Green flag awarded to Moate CS

A few years ago, it was decided to implement a Green Schools Programme in MCS. The main objective behind this was to tackle the problem of litter and waste management in the school. With a staff of over 60 members and a student body of 650, this was a challenging project. Students were invited to volunteer for the committee, the response from the students was quite remarkable. At present, there are 22 students on the Committee and some staff members. In order to implement a Green Schools Programme, there are seven steps, which must be adhered to the Committee, the action plan, the environmental review, informing and involving, monitoring. Wednesday, May 6th was 'D-DAY' for the Green Schools Committee in MCS. This was the day designated for the Assessors from An Taisce and Athlone Town Council to visit the school. Lorraine Flanagan represented An Taisce and Lorraine Derwin represented Athlone Town Council. The purpose of these visits is for the assessors to witness first hand the efforts of the Green Schools Committees. The day commenced with Ms. Foley meeting the two assessors to discuss different aspects of the application and to speak in general about the success of the programme in MCS. The assessors then met with the committee members. This 'interview' session lasted over an hour. The Committee members had to discuss the seven steps of the programme in detail. This was followed by a tour of the school. The assessors were accompanied by five members of the committee who led them around all the different buildings in the school highlighting many of the initiatives that had been introduced in the school over the past number of years. The feedback from the Assessors on the day was extremely positive and they were suitably impressed by a number of different aspects of our programme. A ceremony to award the green flag took place in Croke Park, Dublin. The awarding body for the green flag is An Taisce. At the Ceremony there were representatives from An Taisce and from Repak. Repak have provided sponsorship over the last number of years. The Ceremony on Monday afternoon was specifically for schools in County Westmeath and Offaly. MCS was represented by Giselle Foley (MCS Environment officer) and three Green schools committee members, Redmond Arigho, Katie Egan and Lorna Henson. MCS is only the third secondary school in Westmeath to achieve Green Flag status. The other schools are Mullingar Community College and St Josephs, Rochfortbridge. As well as being awarded the Green Flag, each school was awarded a Certificate of Achievement.