Dear Parents and Guardians,
As we journey further into spring and growth has finally started to pick up pace, I wanted to give you all an update about what’s happening in our school garden and some opportunities and occasions that are coming up. We are incredibly lucky to have the garden space here that we do and it’s amazing to be able to make the most of it.

Pollinator Plan

Last year, through Microsoft and a platform called ChangeX, we were able to secure €1000 to put towards projects related to pollinators in our school. So far, this has meant that we’ve been able to establish one wildflower bed and a second one beside our geodome is almost ready for planting. Some of the staff have been putting in extra hours to get these areas in top shape and we wouldn’t be able to do it without their help. 
Inside the geodome, we have designated one bed as a sensory bed and filled it with plants and flowers to stimulate both the senses and the bees! Drawing bees into our geodome greatly helps our strawberries, peppers and tomatoes and the sensory bed is a great resource for children with sensory needs.
In addition to this, we have erected some signage on our grounds to promote awareness of pollinators. We have also teamed up with Alex, our caretaker, and have designed a mowing plan to allow the grass in certain areas of the school grounds to grow long throughout the summer months to encourage lots of wildflowers to grow and thrive. We are looking forward to starting some more projects this year with pollinators in mind if we can secure the funding for a second year!

RTÉ Visiting Our Garden

Such is the success we’ve managed due to this fantastic funding, RTÉ have become interested in what we’re doing and are coming to the school next week to film us for a segment on a TV show! We’re not sure which show yet but it’s very exciting!They will want to talk to a few of the children and film us chatting about our projects so if your child has the opportunity to be part of the visit, we will ask your permission in advance for them to be filmed for the TV show. 

Parents Gardening Club

Our parents gardening club has been going steadily this term and they have already achieved wonderful things! In the geodome, there are pots of flowers growing well and salad leaves and spinach are already peeking above the surface. They have also planted carrots and strawberries and done so much amazing maintenance work to keep the beds in tip top shape. If you are interested in joining the parents gardening club, no experience is necessary! It’s on every Thursday morning from 9:30 – 11:30 and the current members would love to see you there. If you have any questions about it, you can message your WhatsApp group or email Ronan directly at ronan@powerstownet.com.

Tree Planting 

We have been fortunate enough to receive a large shipment of bare root trees from Fingal County Council, all of which are native Irish trees. We intend on planting hawthorn all along our boundary fences to create a hedge on the side bordering the Gaelscoil and a shelter belt at the back of the school to help us tame the prevailing winds that wreak havoc on our plants. With the help of the PTA, we hope to organise a tree planting event in the coming weeks so stay tuned for more information on that. 
That’s it for now. We’ll be in touch soon about the upcoming events and more ways that you can get involved. In the meantime, have a wonderful weekend!

Ronan.