Projects

Transition year is an opportunity for all students to try out new projects and ideas. Over the years our TYs have taken on many new challenges and projects. Here are a few recent ones.

2022 – 2023

IN MY SHOES 2023

Earlier in the term Sligo Grammar School TY students organised an “In My Shoes” charity appeal. They asked students to bring in “pre-loved” shoes for donation to children and young people in the Townships of Lesotho and South Africa. After two weeks they collected 40 pairs of shoes and First Year students helped to pair the shoes collected. Last week some of the TY students volunteered to help the Charity sort and pack the donated shoes in preparation for shipping to Africa. The students spent the day working in a warehouse at Sligo’s historic Hazelwood House and the “In My Shoes” team made a video recording the work and as a thank you to the TYs. The day was busy but very rewarding for the students involved.

SPECIAL OLYMPICS

Sligo Grammar School has had a long association with the Special Olympics. Since last September four TY students, Darragh Lawley, Alana Guckian Walton, Éanna Gallagher and Rory Conneally, have been volunteering with the Shuttle Stars Special Olympics group. They all gave up their Monday nights to come and work with the Shuttle Stars in Sligo Tennis Club. Our own Mr. Gerry Price, who is heavily involved in Shuttle Stars, told us how incredibly diligent and committed the students were and, on behalf of the club, would like to say a huge thank you to the four students and to their parents who dropped them off and collected them every week. “It means so much to all involved to have such dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers” he said. Well done all.

GREEN SGS

For the past number of years Sligo Grammar School has had run the Green Schools project in TY. This year is no different and various projects and activities have been ongoing in these areas. In March, in acknowledgement of World Water Day, a group of 25 students spent a morning in Hazelwood accompanied by Green Schools representatives. They walked a 5km loop in Hazelwood with full bottles of water to replicate the journey that millions of women and children make on a daily basis to collect water. The event opened with a speaker from Uisce Éireann, who focused on the importance of conserving water. She outlined the intensive process our drinking water goes through to get to our taps, and highlighted the fact that access to safe drinking water is one of the basic preconditions for success in the fight against poverty, child mortality and even gender inequality in many parts of the world.

March also saw National Tree Week and SGS students were joined by speakers from An Taisce, who spoke about biodiversity and our native woodlands. A representative of Clean Coasts also spoke to students about how we need to be responsible for our coastlines and also mindful of what we wash down our drains. Thanks to Ms Moore for all her work in organising the activities and talks.

SUSTAINABLE SGS

As part of TY and in recognition of the drive towards a more sustainable future, Sligo Grammar School TY programme includes a Sustainable Living/Community Gardening module. Teacher Sandra Tiernan guides the students through the skills associated with planting and growing flowers and vegetables and increasing biodiversity within the school environment. This month the SGS Community Garden students were delighted to start using their fantastic new greenhouse, built by our extremely talented groundsmen, Michael Fadian and Harry Nairn. Located in the Herm garden, Harry and Michael built it from scratch by re-purposing paving from around the old swimming pool area for the floor of the greenhouse and by re-using the perspex sheets which were used as screens around the school during the Covid19 Pandemic. They also installed a water butt to allow the TYs collect rainwater for the plants. This new greenhouse is a wonderful resource for both TY Sus. Living students and Leaving Cert Ag. Science students. It is also a great example of recycling and re-using materials.

2021 – 2022

Sustainable Living

This Autumn the Sus Living class have three projects to keep them busy. They are busy preparing colourful planters to be placed at the front entrance to the school. Others are getting stuck into digging out the soil in the raised beds of the school community garden to plant food crops for next year. Finally the school is delighted to get involved with the Gaisce Award #BulbsForBeeschallenge. This project is an all-Ireland challenge to plant pollinator-friendly bulbs. Early spring is the time that many pollinators emerge from hibernation and need to find food, and species like Grape Hyacinth and Crocus are rich sources of nectar. Later species like Allium provide nectar in the summer. The TY students planted 50 Grape Hyacinth (Muscari Armeniacum) bulbs in the flower bed at the front gate. Hopefully the school grounds will be brimming with flowers – and bees – in the spring.

For more information on this project – and to get involved yourself – go to https://www.gaisce.ie/bulbsforbees/ and follow the project on Twitter @GaisceAward #BulbsForBees

Green Schools

Sligo Grammar School runs a “Green Schools” class in Transition Year. This is a national initiative which encourages schools to promote environmental awareness among students as well as setting goals for the school in terms of its own environmental footprint. This year the Sligo Grammar School TY Green Schools Committee have been busy this term. They organised a series of “climate aware” events for Climate Action Week from 11th to 15th October, airing a documentary titled “The True Cost” which highlighted the social and moral issues around cheap clothing. They are following this up by organising a textile recycling drive on Wednesday 3rd November. They are inviting students, parents and friends to donate unwanted clothing to the recycling drive. They hope that the act of gathering unused clothing, together with the airing of “The True Cost” will make students and their parents make more informed choices about “fast fashion”.

GREEN SCHOOLS BACK ON TRACK IN 2022!

Our Green Schools team were back picking litter this week as part of their campaign to keep out environment tidy. After their work they enjoyed a well-deserved hot chocolate!

Our TY GreenSchools Committee have been busy this term and have installed a new recycling bin system throughout the school. Watch the Video below to see what they have to say about the new system.

Young Social Innovators

A group of TY students are involved in the Young Social Innovators project which en- courages young people to take an interest
in social issues of all kinds.

Watch their “Speak Out” video here.

The first fundraiser of the year was on Friday 22nd October. Just as the school broke up for the mid-term break, virtually the whole school population got dressed up for Hallowe’en. The annual Fancy Dress for charity was a fun-filled way to wind up the half-term. Students and staff alike got involved, coming to school in a vast array of fancy dress. We had Jedi knights, punks, Mario Bros, Grim Reapers, witches and wizards galore as well as dinosaurs, gypsies and pirates. Prizes were awarded to the best fancy dress in each class as well as to the best-dressed teachers, Ms Hynes, Mr Staunton, Mr Lynch, Miss Hall and Mr Geraghty. The group raised almost €800 for UNICEF Afghanistan Children’s Appeal.

The teacher photos are above- always good for a laugh! To see many more photos from the day look at the Gallery for 2021/2022.

Shoebox Appeal

Well done to Siobra O’Callaghan and Siofra McElduff who organised The Shoe Box appeal collection as part of Young Social Innovators. The girls displayed great organisation and team work skills participating in this worthy initiative.