On Wednesday a man called Simon came to our school telling us about music in ancient Ireland. He showed us loads of instruments such as a stone flute, bow harp, bull horn and a bone whistle. We had so much fun and really enjoyed it. Have a look at our pictures.

We had our energy action day on the 18th of February. We all dressed in green and had a low energy day. We turned off the lights and we didn’t use any light or electrical appliances. We monitored our electricity usage that day. We read the meter in the morning and evening and we were delighted when we found out we only used 3 kWh as opposed to 10 kWh when measured on another day. The junior room made paper wind turbines and the senior room completed electricity projects such as making a wind turbine, car and helicopter. We had a great day! Check out our pictures below.

We are collecting batteries for WEEE Ireland and we are delighted to find out we are top of the leader board. We hope to keep this up so if you have any batteries please donate them to the school. Check out the leader board at http://www.weeepledge.ie/.

We found these useful tips for saving energy at home on the Green Schools website.
1. Unplug electrical equipment – computers, mobile phone chargers – equipment on standby uses up to 20% the energy it would use when fully on.
2. Switch off lights & heating when you don’t need them.
3. Don’t overfill the kettle – only boil as much water as you need.
4. Turn your heating down to a comfortable 20ºC – lowering your thermostat by 1ºC will knock 10% off your heating bill.
5. Use compact fluorescent lamps (CFL’s) instead of traditional bulbs – they use 20% the energy and last up to 15 times as long.
6. If you have a short commute, walk or cycle instead of driving.

We also found out from the Green Schools website what you get for 1 kWh. Check out the interesting information below.

How we measure electricity
Electricity is measured in units. Each unit is equivalent to 1,000 watts of electricity used for one hour – or one kilowatt-hour (kWh).
What do you get for 1 kWh?
• an instant electric shower 7 to 10 min
• an immersion water heater 15 to 20 min
• a large ring on an electric cooker 20 to 40 min
• a kettle 20 to 40 min
• a tumble dryer 20 to 40 min
• a two-slice toaster 40 to 60 min
• a washing machine 70 to 100 min
• a dishwasher 70 to 100 min
• a desktop computer & monitor 4 to 6 hours
• a 28-inch TV 6 to 9 hours
• a 100 watt standard light bulb 10 hours
• a 20 watt CFL light bulb 50 hours

Sharon Cameron from the Green Schools visited us in January. She came to see how we were getting on with our energy theme. We played a big energy saving board game and had great fun. She then met with the Green Schools committee. We’ll soon be ready to send off our application form and hopefully we will have our second green flag by the end of the year.

Last month we learned lots about electricity and we did lots of experiments. We had great fun. Have a look at our pictures!

On Friday the 16th of January 2015 a 6th class pupil Joseph went to the Mayo County Council office in Castlebar to collect his prize for his drawing on road safety. His picture is shown on the month of February in the Mayo County Council (road safety) calendar. Joseph won a road safety/bike kit to help him keep safe on the road, Come into the school to see his drawing.