A tV series that sees 12 transition year students take on...
In Ireland's largest town is Ireland's largest school. Here 12 transition year students volunteered to take on "The Climate Challenge" as part of a community television series. They visited the Rediscovery Centre - Ireland's national centre for the circular economy, where they learned about the climate crisis. Then they were divided into four teams - each team given an area to concentrate on: Sustainable Fashion, Sustainable Food, Sustainable Homes and Sustainable Lifestyles. With the help of export mentors in these four areas they set about figuring out simple steps that people could take to play their climate action part. Then came the fun part. They each had to create a social media campaign to broadcast their environmental message. Here you can find the four 'TikToks' that they made and watch a video, below, with highlights of their journey.
The red carpet Awards night...
The four teams completed their social media content on time after a lot of very hard, but creative work. To celebrate their achievement, the four mentors, along with Jennifer Winters and Ronan McQuillan – two inspirational teachers from their school, St Oliver’s Community College, came together for a glittering gala evening, where the school canteen was transformed into a Hollywood vista of black drapes, uplights, movie screen and the compulsory red carpet.
Meet our mentors
Anne McCartney Cutbill
Anne is proprietor of Cult Zero sustainable store in Trim, County Meath
https://cultzero.ie/
Jennifer thornton
Jennifer's online fashion store, Offset Fashion, sells second hand designer clothes.
https://offsetfashion.com/
Natasha Rocca Devine
Natasha is an interiors architect and author who combines sustainability with style.
https://www.theinteriorsnrd.com/
Visham Sumputh
Vish is head chef at Dublin's celebrated and award-winning Etto Restaurant where he overseas world-class food made, largely, from local, sustainable ingredients.
https://www.etto.ie/
At the very offset of the student’s journey, they visited Ireland’s centre for the circular economy in Dublin where they were giving workshops on sustainable living. This set the background for their journey in creating social media campaigns to spread climate action messages.
A School that cares...
The Climate Challenge would not have been possible without the involvement of St Oliver’s CC. According to the school:
“St Oliver’s CC has implemented The National Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) working towards a more sustainable future at a number of levels: individual, community, local, national and international. We are determined to educate our students towards a more sustainable path, creating a cleaner, greener economy and society, and to protect from the devastating consequences of climate change. One of our core values is to act in a way consistent with Ireland’s Climate Action Plan 2021. This underpins all of our school polices.”
