Mill Strand Green principles live on in County Antrim

Seven years ago MEEN hosted the Four Nations conference (see report) with a passionate speech from a member of the then Northern Ireland Assembly,  Caoimhe Archibald and impressive details of Education for Sustainability curricula from Philip Reid, the Head at Mill Strand Integrated Primary school which, unlike many schools in NI, teaches both Catholic and Protestant children, in Port Rush.

MEEN trustee Lydia Meryll visited the school again in April this year. She found that parents really value the vision of a sustainable school, dedicated to values of inclusion of all children and to protecting nature. This had resulted in a huge demand for places but not the space to receive them as the existing school building was tiny.
The head had set about getting permission and funds to build a new school. But it had met with considerable opposition from politicians and boards, not to mention other local schools, both Catholic and Protestant. When the NI Assembly was finally re-opened, they intervened to point out that under the Integrated Education Bill of March 2022, integrated Education had a major part to play in the ongoing Peace Process. Most Protestant pupils attend controlled schools in Northern Ireland and most Catholic children attend maintained schools, although both sectors insist they are not exclusive to single faiths and have increasingly diverse intakes.

What makes Mill Strand so exceptional – and popular with parents, is the ethos which gives all the children a real sense of their place in nature and their responsibility for the future of the seas, the creatures and the plants around them.

So the Head has taken this into the design of the new school. Lydia met the Site Engineer, Neil Robinson, who has written his dissertation on the importance of sustainable low carbon buildings. As we walked round the site we looked at the ways in which the sunshine would be captured for heat, rain water caught in a huge tank for grey water in toilets, underfloor heating linked to solar panels, heat from warm bodies re-circulated in a beautiful system of shiny air source heat exchangers. The central courtyard will give opportunities for shelter from the coastal winds and plenty of space for Outdoor Learning. But the pupils will continue to use the actual strand as a major learning resource.

With war in several parts of the planet currently having huge environmental impact as well as loss of human – and animal – life, the importance of an ethical approach to collaboration across sectarian boundaries could not be more stark.

This school stands for valuing every child and creating a safe future of all species. It will open in September 2024 and we hope to hear more about their transition and the involvement of local communities in their mission. Meanwhile, the building itself is a wonderful laboratory for learning new skills and understandings for a new generation of Green technologists and thinkers. A real “Focus on the Future” with Climate Action Plans that have practical applications immediately. 

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