Nature Heroes 

Litter-picking, weeding, watering and other basic maintenance are ongoing, with volunteers

giving up their breaktimes to contribute to the upkeep of the school grounds.

We have a fantastic new display in the school lobby, promoting awareness of ALL the species

of plants and animals that can be found around Ireland’s countryside. Well done to the pupils

of Ms Griffin’s 5 th class, who created this informative display. The birds around our school

are thoroughly enjoying the feeders we top up each day and we are becoming more familiar

with common garden birds like starlings and sparrows.

The onions and garlic we planted in November are growing nicely and we have added onions

begun in pots by Ms Friery’s 5 th class. We’ve spruced up our bed of crocuses and lots of tubs

of tulips for springtime, and begun planting lots of pollinator-friendly flowering plants, like

primroses, chamomile and marigolds, and vegetables. We will care for these into the summer

months and we hope they can provide nourishment for lots of bees, wasps and butterflies.

These are known as pollinators and without them, we would have no food!

Ms McKeon, Ms Friery and Ms Griffin’s classes have all planted potatoes. We hope to enjoy

these just before the summer holidays! Hyacinths, daffodils and heathers are blooming,

adding colour to the grounds.

Friday, March 21 st was an important day for the Nature Heroes team. Thanks to Fingal

County Council, we collected seven willow saplings to mark National Tree Week. We also

received three downy birch saplings. All hands were on deck at breaktime on Friday, digging

holes and preparing fertiliser, stakes and a temporary fence, to create our new mini woodland

area. Ms Duff, Mr Russell and the 5 th and 6 th classes took the lead, with some pupils really

showing their muscle! We are now ensuring each sapling has its own individual fence, to

protect it at this vulnerable stage and we are keeping them well-watered. We hope that this

area will grow into a beautiful little woodland where we can go to enjoy nature for years to

come.

Exciting times here in St Patrick's NS - We have now a Nature Heroes team! Anna, Ciarán, Cian, Max, Conor, Conor, Amy, Emma, Daithí, Katie, Martha, Kate, Rose, Karina, Isabel, Alannah and Alex, gave of their time during late January and early February, to create new habitats for little critters who might like to make our school grounds their home. Specialthanks to Aidan, of Mrs O' Sullivan's junior infants, who brought in a bag of wood to contribute to our new log piles.

Down on the junior yard in February, our wonderful caretaker, Mr Russell, and the team decided where to locate our new bat box. We have also relocated an existing bird box and added one made by Eoghan’s grandad, Patrick. Enormous thanks to Ciarán de Buitléir for donating the bat box to the school. We will be tapping into some of Ciarán’s extensive expertise in the coming weeks, in our effort to increase biodiversity around the school. We hope to make and/or acquire another bat box or two.

After the midterm break, we will take several measures to enhance our native woodland, at the front of the school. We will label some of the trees, create some eco-friendly windchimes, care for the plants we already have growing in pots and hopefully plant some more. We want to make this an outdoor classroom every class can enjoy. Thank you so much to the Parents Association for their contribution.

There is a lot more to do in our work to improve biodiversity around the grounds of St Patrick' s NS, including the creation of bird care areas and wildflowers, nettles, ivy and pollinators. Donations are always welcome. We would love any amount of timber of any size or large pots (chipped or cracked are fine - we can work with that!).

Here' s to creating a more diverse school, in more ways than one!