GLOBAL AMBASSADORS FOR BEES: 

Today, the pupils of 4th, 5th and 6th Class, with their teacher Edel Leech (Principal), Bríd Fenlon (SET, Project CoOrdinator) and Emer O'Doherty (CT) hosted a zoom meeting with representatives from Galway County Council and Nollaig McGuinness, Community Engagement Officer with Galway2020. The purpose of the meeting was to showcase the work involved in bringing the school's environmental "Bee Loud" project to a successful conclusion. 

The guests were welcomed by Edel, who then showed them a short film narrated by Éanna Ní Lamhna (RTÉ, author) detailing the children's work and giving an insight into the unique and inspiring opportunities the children received. Before the zoom meeting concluded Jack, Ella, Daniel and Emily delivered an impressive and passionate message to Galway CoCo about the importance of being mindful of the plight of pollinators, especially bees, and of being sensitive in their management and maintenance of potential habitats on roadsides, public parks and motorway embankments. 

Reducing cutting, the use of sprays and pesticides, respecting the nesting and flowering season were some of the recommendations by the children of Kiltiernan NS. 

The children were commended for their work by Cllr. Martina Kinnane, Cllr. Joe Byrne and Nollaig McGuinness. 

This was one of the final aims of this extensive project - that the children, inspired by learning from experts, expressing their response through art and writing, putting this knowledge into action by planting pollinator friendly plants would then be confident enough to advocate to those in power on behalf of the bee. 

Here are the children's speeches to the Galway County Councillors: 

Jack's Address:

Members of the Council, Ms. Leech, Ms. Fenlon, Ms. O Doherty, fellow classmates! We are here today to ask two very important questions. - What can we do to stem our declining bee population? - What would happen if the only food crops we could live on were wheat, rice and corn? The bees are just not black and yellow furry insects, hopping from flower to flower. They play a really important role in our ecosystem. Without them, our ecosystem would be destroyed and it would even effect our global food supply. Did you know? Bees pollinate 80% of our world's plants and 90 different food crops. One out of every three bits of food you eat is there because of pollinators. We all have a part to play to help minimize the decline of our precious bee population. - Jack (4th Class)

Ella's speech:

Firstly, anyone who has a garden or a small green space could plant some bee friendly plants and carry out the gardening in a more pollinator friendly manner: Reduce sprays, Cut less, Respect the flowering and nesting season! - LET IT BEE - Ella (4th  Class)

Daniel's Speech:

Secondly those responsible for maintaining our green public spaces could adopt more bee friendly practices. Furthermore those responsible for road planning could aim to incorporate bee friendly areas into their future designs. Motorway verges are a perfect place for Bees' habitats and can BEE wild. Let verges go wild! Bee beautiful public parks! Let it Bee known! - Daniel (4th Class)

Emily's speech:

There are some people who would disagree with us and say: "Our places will not look clean and tidy." - "It looks like we are not doing our jobs." - There's a safety issue!" - "There will be so much pollen around" - "People would litter in overgrown areas!" However, I think we have shown that if we all make a change to the way we think about the bees' habitats we can stop the declining bee population. So we propose that the Council should have a policy that promotes the wilding of public spaces to allow our native pollinators to thrive. - Emily (5th Class)

Jack concluded our presentation to the Galway County Councillors with the following words: 

We in Kiltiernan NS are doing our bit, we want you to do your bit too! As Shakespeare once wrote... to BEE or not to BEE.... that is the question. What is your answer? In conclusion as Desmond Tutu said: "Do your little bit of good where you are. It's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world." Thank you for taking the time to listen to us today and we hope you can advocate for change too!

- Jack (4th Class) on behalf of Kiltiernan NS and our pollinators