top of page
get up and goals.png
worldwise logo.png
Fair Trade School
Global Citizenship in Moville Community College

   

Global Citizenship, also known as Development Education, is an education process aimed at increasing awareness and understanding of the rapidly changing, interdependent world in which we live.It does this by challenging stereotypes and encouraging independent thinking with a view to taking meaningful action for a just and sustainable world. The subject areas covered basically fall into three main categories: social, economic and environmental.        

 

Global Citizenship has made huge progress in our school since 2008.It began in a very informal way from hosting Watoto Children’s Choir, doing GCE project work outside of class time, being involved in a school cluster group through Inishowen Development partnership to where we are today. 

 

Now, we are proud to say that Global Citizenship Education is strongly embedded in our school ethos. This is visible  both inside and outside the classroom. TY are fortunate to do Global Citizenship as part of their timetabled classes but GCE topics are covered across the board in many subject areas. It is also very evident in our school surroundings from the environmentally packaging of our school lunches provided by Inish Fusion, compost bins around the school, school garden, school poly-tunnel to name but a few.

 

Today, Moville Community College is delighted to be a well established member of the Worldwise Global Schools programme. We have been awarded numerous WWGS diplomatic passport awards. We are hopeful of meeting the success criteria for a Special passport award in the near future.We are a Fairtrade school and are currently working towards the renewal of our Fairtrade status. We are one of only ten schools in Ireland accepted on to the EU ‘Get Up & Goals’ programme. We have recently partnered with St. John the Baptist Girls’ Secondary and Vocational school, Masaka,Uganda. As you can the school has been busy! None of this would be possible without huge co-operation between the students, staff and management of our school. Thanks to the many organisations who travel to our school to deliver talks and workshops. A special word of thanks to Patsy Toland who has been exceptional in his support of GCE in our school from the onset. It is sincerely appreciated.

 

We hope through this Global Citizenship page to keep the wider school community up to date with different events and activities taking place in our school.

Glenveagh National Park Transition Year Programme 2022-2023

               We are delighted that our three transition year classes have been accepted to participate in the Glenveagh National Park Transition Year programme.The course will be run over the full year to include educational talks in the school,project work and a number of visits to the park itself. The project got off to a flying start with a visit from two Glenveagh guides Patrick and Alarnagh on Tuesday 6th September. This will be a cross curricular project linking in with Global Citizenship, Science, Horticulture, Geography, Photography and English to name but a few subjects. We look forward to the year ahead.This work ties in perfectly with our work and ethos as part of the Worldwise Global schools also.Please find attached the article written and illustrated by TYC students.

Glenveagh National Park TY project 2022-2023 by TYC class 

 

 Moville Community College has been selected by Glenveagh National Park to partner with the Transition Year students in a large-scale project. This  project is about sustaining nature and the conservation of our environment, through the students’ innovative ideas that can be applied to not only Glenveagh Park itself, but also our own school and local area.

Glenveagh National Park is found in West Donegal amongst the Derryveagh Mountains. Majestic waterfalls, rocky mountains, unspoiled lakes and native woodland provide a rich landscape for wildlife. The TYs of Moville Community College received a talk from the educators from Glenveagh National park, Alarnagh and Patrick, two of the park’s informative educational guides. The talk aimed to enlighten the students about sustainable biodiversity in Ireland's National parks. Only three other schools in Donegal have  been selected to participate in this programme, so it is an honour to have the chance to help Glenveagh and meet the minds behind sustaining a vast 169.9 km2 park.

The presentation started with a bang when Patrick took out some blindfolds. He organised a game involving stuffed wild animals which immediately captured the students’ attention. Alarnagh then spoke about the native species and plants that can be found in the park, for example the red squirrel and the oak tree.

This project is a fantastic opportunity for the students.The students can develop their teamwork and organisational skills as well as learning more about the biodiversity in our local area. This is all possible thanks to Glenveagh National Park and especially Alarnagh and Patrick. We are all feeling motivated and keen to get started on this exciting project.

gLENVEAGH 1.jpg
gLENVEAGH 2.jpg
gLENVEAGH 3.jpg
gLENVEAGH 4.jpg
Clonmany Show.png

Moville Community College was well represented at Clonmany Agricultural Show on 2nd August 2022
 

As part of 1st year Home Economics class 2021-2022, students were given a recycling project to complete. Each student was asked to create a new item using recycled items which could be either practical or decorative in nature when finished.The standard and variety of items produced was truly amazing.

                     As part of the Worldwise Global Schools programme, we decided to take this idea a step further.The school used some of our WWGS grant funds to sponsor trophies for the recycling competition at the show. A selection of the items created were entered into the Home Industries section of Clonmany Agricultural Show. The idea was to create awareness of the importance and possibilities of being creative in our use of recycled materials.Entries were also open to the general public. We are delighted to say that Moville students had outstanding success winning all the prizes on offer.

1st prize: Shane Barr                              

2nd prize: Emma Messenger

3rd prize: Orlagh Mc laughlin

Thanks to all who entered their projects. We hope this will become an annual event for our students. Well done to all. 

Wildflower Garden

Autumn 2021

The Junior Cycle CSPE classes have been busy since September working on our school's biodiversity project. The aim is to complete a wildflower garden which will provide a sustainable area which will encourage pollinators such as birds, bees and insects.

This project has been planned for the last 2 years but was delayed due to Covid but now is well on track to being completed.

With the support of the principal Mr. Anthony Doogan an area was decided upon that would be suitable for a wildflower garden. The CSPE classes have made insect hotels, bird tables, bird boxes, bird feeders, sustainable garden furniture and sensory items. All have been made from recycled materials sourced locally. A huge thank you goes to 6 LCA and the 3D CSPE class who guided and supported the students throughout. We would also like to thank our wonderful caretakers John O'Brien and Liam Harrigan who assisted us with advice and demonstrations.

The wildflower seeds and bird box flat packs were kindly funded by the World Wide Global Schools.

IMG_6983.PNG

In the Palm of Our Hands

By Zach Conlon, Transition Year student, Moville Community College

The story behind the innovative joint project between Moville Community College and the students of Clonmany National school is a heartbreaking one. The real story of palm oil has been hidden from everyone. The students of these fantastic two schools are doing this project to raise awareness of our fragile planet and the species we live with.

 

What is the real story? The real story is that humans are depriving many animals like the orangutan, rhinos and tigers. For what price PALM OIL. Where is this taking place? Indonesia. Indonesia is the home of these rare animals that are nearly extinct. It is taking place all over the world but Indonesia is at the front of this deforestation and killing of rare and precious animals.

 

When pupils of Clonmany N.S and Moville C.C were educated about this topic they wanted to do something about it. They started by reducing their use of palm oil products and just being aware of palm oil products in general. Many palm oil products include lipstick, pizza dough, shampoo, detergent and many chocolates.

 

Students then looked at the wilderness and the animals involved. They took a keen interest in the orangutan and the start of their main project began. The Sumatran orangutan is critically endangered with only 7,500 left in the wild and many die everyday to palm oil and other oils and products being harvested causing deforestation.

 

The other side of the story is that Indonesia is not the richest country so the government turns a blind eye to deforestation because the importing of products boosts their economy. Palm oil is the best oil to hectare ratio, for every one hectare there is 5890 litres of palm oil with the next being coconut oil producing 2689 litres for every one hectare. Even though these numbers seem pleasing to the eye of farmers we need to look through the eye of the orangutan.

 

The pupils of Clonmany N.S have made a beautiful picture book about the life and trauma that the orangutan has to go through and endure to satisfy our demand for cost effective products. The students at Moville C.C have been designing an activity book to go along with this story book. With the help of Pure Savage printing in Carndonagh ,we have produced reusable masks with orangutan image to tie in with the theme of the books. We plan to sell these as an optional extra to accompany the books. This should constitute the perfect Christmas present but should also serve as a reminder to us to educate ourselves about palm oil and the effects it has on OUR DYING planet. The difference does lie in the palm of all our hands.

Palm of Hands.jpg
E_SDG-goals_icons-individual-rgb-12.png
E-Goal-13-1024x1024.png
E_SDG-goals_icons-individual-rgb-15-1.png
How to make an upcycled face mask.

Inspired by the efforts of our 5th-year student Kayleigh Sweeney and her mother who have been making face masks for health care workers, Ms H Gallagher decided to join them. She has made an instructional video for anyone who wishes to have a go, to donate, or just for personal use. She uses old shirts, T-shirt’s, dresses, children’s clothes to create face masks. Ms Gallagher was also influenced by Ms Cooney, Development Education teacher who has long been an advocate for repurposing material and upcycling. The pattern is also available to download, just click on the image.

Face Mask Pattern.jpg

Global Citizenship Week Success for Moville Community College

Moville CC has a long tradition of promoting Global Citizenship in all aspects of school life. We are delighted to be one of only ten schools in Ireland taking part in the EU “Get Up & Goals” project and to be an established member of the Worldwise Global Schools programme,This year, we were delighted to host a number of events as part of this special week in Moville. The events ran form Nov 20-22 inclusive.

                  As part of our work with the EU project , we are working at promoting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in our school and wider community. As part of this, we invited Irish Aid to visit Moville. Irish Aid offer educational workshops in their main office in Dublin. The workshops give information on the work of Irish Aid,the Global goals and there is a cultural aspect also.They agreed to make Moville a pilot project for looking at the possibility of offering their workshops in rural areas.The workshops were a massive success and catered to hundreds of Inishowen teachers and students (both primary and secondary)who might not have been able to avail of these workshops otherwise. Thanks to the Irish Aid team of Ana Barbu. Michael Chanda and Niamh Blake who made these workshops such a success.We hope that we will see them in Donegal again soon.

                   Also, as part of Global Citizenship education , we are partnered with St. Francis’ NS in Clonmany who are also promoting themes around the Global goals in their school. These students travelled to Moville CC where they attended a very informative talk on Palm Oil delivered by Jo Fowler from the Farm Shop here in Moville. These 5th class students then received a tour of the school which highlighted ways Moville CC attempt to make the school as sustainable and environmentally friendly as possible. They walked to Glencrow hall where they thoroughly enjoyed the Irish Aid workshops.

                   Thanks to the Irish Aid team and Jo Fowler for sharing their information in an interesting and fun way. Thanks to EU “Get Up & Goals” project for helping fund this event, to the PA members who helped out during the week,to William Mc Corkell for being so helpful in Glencrow hall and to all the staff and students of Moville CC who made this event so successful. Well done all!

Global Goal 12

As part of our focus on Global Goal 12, Moville Community College are proud to be able to provide Stainless Steel bottles for 1st years for the much reduced price of €2 each. The bottles were funded by the “EU Get up and Goals” project.

global goals.png
global goals bottles.jpg

School Strike for Climate Action 

On Friday 20th March, students from Moville Community College took part in the Global Climate Strike.  Members of the Student Council spoke at the assemblies to highlight problems in our environment. Patsy Toland was invited into the school to speak to the First years about Climate Action and how we can all do our bit to help the environment.  His talk was inspiring and hopefully has motivated some students to change their habits. 

 

The First years then took part in a Climate Quiz hosted by our TY students.  There was fierce competition and after a few tie-breaker questions “The Power Rangers” won.  The quiz concluded with a walk around the school with students holding banners and posters about the need for Climate Action.  

 

Some students from 2nd and 3rd year attended the protest held in Market Square in Letterkenny.  They met up with other schools and took part in the local demonstrations. There was a really positive atmosphere there and everybody enjoyed the event and felt that it was worthwhile to attend. 

One World Conference

 

On Thursday 17th of October Transition Year students attended the One World Conference in the Guildhall, Derry. 


The day began with a remarkable story of compassion and forgiveness by Richard Moore from Children in Crossfire.  Richard, a victim of The Troubles in Northern Ireland was blinded for life from the age of ten.  He was shot by a British soldier on the way home from school.  In spite of this, Richard went on to have a very successful life. In 1996 Richard met the man who shot him, the two have since become friends.  Richard's story began as a tragedy but ended as a triumph of human spirit to overcome adversity.  The 14th Dalaì Lama describes Moore as 'a real practitioner of compassion, a living example of peace'.  The pupils of Moville Community College reacted very positively to his story.
Following this very powerful opening speech, students participated in a global citizenship education quiz. Leslie McDermott, Maya McGhee and Junior Campbell won vouchers for their quick thinking.   After lunch pupils took part in a variety of workshops with children from other schools. The workshops included themes such as Bees,Trees, Seas, Food for thought, I have a dream , The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Art as activism.  The graffiti art project proved very popular. Many students were delighted to take home their newly made bird boxes and window planters.


The day ended with pupils signing the Compassion Pledge.  Students were left with much food for thought.  They were provided with practical ideas and actions for change-making. The trip was not only inclusive but also informative and inspiring.  

Preparing for Pancake Tuesday - Sustainable Development Goal 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production

As we all prepare for Pancake Tuesday, let us spend a moment to reflect on the ingredients we will use. In keeping with Global Goal 12 on responsible consumption & production. 

 

It is worth considering what ingredients we should use. By buying locally produced Irish ingredients we are not only supporting local Irish farmers but we are also reducing our food miles which reduces the negative impact on the environment.

Keep it in the county if possible e.g. Donegal Creameries milk, locally produced eggs and rapeseed oil. Also, cast a glance over the spreads you might use. We suggest the use of toppings that are either "Palm Oil free" or made with " Certified Sustainable Palm Oil" as seen on the Nutoka label below.Lastly, have fun  and bon appetit!"

bottom of page