Travel Flag
Walk to School Week
From the 11th to the 15th of March we will be having a Walk to School Week. We will be encouraging as many children and parents as possible to make the journey to school on foot. For those who live outside the Glen we are encouraging you to ‘Park and Stride’. This means parking safely some distance from the school and walking the last part of the journey.
The walking will be monitored and there will be treats for the girls who make the effort to walk. Walking is good for one’s physical and mental health and is good for the environment too.
As our Slogan says;
“So come on now and walk, walk walk.
Green Schools Slogan
We are St Brendan’s Green Schools Girls,
We want to help you move.
Cycle, scoot, skate, jog, walk.
Ditch the car and take a walk.
Breathe clean air, it’s good for your health.
Leave the car, it’s good for your wealth.
St Brendan’s girls just love the world,
So come on now and walk, walk, walk.
NO IDLING campaign
As part of our Travel theme we are taking part in the ‘No Idling’ campaign. The aim of the campaign is to encourage
car drivers to turn off their ignitions when the car is stopped.
There are a number of very good reasons to do this;
- Exhausts emit CO2 which is the main gas causing global warming so the less that we produce, the better.
- Exhaust fumes are unhealthy to breathe in especially for children whose lungs are still developing.
- Having the engine running when it’s not necessary is consuming fuel and so is burning your money – not a good idea!
- If your car is parked in the school car park with the ignition running it can be hard to children to hear what is happening with cars around them and this can be dangerous.
Having gained the first three flags for Green schools, Litter and Waste, Energy and Water, the focus is now very much on the Travel Flag. The Travel flag encourages children to think about how they get to school, the impact of cars on the environment and helps them to change to a more active and more environmentally friendly way of getting to school – walking.
Wednesdays are our WOW days, Walk on Wednesday. The class with the highest percentage of children who walked to school get to keep the Golden Boot in their classroom for the week.
We are very grateful to Lisa O’Grady from An Taisce Green Schools for the valuable assistance and support that she is providing us in our work.