January 22, 2020 • 2 min read
Primary schools in Dublin, Roscommon and Wicklow have been honoured by GOAL, for demonstrating their contribution and commitment to helping achieve the Global Goals.
Our Lady Queen of the Apostles National School in Clondalkin, Co. Dublin and Castleplunkett National School in Castlerea, Co. Roscommon were named today as joint winners in the GOAL Changemakers Competition, which invited primary school students all over Ireland to share their actions for global change. St. Patrick’s Loreto Primary School in Bray, Co. Wicklow, are runner up for their fantastic efforts.
The third-class students from Our Lady Queen of the Apostles National School impressed the judges with their campaign to ban single use utensils and plastics in their school. The students were shocked by the amount of food packaging discarded daily in their school, and are lobbying their school food suppliers for reusable utensils and to change to biodegradable packaging.
The third and fourth class students in Castleplunkett National School launched a poster campaign to encourage the reduction of fossil fuel use in Castlerea. The students designed the posters and put them up around the town, asking the community to consider alternatives to fossil fuels.
Students from Castleplunkett NS out in the community on the campaign to reduce fossil fuel usage
Meanwhile St. Patrick’s Loreto Primary School, Bray, Co. Wicklow, won the runner up prize for their efforts to highlight the huge amount of waste packaging generated over the Christmas period. The student made their own wrapping paper from recyclable brown paper, decorated with the Global Goals. Bauble shaped tags were created to accompany the wrapping paper to educate the recipients about the Global Goals.
The judging panel, comprised of Newstalk presenter Jonathon McCrea, children’s author Sarah Webb, activist and founder of Flossie and the Beach Cleaners, Flossie Donnelly, and GOAL deputy-CEO Mary Van Lieshout, were blown away by the quality of the entries.
Jonathan McCrea said: “It was great to see such a variety of entries and innovative ideas from young people committed to helping achieve Global Goals. The high quality of entries made judging difficult, and it is clear we have some amazing changemakers among our young people.”
GOAL Deputy CEO, Mary Van Lieshout, said: “The judges were deeply impressed with how children are making a difference at home and in their schools every day. Young people are the future and it is imperative that they believe in and promote a sustainable, fair future. We must equip them with tools to make that happen. We want a planet earth that’s sustainable and here for future generations and it is inspiring to see our young people taking the lead on this.”
