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In recent years Cork is facing its own climate challenges, often experiencing heavier rainfall and flooding and damaging storms.
Cork’s city is often vulnerable to flooding from the River Lee, with storms in recent years such as Storm Babet and Storm Eowyn causing major disruptions and devastating impact on the local community.
Three Initiatives that I can that I can introduce to my own classroom to are as follows;
Assign students to monitor lights, computers, and whiteboards—ensuring they’re turned off when not in use.
Encourage students to create posters on climate change and display them around the school .
WOW – Encourage students to walk/cycle to school on Wednesday. Illustrating to the students that walking is great for the environment by reducing the number of cars at the school gate, reducing congestion, air pollution and road safety issues.
Implementing these actions would be a great way of incorporating them into the school SSE.Hi Barbara,
I agree 100% about Cork already experiencing the effects of Climate change. Born and raised in Cork, it has been remarkable how much the weather has changed. As a county it is often under yellow/ orange weather warnings for rain, wind. Flooding has become a regular thing with places like Midleton and Mallow experiencing the damage caused to the local community.
The Kildare Migrant Support Centre is an organisation that my school have engaged with over the past number of years. The KMSC that helps refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants settle into life in Ireland. They provide practical support, advice, and community programmes to make sure people who’ve fled difficult situations get a fair chance to rebuild their lives.
What Do They Do?
Legal & Practical Help – Assisting with paperwork, housing, and access to education or healthcare.
Language Classes – Offering free English lessons to help newcomers communicate and integrate.
Youth & Family Support – Running activities to help young people adjust to Irish schools and make friends.
Anti-Racism & Awareness – Educating locals on migration issues to build a more welcoming community.In regards to a school approach in making everyone feel welcome and valued. The school could do the following
A colourful poster campaign
Create welcome packs for new students
Display their artwork proudly around the school, celebrating our diverse community.
Hi Orla,
What an inspiring story—it really highlights the incredible strength of these two remarkable people. To think of everything that they went through at such a young age and yet, with the land the support of your school and the foster family, they’ve not only healed but flourished. It’s nothing short of remarkable.
Hi Mary,
I think your suggestion of a school garden is a great idea.
A school garden will show the children how to care for the environment through composting and saving water. Plus, it brings the school community together, the older classes pairing up with the younger classes.
It also teaches responsibility as students care for their plants. They get excited about eating fresh fruit and vegetables that they’ve grown themselves by working together as a whole school initiative.
Finally being outside helps kids feel happy and focused and is a very welcome break from the classroom.
Hunger is a big problem for children, both here in Ireland and around the world. Even in our own local communities, some families struggle to afford enough healthy food, which can make it harder for children to learn and grow. Globally, millions of children go to bed hungry every night, affecting their health and future opportunities.
As a primary teacher who has spent the last number of years in 1st class, I believe even young children can make a difference. “Implementing a whole-school strategy while promoting SSE support I would encourage my class and the wider school population to take the following approach:
1. Watch a video from Bia Food Initiative and discuss how we can help.
2.The children could create posters or record short videos to teach others.
3.Food Collections – Organising a class food drive for a local charity (like St. Vincent de Paul) helps children see how small actions can support families in need.
4. Grow Your Own – Planting vegetables in our school garden teaches kids where food comes from and how to share it. We could even donate extra produce!
5. Stories such as “The Lunchbox Dream” by Claire Lyons to discuss food waste and fairness.Hi Helen,
I really enjoyed reading your post, I have had similar experiences in my own classroom and it really highlights that at such an early age that young children are influenced as to the gender stereotypes. As teachers it really is important to exposing the children to a wide variety of role models and encourage all children to explore their interests freely, regardless of societal expectations.
I have been teaching in the infant end of the school for the past number of years. It is during Aistear time that I am often able to see a clear examples of gender stereotypes during these activities.
When students were asked to choose roles for a “community helpers” game, most boys immediately picked traditionally masculine roles like firefighters, gardai, and builders, while girls gravitated toward nursing, teaching, or hairstyling. I remember clearly a few months ago, one of my students expressed an interest in being a construction worker, but one of the boys laughed at her and said, “That’s a boy’s job!”
This moment really highlighted for me how early and deeply ingrained gender expectations can be.
As a primary teacher, I feel it is my responsibility, to actively promote inclusivity by exposing the children to diverse role models, facilitating discussions on gender equality, and encouraging all children to explore their interests freely, regardless of societal expectations. Breaking these biases early fosters a more open-minded and equitable future.
Hi Audrey,
I have not yet had the opportunity to teach in an Educate Together School but I love that your school takes a whole school approach/ buddy system to participate in project work.
Bringing in project-based work really lets kids take charge of their learning, and it’s clear that the experiences they get from these projects are fun and engaging. I loved hearing about the emphasis placed on building strong connections with parents through regular events. As this is such a great way to keep the learning going at home and in the community.
I think Development Education in the classroom nowadays is of huge importance to upskill our students into understanding the many global issues that we encompass in our society.
Key issues such as poverty, climate change and human rights come to mind when I think of this.
We have the opportunity, as teachers, to make pupils aware that prejudice and injustice should not be tolerated in society and that every individual should be treated the same no matter what race or colour you are.
We can teach this in our classrooms through many different subjects including geography (climate change, migration); history (colonisation, resistance movements), languages (read stories from various cultures).
We can look at case studies of current events happening such as the war in Gaza and climate change. Debates and role plays could be used in the senior end of the school to develop the children’s critical thinking.
