Plans are well advanced for Castleisland Community College’s first Tractor Run, which takes place on Sunday, March 5th. The event will launch the beginning of the schools 30 year celebration at their current location in Tonbwee.
Registration will take place in the community college at 12:45pm and roll out will be at 1:30pm.
Tractors will travel in convoy along the following route: from Castleisland Community College through the town, out the Tralee road, at Ballycarty roundabout take a left, turn left onto the main Farranfore road and after the railway tracks in Farranfore turn left back towards Castleisland.
Brainstorming Idea
“Our transition year students came up with the idea while brainstorming for their Young Social Innovators Project. This project encourages students to address an issue that they are passionate about, create an innovative response and put it into action,” said college Principal, Carmel Kelly.
“From their research, they chose the theme of Farm Safety and for the event they have created farm safety mind maps which will be distributed on the day.
“They also contacted the Teagasc Education Officer, Eugene O’Doherty and organised a school visit where he will discuss farm safety. The visit will take place on February 27th at 2. 30p.m in the school.
Encouraged to Decorate
“On the day of ‘The Run’ there will a prize draw for hampers and a prize for the best decorated tractor. Participants are encouraged to decorate their tractor in any way they like. Tea and refreshments will also be served after the tractor run.
“Admission to the Tractor Run is €15 per tractor. The money raised will go towards Farm Safety Education for our students and the Transition Year Programme.
“As is usual for these events, the normal rules of the road will apply, and all tractors taking part will need to be roadworthy and insured,” said Ms. Kelly.
Please see attached poster for more details.
College Students Move up European Water Explorer Competition Points Grid
At the end of last month we carried a report here in The Maine Valley Post on how Transition Year students at Castleisland Community College were involved in a Europe wide, schools’ project.
Those few weeks ago they were leading the country in the Water Explorer Competition points grid and they were in seventh place on the European chart.
Leading Irish School
They’re still leading Ireland’s chart and they have now moved up to fourth place on the European grid.
The competition is open to both primary and secondary schools and is about raising awareness of water conservation and issues relevant to water.
“This is an international competition that takes place amongst 11 countries and it consists of 24 challenges and is divided into four areas. Marks are awarded after each challenge.
Quality of Water
The first is called fresh water and it involves examining the quality of water in the area.
The students have conducted a field trip to the River Maine to investigate the plant and animal life found there.
They have debated the use of chemicals in farming and will be hopefully planting some trees and vegetation around the school.
Water Treatment and Purification
The water cycle, water treatment and purification has also been explored. The second area relates to global water and this refers to the impact of climate change here in Ireland where we experience flooding and developing countries are affected by drought.
There are many other aspects to the competition and you can see them all in our original article from January 28th with a click on the link here:
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