It was a jam-packed week for those students participating in the Erasmus programme as we welcomed our international partners to Kinsale. 16 students and their teachers from Sweden and Poland set foot on Irish soil last weekend, while unfortunately our German partners were unable to travel due to restrictions. Thankfully, restrictions do not apply to mascots, so Sigi from Germany made his own way to Ireland to take part in the activities, while other German students participated via Microsoft Teams. The flags of each country flew high outside the school this week, and saw all weather conditions, from gusty winds, to shining sun, to frosty mornings to some heavy Irish rain. However, it didn’t get in the way of our plans to promote sustainability and some of what the town of Kinsale has to offer!

Our Erasmus project – Challenges, Choices, Change, began in September 2020 and focuses on addressing conservation, reducing waste and recycling more in our school communities. This is the first time that the students have had the opportunity to collaborate with their partners face-to-face so excitement was high in our ice-breaker session Monday morning.

On Monday, our international students tried their hand at GAA with Mr Abbot, then got to experience the Vex Robots first hand! The students attended the Green Team’s weekly meeting where Ms Fitzpatrick informed them about our Green Flag system and how we achieved our first flag for litter and waste.

Everyone involved then headed to the dock beach to carry out a clean up of the area. Kitted out in high visibility jackets, gloves and with the aid of some rubbish pickers, the students collected two bags of rubbish. The students also toured James Fort and the Block House, taking in the beautiful views of the harbour.

Tuesday saw the Erasmus students in KCS connecting with their German partners again to work on developing their Eco-App with the help of Mr Bowen. The students had worked online in the lead up to this exchange to come up with a list of environmental terms, and translated them into 4 different languages. During the high-quality time that we had to work together, the students designed how this glossary should look like on the app.

On Tuesday evening, the students watched a recording of a fast fashion workshop from Maura Duffy. She spoke about ‘greenwashing’ and educated them on how to be informed consumers and buy from brands that genuinely do make positive contributions to the environment. She showed the students websites that they could use, to assess how sustainable a clothing brand or item is. The students compared clothes shopping habits and the availability of hand me downs in each of our countries. The students also recorded some material that we discussed and recorded it in our radio booth.

Kinsale Ghost Tours brought us on a trip around some of the back streets of Kinsale, where the students had a chance to get to know the town, while hearing some spooky stories about Kinsale’s past along the way. The ghost of the white lady herself even made an appearance! Everyone had a fantastic night getting to know each other a little better.

Wednesday’s half day consisted of a junk couture workshop which was peer-taught by our TY students who are involved in both projects. The Erasmus students enjoyed creating clothing from waste that would otherwise be discarded. At the end of the session, students showcased their work and wore some of the pieces that they designed.

Our sustainability chaplain Klaus Harvey showed students how to plant trees on Thursday morning! Everyone got stuck in, planting native hedgerow to increase biodiversity in our school. Sigi our German mascot helped to plant an apple tree at Kinsale Community School to unite us in our project, challenges, choices, change

In the evening, all students headed to the home economics room for a cooking class with Ms Murphy. Ms McCarthy showed the students 3A5’s Young Environmentalist Awards Project, and we used a recipe from their sustainable cookbook in this class. The ingredients used in this recipe were sourced locally, to reduce food miles and promote sustainable food choices. The students from Sweden, Poland and Germany had never tasted cottage pie before but it went down a treat!

In the afternoon, the students watched Mr Holly playing with fire as he hosted his science magic show. It was his first time performing in front of an international audience and he had plenty tricks up his sleeve.

Ms Prendergast presented a clothes mending workshop on Friday morning where the students repaired garments. They learned how to sew so that they could reuse some of their clothes that may have been damaged, or redesign some items and achieve a more sustainable wardrobe. Ms Prendergast’s home economics students also baked fresh buns for the students which they enjoyed with some hot chocolate!

 We wish our friends and exchange partners a safe trip home this weekend, and look forward to the future opportunities to work together in our partner’s countries.