Gaelscoil Phortlaoise pupils launch Walk On Wednesday
Braving the cold weather ag si�l ar scoil
Láinseáil Gaelscoil PhortLaoise an tioscnaimh ‘Siúl ar Scoil’ ar an 19ú Nollag. Shiúil pobal na Scoile ar fad, múinteoirí, cúntóirí agus páistí le chéile ar scoil ó charrchlós Centrepoint. Bhain gach duine sult agus spraoi as an siúlóid. Síltear i nGaelscoil PhortLaoise gur tús maith é siúl ar scoil nó chuig obair.
Gaelscoil Phortlaoise geared up its Green Schools travel programme with the launch of its first WOW (Walk on Wednesday) Day on December 19 which is part of the school’s travel action plan. On the WOW Day all pupils in the school met at Centrepoint car park and walked to school in an effort to reduce their carbon footprint and to solve the problem of traffic congestion at the school gate. Green-Schools co-ordinator Rita Ní Aoláin was delighted with the event.
“WOW is a national initiative. Our Green-Schools committee organised it all and we created a huge buzz around it. Everyone really had fun and the plan is to get everyone used to doing it. It’s a much better way to start the day”.
The school has already earned three Green flags for work on the themes of litter and waste, energy conservation and water conservation, and is working now to promote more sustainable travel options on the school run and ultimately achieve a fourth Green Flag from An Taisce.
Since starting their Green-School’s travel programme in September 2012, the school has already carried out a review of current school travel, an audit of walking routes to school, has had a presentation on climate change from their Green Schools travel officer Sarah Fitzgerald and will be starting a six week long cycle training programme with funding support from An Taisce Green-Schools and Laois County Council.
The overall aim of the Green-Schools travel programme is to encourage students, teachers and parents to walk, cycle, park ‘n’ stride and car-pool instead of using the private car on the school run. Recent research on the economic value of the Green Schools programme has shown that in one year over 500,000 litres of transport fuel has been saved by Irish schools participating in the programme due to their reduction in private car use on the school run.
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Weather for Portlaoise
Sunday 19 May 2013
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 11 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 8 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North west
