On Friday afternoon last, pupils, staff and families of our 6th Class pupils gathered at the front of our school to celebrate the raising of our school's 6th Green Schools flag.

The 6th Class pupils treated us to a lovely speech, explaining that a Green Schools flag is an internationally recognised flag, awarded to schools who have displayed a long-term commitment to caring for the environment. 

This flag has been awarded to us for our work on the theme Global Citizenship Litter and Waste over the past two years, under the guidance of Ms. O'Connor.

As part of our work, we learned about global Citizenship - people all over the world share the same earth. We are all connected by the foods that we eat, the clothes that we wear and how we dispose of our waste. We can support farmers and producers in developing countries by choosing to buy Fairtrade tea, coffee, sugar, chocolate and cotton.

In recent years, we have reduced our general waste, increased our recycling, installed an orange Re-Turn bin for plastic bottles at our school and  reused bottle tops to make murals. We took part in the National Spring Clean litter pick, made Christmas decorations using recycled materials, had a willow-weaving Day of Action, grew our own fruit and vegetables, cared for our own hens and much more. 

We learned about two more important "R" words, "REFUSE" and "REPAIR". REFUSE means refuse to buy items you don't need or refuse to buy items wrapped in plastic, while REPAIR means get an item fixed instead of throwing it in the bin e.g. get leather shoes or boots repaired by a cobbler, get the screen on a smartphone replaced instead of buying a new phone.

Our 6th Green Schools flag was raised by our very special guests Eileen and Michael Fahey, whose work in Kilteevan Tidy Towns continues to inspire us.

It is great to see our new Green Schools flag flying proudly outside the school. Thank you to all the staff who helped with our Green Schools work in recent years; Ms O'Connor, Mrs Brennan, Ms Whyte, Mrs Coyle, Ms Tarmey, Ms Slyman, Lena, Vicky and Rachel. 

Thank you to Breda Cahill Durr for the beautiful photographs. 

Well done boys and girls!

Nettle Weevil (Phyllobius pomaceus) is a short nosed beetle with very attractive bright metallic blue scales, it measures 7–9mm in length.

The scales were shimmering in the bright sunlight today. However, these scales easily rub off, leaving older specimens appearing dark or black.

 They are not harmful to humans feeding mainly on stinging nettles and meadowsweet.

They play a small but essential role in the Irish ecosystem by supporting local biodiversity, controlling invasive weed spread, and acting as food for native wildlife. Nettle patches are vital for Irish wildlife, supporting over 40 species of insects.

You know who, got a poor photo two years ago and has been observing nettles ever since. Today right place/ right time. Start watching!

Members of the community and the local school children cheered on very special guests passing through the village today.  While we waited, beautiful art work, flags and percussion playing by the pupils of Kilteevan National school lifted all spirits.

At 1.18 p.m. the FTD Brothers Jordan and Cian Adams from Redditch UK came running past us.

They are running an unbelievable 32 consecutive marathons to raise awareness and funding for research about Frontotemporal Dementia(FTD). They have lost 12 Irish relatives to the disease including their mother at just 52 years, grandmother and aunt.

Jordan and Cian have been diagnosed with the rare gene that causes FTD which means they may go on to develop early onset frontotemporal dementia disease.

Today we witnessed, courage resilience, strength, love of life and hope as Jordan and Cian ran through Kilteevan village. Thank you for touching our lives today. We wish you well and remember “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness”