compare the different areas and explore what we found in each.
We have only recently added a hares corner but already there is lots of wildflowers and plants growing.
I would show the children videos explaining biodiversity and chat about the examples we found in our school. We would discuss what else we could do to add to it – a bug hotel maybe..
We would then think back to lessons on light pollution and explore what effects it is having on the biodiversity in our school grounds and on the other areas near the school like the wetlands and the forest.