NI Energy Agency Gives Tigers to Schools!
Seventy five schools from across Northern Ireland have received a wormery full of special composting tiger worms as the Sort It Out waste education programme came to an end. For the last three years Bryson Education, now part of the Northern Ireland Energy Agency, has been teaching children the reduce, reuse, recycle message through their Province wide education programme Sort It Out!.
This innovative scheme targeted schools using a variety of teaching methods including school presentations, classroom work, crafts and drama. In three years the Sort It Out team made 1502 visits to schools and events and worked with an incredible 126,789 young people.
George Lyttle, Education Coordinator with the Northern Ireland Energy Agency said “We were delighted to be able to offer wormeries to schools as a lasting legacy to the Sort It Out programme. The wormeries will help deal with a proportion of the school’s organic waste and can also be used as a teaching resource. We targeted schools participating in the Eco-Schools environmental scheme as they have a team of pupils who will be able to look after the worms and ensure they are fed the right things!”
Ms Conlon, a teacher from Our Lady’s Primary School in Belfast who received one of the wormeries said “The wormery has been a great addition to our school’s composting efforts. It allows the children to witness first hand the adept skills of Mother Nature in action. All the pupils from years 1-7 love watching the worms at work and they have taken on a status almost like that of a class pet!” Ms Conlon added “The brilliant thing is that a wormery takes very little attention or human effort, we simply feed the worms every few days and leave them to do their job. When the children see the liquid fertiliser and compost produced they are totally blown away at this amazing feat.”