OOLA National school has opened its new school garden after years of community effort.
Principal Liam Guiney was thrilled to see the kids finally enjoying the school’s new green space - just before the summer holidays.
He admitting that it was badly needed: “We initially had no green space around the school at all.”
The garden will offer the kids a natural, peaceful area, in contrast to the concrete layout of the school and the busy main road outside it. Offering calming sights and sounds in a sensory experience for staff and students. Wind chimes and bird songs add to the peaceful atmosphere of the garden.
The garden is no one trick pony, it has three main features, a soft concrete play area with musical instruments for the kids, an outdoor class space with benches, and a section where the kids have planted native Irish trees, it also features raised beds for the kids to learn about gardening by planting their own fruit and vegetables.
“The whole aim of that section is that the kids would get involved in gardening,” added the principal, taking pride in Oola National School’s status as a green school.
“It links in with the food security and global goals around sustainability that we promote.”
While the garden offers a space for learning, the students at the school have been having great fun in the new play area. “The kids have been loving it. We’ve seen a return of a lot of those old traditional playground games,” he said.
The garden was funded through a combination of community fundraising and the CLÁR grant which supplies funding for community facilities in rural areas.
“We got the kids involved in the design. It was a very funny process, you know they wanted a swimming pool and an obstacle course, a diving board was another one,” added Principal Guiney on some of the kids’ more outlandish suggestions.
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