On Friday the 15th of November, the students in Stratford College watched the first four Youth Assembly speakers talk about Climate Action in the House of the Oireachtas. After listening to inspirational Youth Activists, we were tasked with reflecting on what was said.
Food and Agriculture
As a country we must work together to cut down on emissions and unsustainable agriculture practices. There are many ways to approach this and we think the process starts with beginning to buy local, seasonal food. With this start we can cut down on emissions that comes from the international travel it takes for those items to be imported.
We also think it is critical that we focus on re-forestation and re-claiming form land. A huge amount of land in this country has unused previous form land, with most people moving to large cities, farmland is being abandoned and it is of great importance that we don’t let this land go to waste. Using this land for forests will increase the oxygen and improve the quality of the air as a whole. It is of extreme importance that we take action and work now on these issues to ensure a clean environment for both ourselves and future generations.
Eva Corrigan, Jools Reilly, Zach Musumeci and Conor Ryan
Education
There should be better education about climate change. The more that younger generations are educated about the future of our planet, the more that they will want to get involved. If there’s no future for the planet then there is no future for us.
The reason that so many people are denying climate change is because of lack of education. Young children are so impressionable.
“Education is the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world”- Nelson Mandela
It is important that our effect on the environment is taught from a young age so that we can be aware of our carbon footprint throughout our lives.
Grace MacDonnell, Popi McHale, Rebecca McCabe, Katie Jo Fitzpatrick, Conn Healy and Alex Doherty
Environment
As we should all be aware of climate change has disastrous consequences in all aspects of our lives.
It is destroying our world at an ever-increasing rate. It is destroying the most beautiful and significant places on Earth, causing flora and fauna to become extinct at a rate similar to mass extinction events in Earth’s history, and it will be the end of the us if we don’t come together and commit to solutions which will help sustain life on Earth.
If we want to preserve the natural beauty of our island, our rich forests, our vast shores and our wild creatures, we must make changes, quickly, decisively and diligently.
We need a clean, smart and sustainable plan for the future- to educate people on how to be sustainable, to use more eco- friendly materials and hold the government accountable for safeguarding our country.
House of the Oireachtas
After listening to the speaker from the Power group we decided to focus on that. He criticized the Irish Government and their actions. He stated they were an embarrassment multiple times and introduced two solutions to the power issue.
The 1st years completed a zombie lab today where they used their scientific methods and thinking to identify patient zero from the zombie suspects. Using measuring skills, pH, observation skills and much more they successfully identified the source of the outbreak!
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The TY Horticulture class were out in the Autumn sunshine planting Spring bulbs using the chaos planting method. This is when a multitude of different spring bulbs (Hyacinths, Daffodils, Tulips, Crocuses, Narcissi) are mixed together and randomly planted so that we have a mixture of flowers and patterns emerging in the spring. It mimics nature and so is more enticing to pollinators and native insects that need the food in Spring.
Stratford is celebrating Maths Week 2026 (12th - 18th October) with daily activities around the school, at breaktimes and in Maths classes! The tutor-time daily quiz is proving to be extremely competitive as each form group tries to solve it and then run to find Ms Matthews in order to win the box of chocolates!
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