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I wasn’t aware of the Green Flag for sustainable travel. I’ll definitely look into this more. We engaged with the local council over the past 2 years as despite being a school in town, a considerable amount of children still travelled by car. The difficulty though was poor safety for those on bikes and no room on paths for many people. The council in fairness tried a one way system to open up space for children cycling at certain times of the day. There was limited success but apparently there are future plans to help out more.
In our local area there is a good engagement with sustainable initiatives. Tidy Towns doesn’t just work on flowers and litter but also on ensuring population of bees is nurtured with the placement of a variety of species in mixed locations.
As a coastal community, there are frequent beach cleans and clean up days planned in order to effectively manage waste. There was also a lot of work done recently to combat erosion which was happening on the peninsula. With lots of houses being built in the area recently we had contractors in explaining their contribution in ensuring well insulated homes that run on sustainable heating systems and how they aimed to protect natural habits with their builds.
A long term project of ours has been engaging with the Global Goals. We try and focus on one per term and there seems to be good success. Projects we’ve engaged in include Leave No Trace which is a real life engagement with leaving wherever you’ve been in a better place afterward. We’ve lots of Green Flag work going on focusing on saving electricity, water and recycling while a long term project includes accessing solar panels for our school. We’ve contributed by implanting a wormery in our school and by planting wild flowers and not mowing certain areas of our school grounds.
One of the big investments over the last few years has been our school garden. Each year we’ve tried to input something new into it. One year it was planting areas for vegetables and flowers. Then we inputted a pond with tadpoles which resulted in frogs. Then a garden club was set up with kids empowered to take ownership of the garden. The latest project harvests rainwater from the bike shelters to be used for watering the different areas.
This took one really enthusiastic person and others to follow in behind. It has made quite the difference to our school with the leaving 6<sup>th</sup> Class mentioning how much they’ve enjoyed the garden in their final year (they spend every break time there!)
Talking about sustainability is worthwhile. Seeing it and taking part in its creation in school is a holistic way for children to engage in it.
I made a similar point on Sophie Morris. While it’s important to make your own mind up as each product is different, I think even the fact that labels are being checked now for nutritional value can only be a good thing. We have so much choice as consumers that taking the time to make the right one is vital.
I also wonder what options are available now in our hot school lunches with regards to seafood. I fear due to sensory issues of some that fish options are not being chosen. Perhaps opening children’s eyes to such food with tasters on certain days can help this.
I would find that we teach nutrition and healthy eating as part of our SPHE and SESE curriculum at the moment. There are always opportunities within various other lessons to include further teaching about it and in teaching about Aquafarming it gives a natural tangent to explore. We’ve done limited exploration about the vitamins and natural minerals found in foods and in the extra supplements some children take such as cod liver oil etc. I think further work on this and actually eating the food rather than supplements could be explored further. In our senior classes too they’ve begun to explore food packaging and ingredients in food. Perhaps inspired by Sophie Morris and her Instagram account. They’ve found it fascinating to compare completely different foods and see how the perceived healthy one is actually higher in sugar etc. I think highlighting the comparison with Portugal about the amount of seafood we eat and how it can be added into diets instead of supplements would be valuable.
I think there’s scope for lots of project work investigating seafood and the benefits they provide. I can envisage a lesson where children bring in empty packaging from Donegal Catch or fishfingers and compare nutritional value and ingredients. I’ve seen a few clips where sports stars talk about their diet of proteins like seafood and the benefits they make and this can only help too.I really like your idea of spreading Aquaculture across the school. We need to think of age appropriate lessons across the primary school in order to embed this knowledge into our children. We ran a Marine Life week in our school last April providing lots of resources to teachers to broaden their children’s knowledge. On reflection, splitting these resources into Infants / 1st+2nd / 3rd+4th / 5th+6th would ensure that year on year this topic could be explored at the same time or perhaps even broadened into a monthly study. Perhaps even our assemblies at the time could have speakers etc. The possibilities are there but whole school level is where we need to change
I really like your idea of spreading Aquaculture across the school. We need to think of age appropriate lessons across the primary school in order to embed this knowledge into our children. We ran a Marine Life week in our school last April providing lots of resources to teachers to broaden their children’s knowledge. On reflection, splitting these resources into Infants / 1st+2nd / 3rd+4th / 5th+6th would ensure that year on year this topic could be explored at the same time or perhaps even broadened into a monthly study. Perhaps even our assemblies at the time could have speakers etc. The possibilities are there but whole school level is where we need to change.
As regards the online lessons from the ARC in my classroom, I have similar feedback from lots of people on this forum. They are engaging, make STEM real in the classroom and involve the natural surroundings of Ireland which always grips the attention of children. They seem flexible as regards the age to which children will engage and I think my 2nd Class will be well able for this content next year.
There are good opportunities for integration in areas such as Maths, SPHE, Science life cycles and in areas such as Sustainability and the Global Goals which is a big focus for our school in general. I try to include IT as much in learning as possible so these quizzes and word cloud could be used with tablets and especially some Geography work on Ireland could be used with online maps showing where these farms are and how they operate. To broaden this knowledge, guest speakers are very common in our school and getting locals from the industry would be even more beneficial to the kids.
As regards STEM and SSE process, I think the module leaves scope for identifying a focus of where Aquafarming can be included in a school wide approach. I know in our school we celebrate Marine week and have lots of resources to investigate here. My initial thoughts would be that we identify a focus on Marine, gather evidence from staff about the amount of teaching on it being done. See what’s working and then go to step 4 of making a school wide plan. The resources from ARC are great. If teachers on this platform use them that will be a success. But if this course has a wider plan of getting schools involved in using the resources it’ll be a greater success. The ARC is a good starting point but more is needed.I never thought of the Oyster Festival and I’ve been in Galway when it was on. I think the aquaculture can help meet the demand for oysters while allowing Galway Bay’s stocks to replenish.
I’ve visited VOYA in Strandhill and it was fantastic to see natural local resources being used. I dived a little deeper and apparently there has been controversy over licensing and large scale harvesting affecting the local environment. I think sustainability has been at the forefront of aquaculture and perhaps we’re not far enough along with seaweed in our regulations. We could end up with a situation similar to oysters where we have to allow it to replenish if we’re not careful with how much we allow to harvesting. The issuing of licenses is a good step here and they seem to be restrictive in providing them.
Aquaculture farms in Ireland seem be located all along the western coast from Donegal down as far as Kerry. There seems an abundance of bays, estuaries and fjords there where conditions are ideal for salmon, oysters and mussels. I recall the map from the model where those extremities in the west were unsuitable for anything else really. Being from the east, our land is seen as ideal for farming animals and for tillage. The more rugged western coast would not be as well suited to this and with the gulf stream, aquaculture seems to suit best.
The aquaculture farms provide a vital source of employment and provide economic benefit to many communities. Apart from direct jobs on these farms, indirect jobs in areas such as transport, tourism and processing are vital. One criticism that is always directed to our government is that when our country receives Foreign Direct Investment, it is usually situated in the east of the country while the south and west suffer. Here the natural environmental need for these farms is in the west and they provide vital sustainability to many communities.
A common theme in these farms is sustainability. It appears much thought and research has gone into choosing the locations of these farms. I think this would be an interesting teaching point for a senior class in giving them maps, tide times etc. and having them decide which location is most appropriate for salmon, oysters and mussels.I like the concept of introducing this at infant level. The more I think of it, perhaps when reviewing policies we should have a basic level at SESE (or SE in the new curriculum) we introduce it across all classes. E.g. At infant level we visit this area and then step it up at each level of the school. We do some work on the Global Goals and aquaculture hits a few targets here. 14 – Life below water, 11 – Sustainable communities, 12 – responsible consumption and production. While originally I was focused in where I’d teach it, seeing that it could be done at infant level brings a whole school approach as a possibility.
I found the first module quite informative as despite teaching in a school only a half hour walk from the beach and sea, we’ve never really explored this area. I think we subconsciously teach children all about farms and farm animals like pigs, chickens and cows but never visit the area of fish and those farms. We even bring the kids to a farm in Junior Infants on school tours! As an island nation, I think it’s an area we need to include as part of our curriculum. Knowing exactly where our food comes from and knowing the time and effort put into ensuring it’s quality can only be a good thing.
I was surprised at some of the facts about the amount of our fish that comes from farming and it makes perfect sense when you think of it that these farms should be used rather than wild fishing. I have heard reports about disputes on overfishing in areas and EU quotas and the like and while aquaculture might not work for every species, it’s a sustainable start. It seems Ireland has been proactive about sustainability and the correct treatment of species which is a huge area we focus on in school too which ties in nicely.
I like the lessons the ARC have put forward (yes I added our school to the 500 others waiting) I think teaching 2nd Class next year will be a nice age to bring in explaining the process through videos and quizes. Perhaps the quizes can be transferred into Kahoot form. Having a look at doing this I came across some quizes already made such as https://create.kahoot.it/share/aquaculture/a7000758-6071-4bc8-93bd-0e89fd6c85eeI like the SSE area of Wellbeing. We did this previously and while it was invaluable to focus on it, I found it tricky to assess where we were on it.
Making students feel safe and supported is key to any school environment. In reflecting on your post I suppose I often skip over the areas that you put down as vital. Things like regular check ins, chances to reflect on learning and getting feedback. Even simple reflections like traffic light system or emojis to reflect on lessons or their own work can be such an enlightening experience for both teacher and student.
It seems obvious now reflecting on your post but in effect I always tell students a teachers 3rd job is to teach. Job 1 is to keep you safe and job 2 is to ensure you’re ready to learn. Addressing wellbeing won’t have immediate academic results but will have a more rounded developed individual.
Our new SSE focus is on improving Literacy across the junior classes by introducing the UFLI programme, which is replacing Jolly Phonics. This year, I will be teaching 2nd Class and using the UFLI system for the first time. My SSE focus and I suppose that of the school, is to review how effectively UFLI supports pupils’ phonics knowledge, reading fluency and spelling, while also helping me develop my own confidence and professional competency in delivering the programme.
I will use lesson plans and resources from the UFLI programme itself along with ones created with Teach and Create to support structured literacy instruction. I also plan to use Copilot to adapt and differentiate activities to meet the needs of all learners as UFLI can be a one size fits all category. It’ll also assist those pupils requiring additional support or extension. Assessment evidence will include weekly UFLI check sheets, teacher observations, pupil work samples, spelling assessments and reading fluency checks. Reading coach using specific words would be vital here. This formative assessment information will help identify pupils who may need additional intervention from our SET team and allow me to adjust my teaching accordingly.
As this is my first year implementing UFLI, I hope the evidence gathered will help me reflect on the effectiveness of my teaching, identify areas for improvement and ensure that pupils are making measurable progress in Literacy. Working with the Literacy team (which I’m a part of) I also hope to contribute to the successful implementation of UFLI across the school as part of our shared SSE goals.
I agree with your final statement. It’s not perfect but provides a starting point. I think sometimes as teachers we hit a wall or a mental block and this is where CoPilot can get you out of a hole. I don’t want to go using it for every lesson I’m doing or everything that we’re planning. I also think we need to be aware of the environmental impact if we’re constantly using AI to try find insights when our current ideas and teaching styles are sufficient too.
I used the Canva agent to create a poster for 2nd Class Maths based on subtraction. The main concept is renaming tens when needed. I added in instructions for the rhyme “more on the floor, go next door” “more on top, no need to stop”
I gave as much info as possible in the command and got back a series of possible posters. I had to do some adaptation at first but ended up rejecting it and starting again. As we make children write numbers underneath each other for subtraction, I wanted the poster to show this too.
Copilot in fairness made some nice suggestions for example colour coding the units and tens.
The poster did add value to my teaching as I know having this on display when doing the topic will help remind children of the steps involved for subtraction. I think the frustrating part for me was that I thought I was giving clear concise instructions but these weren’t being carried out so I had to keep giving further instructions. This is probably an invaluable lesson as to not trusting the first draft of anything that is complete! I also wonder that the time taken to create the poster with all the adjustments needed might not have bettered one I made myself. And do children prefer the handmade one?
With regard to the prebuilt agents in SSE, I agree with the statement made that finding balance is the key. Using it as a starter point or as a tool to generate ideas etc can be valuable but we don’t want to completely alter what we’re doing either. I think using it to help set targets within our SSE areas would be valuable or in making posters to advertise to parents and the wider community what our SSE targets are would be beneficial. I like the idea of using it to create social media posts about our aims too.
