St Ronan’s school awarded two flags

There was a big celebration at a local school to mark the raising of a green flag and a yellow flag there on June 26.

“We had a big celebration,” said Ms Ann Halpin Deputy Principal at St Ronan’s NS, Deansrath, Clondalkin.

Minister of State with Responsibility for Business, Employment and Retail, Emer Higgins raised the green flag while the rapper, Selló, who is also a past pupil of the school, raised the yellow flag.

A green flag is awarded for environmentally friendly steps that a school has taken while a yellow flag is awarded for steps that promotes inclusivity, including issues of interculturalism, equality and diversity, in a school.

“The whole school went to the playing field and we had a big picnic and an ice-cream van,” said Ms Halpin.

As part of the work completed for the green flag, the school had a recent Action Day with the marine as its theme where each class completed a project relating to the marine environment or marine animals. The school also had another action day in January where the Green flag committee went on a bus provided by Dublin Bus to Dun Laoghaire and Sandycove beaches.

On the Green Flag committee there are 36 children from 2nd to 6th classes and five staff members who meet every two weeks and plan what actions they will be taking.

This was the eighth green flag that has been awarded to St Ronan’s.

“You can apply every two years. The theme for this year’s flag is biodiversity and the marine, we did a lot of curriculum work around the theme of the marine,” said Ms Halpin.

For the Green-Schools programme there are eight different themes. “You need to keep the work going on the other themes, for example litter and waste,” said Ms Halpin.

“This green flag is the culmination of 17 years of work,” said Ms Halpin who also retired on June 28 after 35 years teaching in St. Ronan’s.