As part of the water theme in the Green Schools programme, we are working very hard to reduce our water use and save as much water as possible, both at home and in school!

In our new school we are very lucky to have a huge 10,000 litre rainwater harvesting tank under our astro turf pitch! This tank collects rainwater every day and it is piped into a tank in our attic to use for flushing toilets and washing our hands. Over the past 2 years, by using this tank, we reduced our daily water use from the mains supply from 5 litres per pupil to 1 litre per pupil! That is a saving of approximately 182,400 litres of water! This is the equivalent of half of a swimming pool!

We also organised a ‘Put a stop to the drop’ campaign turning off taps and checking for leaks, put the plug in the sink when we wash art materials, adjusted our push taps to a 5 second flow and we regularly take water meter readings to keep an eye on our usage.

At home we’re all taking part in The Toothbrush Challenge. By turning off the tap while we brush our teeth we save 5 litres of water so that’s a saving of 280 litres per month per pupil!

Rang a Trí participated in a survey about their water usage at home to raise awareness about water saving ideas. We made a pie chart of the survey results and 3rd class completed worksheets based on the pie chart in their Maths class!