Beaufort College celebrates raising of Green Flag

Beaufort College celebrated raising their first Green Flag in nearly 10 years for their work on dealing with litter and waste, sharing their celebration with their community partners from Meath County Council, An Taisce, Tidy Towns and Navan Education Centre.

Beaufort students were driven by their understanding of the impact of climate and biodiversity breakdown and the global school strike movement and are taking steps forward to build a sustainable school campus.

"We have big plans that include an outdoor classroom, more green flags, more native tree planting, developing their orchard, planting for pollinators and establishing a nature walk route," the green school committee says.

In the future, the school will focus on areas such as transport, water, and energy and will set targets and report on their progress annually. Students from all years were involved in the drive to win this flag for litter and waste with transition year and the student council taking a lead role. They were assisted by a team of staff who met once a month on a voluntary basis to share their ideas and work on projects.

Following a presentation to the board of management about their work on Green Schools, TY students secured a commitment from the board to bring sustainability to their agenda at all future meetings. Mayor of Navan Padraig Fitzsimons was on hand to acknowledge that the work of Green Schools in Beaufort benefits the whole community of Navan. Ken Flynn, school principal says he "couldn't be prouder of the students' achievements this year. It means a great deal to have achieved this Green Flag at this time. It is a symbol of what we can do when we work together with focus and determination and a signal of the changes to come."

TY coordinator Sarah Louise Rhattigan said: "It really was a team effort, and we couldn't have done it with the help of our caretaker Liam McLareny".