Eight Transition Year students and their teachers from eight post-primary schools joined together to learn more about climate change and migration at a student seminar held at Green Glens Arena, Millstreet on 2nd February 2016. The students attending were from Coachford Community College, St. Mary’s Secondary School, Bishop McEgan College and De La Salle College, Macroom, Boherbue Comprehensive School, Millstreet Community School, Scoil Mhuire Kanturk and Scoil Phobail Sliabh Luachra. The event was coordinated by Sheila Dillon, Education Officer with Trócaire and John Magee, Chaplain in Millstreet Community School. Given that there has been so much in the news over the last year about climate change and migration, the aim of the day was to explore the issues from different perspectives. The four workshops were facilitated by Aisling McGrath from WorldWise Global Schools, Sarah Walsh from Eco UNESCO, Deirdre Walsh from Trócaire and Bernie Connolly from Cork Environmental Forum. Topics explored included the new UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), consumerism, climate change and its impact in Kenya, and sustainable agriculture. Two students from each school had a chance to attend two of the workshops, with the hope that they would bring what they had learned back to their colleagues in their various schools.
The students who were there on the day had a lot to say about why they attended the seminar, what they had found interesting and what strategies they felt their schools could adopt on top of what they do already to help counter the effects of climate change.
