Swords Tidy Towns volunteers love working with children and getting involved in many different projects with the schools. You can read more about some of these projects below.
Visit to Swords Community College
STT members are really keen to involve local secondary school students in our activities. On February 8, 2023 Chairman Ken Duffy and School Liaison Matt Cullen paid a visit to Swords Community College to address a class of Transition Year students. In order to make their talk more relevant to their interests, the pupils had been asked to prepare their questions beforehand.
Feedback from their teacher was extremely positive. Ken and Matt were complimented for their excellent talk, and were told that the students had got a lot out of it.
STT visit to KidsCare
STT Chairman Ken Duffy was invited to speak to young preschoolers at KidsCare at BASE in Brackenstown, Swords about the importance of the responsible disposal of litter. Whilst out on their regular walks with their teachers, the children had been asking why people were not using the litter bins.
The visit took place on January 18, 2023. Ken was accompanied by our School Liaison Officer, Matt Cullen.
Ethna, their teacher, had been asked to encourage the pupils to come up with their own questions. Ken and Matt found their enthusiasm very infectious, and the session was a resounding success.
The class was presented with some pickers and rolls of bags, to encourage these youngsters to become involved in litter picking in the local area.
Transition Year Students
Swords Tidy Towns have a great relationship with Fingal Community College, a local secondary school. Every year we get a great turnout of students working towards their Gaisce awards by helping us with our weekly cleanups. They get to try litterpicking, weeding, planting, compost making, street sweeping and general tidying up, also to help out in a community organised cleanups and promotional events. Their involvement helps to promote and help to maintain our local environment and build positive relationships. Check out the gallery below to see some capture moments of TY22 volunteering with us.
STT Talk to Transition Year Students
Siobhan Lynch, a teacher at Fingal Community College, invited our chairman Ken Duffy and school liaison officer Matt Cullen to speak to Transition Year students about the activities of our group. This was one of several initiatives between the college and STT. The students asked thoughtful and pertinent questions about our aims and activities. It was wonderful to see such enthusiasm!
Leaf Mould Project
Our Swords Tidy Towns member Ramune Kuzminiene aka ‘Roving Composter’ has been working with primary and secondary schools in Swords, setting up leaf mould cages to compost leaves that can be used after a year as a mulch or as a compost (after two years) by the schools for their individual needs. The gallery below gives a glimpse of her visits to Finian’s Community College, Swords Educate Together and Holywell Educate Together National schools.
Upcycling of Musical Instruments
Music Departments of local secondary schools will be benefitting from the latest initiative of STT in conjunction of Fingal County Council Environmental Department. Discarded musical instruments are being collected at the Estuary Swords and Coolmine recycling centres. These are being repaired locally. Once in working order, these instruments will be distributed to secondary schools in Swords.
On October 19th, our school liason officer Matt Cullen and chairman Ken Duffy presented the first of these upcycled instruments to two schools.
Bird boxes
Ken Duffy presented bird boxes to St. Finian’s Community College in support of the school’s environmental education programme on May 23d.
School Ambassador Badge Award
Matt Cullen, our school liasion officer, initiated the School Ambassador Badge Award this year to recognise and encourage the voluntary work done by young people with Swords Tidy Towns. On May 22nd 2019 he and our chairman Ken Duffy attended the Transition Year Awards ceremony at Fingal Commumity College. Certificates were presented to three of our regular young volunteers.
School art competition
Swords Tidy Towns liason officer Matt Cullen and chairman Ken Duffy presented the prizes to the successful young artists on April 14th 2019.
Congratulations to all our winners in the first ever Swords Tidy Towns School Art Competition. Congratulations must go to Matt Cullen our Schools Liaison Officer for all his hard work in making the competition such a success, and to our local Artists Orla Jones and Liadan Tyndall for helping with the judging of all 53 entries.
The winning entries were put on display for several weeks in the main window of Colourtrend on Main St Swords opposite Penney’s store. We would like extend our gratitude and thanks to the management and staff of Colourtrend for all their help and support it was invaluable.
1st Marija Vasilonoka (Loreto College) 100e Voucher
2nd Jamie McGill (Colaiste Choilm) 75e Voucher
3rd Rhea McGuirk (Fingal Community College) 50e Voucher
Merit Prize Pablo Fernandez (St Finians Community College) 25e Voucher
Merit Prize Ann Josuua (Loreto College) 25e Voucher
Students were encouraged to use their creativity and asked to submit artwork that would reflect their view of what Swords means to them either from an environmental or historic viewpoint, or both. They were given the opportunity to do their artwork in any medium on A3 paper. It was wonderful to see such a diverse and creative range of entries by these talented students.
A big thank you to the art teachers who encouraged their students to enter our Art Competition:
Anne O’Loughlin Loreto College, Irene Doherty Colaiste Choilm, Siobhan Lynch Fingal Community College and Kathleen Boyle St Finians Community College.
Swords Tidy Towns 