If you decide to come all the way to visit us, we highly recommend our Action Visit.

A unique opportunity to strengthen your school’s ESD: 

Tailored to your school’s Sustainability Policy Statement (pre-visit survey).

Bring school subjects to life by experiencing a day in the life of a community living sustainably and build an enduring relationship with the Ecovillage.

Implement a student-led action plan in your school with the right support and feel empowered to make change.

Highlights of the day:

A slideshow presentation of the Ecovillage project, setting the scene and rooting it in a local and global context.

A guided walk of the Ecovillage where it all comes to life. A meandering from the historical townland of Cloughjordan to the more recent green builds and everything in between, including an amphitheatre hailing the importance of play and celebration, a community supported farm and allotments, a permaculture drainage system, orchards with 60+ varieties of native Irish apple trees and native woodland.

Each one of the expert guides on this tour is a resident of the Ecovillage, sharing their own lived experience and inviting the group to be curious, inquisitive and use all their senses to explore. You might bump into the farmer or one of the farm volunteers, a resident grower or the local baker. All invaluable encounters and opportunities to ask questions.

A deep dive into our food systems: visit the Cloughjordan Community Seed Bank and journey from seed to the food on your plate. This includes a seed sowing session as well as a creative writing workshop to deepen the encounter with seed: What new stories would you like to sow for a more regenerative future?

Compose your own lunch in the Cloughjordan Community Cafe with locally grown food.

A companion workbook

For students and teachers to document their day, map out their observations and harvest their findings along the way. SDGs and relevant school subjects are highlighted in each section to support cross curricular ESD, with clear connections to the following themes: food, waste, water, biodiversity, transport, energy, health and wellbeing, built environment, community and the circular economy. 

A tailored classroom activity

In response to the question: ‘what is one thing you would like to see happen / built / grow in your school after today?’ This activity is broken down into clear steps in a PDF document for the teacher to lead on in class, following the Ecovillage visit.

An invitation for you to make a plan and take action in your school

With a Whole School Approach and support from the Ecovillage.

We are eager to cultivate a meaningful relationship with the visiting schools by:

• sharing resources and experience 
• offering free access to seeds from the Community Seed Bank (seeds can be posted to school)
• celebrating your school actions at our annual Féile na nÚll – Apple Festival (exhibition of your project)