Climate Action Project – clontuskert.scoilnet.ie

Clontuskert Parents Association Uniform Swap ♻️👕👖

August 7, 2026August 7, 2026 kmurray3190

Clontuskert Parents Association is delighted to introduce a School Uniform Swap, a simple and sustainable way to help families prepare for the new school year while reducing waste and giving pre-loved uniforms a second life.

🌱 How It Works

Step 1: Donate If you have any school uniform items that are no longer needed, we would love to receive them. The uniforms must be in good, reusable condition.

This includes:

✅ School jumpers
✅ School tracksuits (crested and non-crested)
✅ Polo shirts
✅ Trousers, skirts, shorts, etc.

Please note that this is a donation-based initiative. Donated items will not be paid for and will be made available to other families within our school community.

📦 Uniform Collection

Uniforms can be dropped to the school office on:

🗓 Monday 10th, Tuesday 12th & Wednesday 13th August
⏰ 10.00am – 2.00pm

👕 Uniform Swap Evening

Families are invited to come along and browse the donated uniforms and take any items they may find useful.

🗓 Tuesday 18th August
⏰ 6.30pm – 7.30pm
📍 School Hall

💛 Donations

A voluntary donation box will be available on the evening for anyone who wishes to contribute. Donations are entirely optional and any funds collected will go towards school fundraising.

♻️ What Happens to Leftover Uniforms?

Any remaining uniforms in good condition will be:

Kept by the school as spare uniforms for pupils who may need them during the year, or
Used in future Uniform Swap events.
We hope this will be a positive way to support families, promote sustainability, and make the most of uniforms that still have plenty of wear left in them.

Thank you for your support, and we look forward to seeing you there!

Kind regards,

Clontuskert Parents Association 🍀

Air Quality Results – Climate Action Committee

December 17, 2025December 17, 2025 kmurray3190

We are delighted to share the results of our recent Air Quality Monitoring Campaign with Globe Ireland, carried out by the Climate Action Committee in 5th & 6th Class with Mrs. Murray.

Thank you to everyone who supported this initiative. The students worked hard to collect data from different locations, and the results have now been analysed by the Globe Ireland lab.

Our Results for St Augustine’s NS Clontuskert
Location Type Tube ID NO₂ (µg/m³)
Heavy Traffic 2748259 6.44 Max
Moderate Traffic 2748302 2.26
Remote Area 2748268 1.67 Min
(NO₂ = Nitrogen Dioxide, measured in micrograms per cubic metre)

What does this mean?
These results indicate good air quality, as all values are well below the EU annual limit for NO₂, which is 40 µg/m³. Higher levels of NO₂ (above 40 µg/m³) are considered harmful and can contribute to respiratory problems, especially for children, older people, and those with asthma.

Explore the Interactive Map
Each school is represented by a dot. Click on a dot to view average, max, and min values for that school.
🔗 Interactive Map https://arcg.is/TeGX0

Thank you for supporting our Climate Action efforts!

STEM workshop with Grow at School’s Mary Bishop

October 18, 2024November 25, 2024 kmurray3190

As part of Maths Week and our Climate Action work, we had a hands on STEM workshop with Grow at School and Mary Bishop of GIY.
We shared our work so far in Clontuskert’s Outdoor Classroom and Mary advised us on the next steps for winter and spring planting. She was very impressed with the Greenhouse Committee from Mr. Gohery’s room and how well they have been caring for the plants.

The students learnt so many tips for not only growing fruit and vegetables but also how to prepare our produce in the kitchen.

Thanks Mary and GIY!

Celebrating Earth Day 2024 in Clontuskert Ireland

April 22, 2024May 29, 2024 kmurray3190

Clontuskert is a Climate Action School.

We celebrated Earth Day by learning how to cultivate our own garden in our new Outdoor Classroom.

Ms. Steele taught us how to plan our planting so that we can start harvesting before the end of term.

We planted strawberries and raspberries that were grown from seedlings in Ms Steele’s home greenhouse. Everyone across the school from Junior Infants to 6th Class got to plant and we look forward to helping each seed grow over the next few months.

Check out the highlights here and thanks to Ms. Steele for sharing her knowledge with our students.

Galway Science & Technology Festival Launch 2023

October 12, 2023October 15, 2023 kmurray3190

🤩 3rd & 4th class from @clontuskertns presented their FIRST LEGO League project #SuperPowered at Galway Science & Technology Festival Launch today.

🤩 It was wonderful to hear our students share their learning with dignitaries from @Medtronic @uniofgalway @atu_ie @GalwayCoCo @galwayscience

🐠Thanks to @galwayscience for inviting us to visit @GalwayAquarium afterwards 🐠

🐠Many questions were answered by Alana and great enthusiasm for fish, the sea and all things marine was shown by all of the students! 🐠

Thanks to Anne Murray for inviting us and to all at Galway Science & Technology Festival for consistently inspiring the people of Galway, young and old each year.

Thanks to Ms. Conneely for running the SuperPowered project with us and helping us with our speeches and Mr. Kres for helping us prepare for the event.

Green Schools Walk to School Week in Clontuskert

September 23, 2022September 23, 2022 kmurray3190

This week the Green Schools Committee with Ms. Scott, organised a Nature Walk around Clontuskert for Walk to School Week.

The Committee visited each classroom this week to share their research and learning with all of the students from Junior Infants to 6th Class. The Committee members taught each class how to identify leaves and berries that we might see on our walk around Clontuskert Parish. 🍁 🍂

Students from 5th class shared their research during the walk on the old school in Clontuskert and another 5th class student researched Oran Well on the Oran Road and taught his peers about it. 🌟

We stopped at Clontuskert Parish Church and Fr. Finneran waved out the window of his house as all of the school passed. ⛪️

When we returned to school each student wrote about the walk and what they saw. The Senior students wrote in the Recount genre, detailing the walk.

Check out some of the highlights here. Thanks to Ms. Kenny for editing this video. 🎞

Summer has arrived in St. Augustine’s N.S. Clontuskert

June 24, 2022September 21, 2022 kmurray3190

The Board of Management and Staff of St. Augustine’s National School Clontuskert are delighted to have wrapped up another successful year.
Our doors close to students today Friday 24th June at 12.30pm and we look forward to welcoming families and students back on Wednesday 31st August at 9.00am.

Check out Clontuskert’s Summer Newsletter here.

Fierce Close Podcast Day

May 23, 2022May 23, 2022 kmurray3190

Today Seán and Josephine from Galway Library Services brought the Schools Library Van to the school for a very special reason as Alan and Elena from Soundtrack and Podcast in Galway were with us to help us record our Fierce Close podcast.

Over the past month we have been working with Orla and Annie from CURO NUIG to challenge our thinking, discuss our views, and form and unravel opinions around philosophical questions. Clontuskert’s critical thinkers prepared dialogues and monologues to record for the Fierce Close podcast. We look forward to sharing with you soon. In the meantime, here are some highlights from behind the scenes. Thanks to Elena and Ms. Tracy Murray for recording footage today.

*The Fierce Close Project*
The aim of this programme is to create critical thinkers and activists on Climate Change. The project takes its title from an Irish idiom for a humid day, one where a storm is imminent. Through sessions that build their philosophical skills and a creative outcome that can be shared with their communities, this project gives voice to young people’s perspectives on climate change while building their critical thinking skills and debating literacy. Project participants will express their ideas to one another with the support of professional philosophers and create and perform new monologues through skills building workshops and guidance in podcast creation from Soundtrack and Podcast
This project responds to the scale of change expected in Galway City Council’s Climate Strategy by allowing young people to meaningfully explore possible solutions together.

‘Climate change is a critical challenge for Galway. It will result in a range of impacts across a wide number of sectors that are likely to exacerbate existing vulnerabilities. Taking proactive action to adjust and prepare for anticipated changes will reduce losses, improve our environment and provide a host of community benefits.’ (Galway County Council’s Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2019-2024)
These young people will be engaged in philosophical dialogues, informed by Lipman’s Community of Inquiry method, to build an understanding of how and where perspectives need to shift in order to think and act productively in relation to Climate Change. These workshops will be led by community philosophers from Library partner Curo who will scaffold their acquisition of critical thinking skills. Through this process they will isolate the most important questions relating to climate action and climate justice that faces Ireland today. At its close this project will allow young people to give voice to nature itself, through guided reflection, and podcast creation workshops.

Core Outcomes:
-Participants will develop their critical and creative thinking skills through facilitated dialogue with professional philosophers.
-Participants will identify pressing questions in relation to climate change and climate justice creating collaborative answers to these by drawing on their own lived experience.
-Participants will communicate their thinking through the production of short podcast episodes that focus on emerging ideas and questions from their philosophical dialogue.

Fierce Close Philosophy and Podcasting

May 6, 2022November 10, 2022 kmurray3190

The aim of this programme is to create critical thinkers and activists on Climate Change. The project takes its title from an Irish idiom for a humid day, one where a storm is imminent. Through sessions that build their philosophical skills and a creative outcome that can be shared with their communities, this project gives voice to young people’s perspectives on climate change while building their critical thinking skills and debating literacy. Project participants will express their ideas to one another with the support of professional philosophers and create and perform new monologues through skills building workshops and guidance in podcast creation from Soundtrack and Podcast
This project responds to the scale of change expected in Galway City Council’s Climate Strategy by allowing young people to meaningfully explore possible solutions together.