The Green Schools Project is managed in Ireland by An Taisce. It is a Euro-wide scheme that aims to increase environmental awareness and to encourage school communities to participate in the management of their surroundings.

The Transition Year students co-ordinate the programme and are supported and promoted locally by Laois County Council.

Heywood Community School has received two Green Flags for it's participation in the recycling and energy programmes. As part of their review, An Taisce, recommend the broadening of our waste management programme to include recycling of paper, cans, plastics and cardboard. Special bins for the collection of plastic bottles are in all social areas and at selected sites on the school grounds.

All the school community are asked to co-operate on these new initiatives.

The Programme consists of the following elements:

• The establishment of an energy committee
• Reviewing energy use
• Informing and involving the wider community
• Monitoring and evaluation
• The selection of a logo

An action day highlighting increased participation in the process, and maintaining continuity in the programme

While this is a two year programme, the committee have already completed step one and are in the process of completing step two.
Parental support would be appreciated particularly from parents whose employment is closely linked with energy. For example, people who work in the building Industry or with the ESB, may contact the school if they wish to share their expertise.
For the school population, it is hoped to have the Green Code on energy up and running by the end of September 2002.

The Green School Project 2002-2003

Composting

Is a natural form of recycling that transforms organic material into a soil-like substance
30%of all rubbish can be composted, reducing waste when organic material is buried, it releases methane gas which contributes to global warming. Good compost involves a mixture of greens and browns: green materials involve leaves, tea bags, raw fruit and vegetable
'peels, fresh grass clippings, weeds which haven't gone to seed, manure from vegetarian pets.
Brown materials are shredded newspaper and kitchen paper, bread, pasta, dried grass, straw, twigs, sawdust. Materials such as meat, bones, fatty wastes (oil), diseased plants, pet waste etc should be avoided. A helpful website is http://www.vegweb.com which will provide you with very useful information. A number of compost bins have been purchased by the school. Some of these will be retained for use by the school and the remainder will be available for a nominal fee of €10. On acceptance of one of these bins the student must agree to use the bin for its designed purpose. The school retains the right to inspect the bins at any time and will redistribute bins that are not being used satisfactorily.

Heywood Community School successfully achieved Green School status on 9th May 2002.

We were presented with this European Flag which will remain on display for 2 years for creating a clean environmentally friendly school. Every effort is being made to retain this highly coveted flag.

We retained the flag in 2005

Well done to Mr Dunphy and his Committee for their hard work and effort in making this a reality for the school.