Place-based ESD: a unique learning opportunity for your students

School students are regular and enthusiastic visitors to the Ecovillage. From informing the work of your Green School Committee, to enhancing your Global Citizenship education in Transition Year, the Ecovillage provides valuable place-based learning experiences that go hand in hand with school subjects such as SESE, SPHE, CSPE, Agriculture Science, Art, Irish, Economics and Business Studies.

The Ecovillage is one of 6 partners engaging in a project called iACT as well as leader on the Ómós Áite initiative (hyperlink), promoting place based education. It is all about learning by seeing and doing.

We believe in meaningful action, rooted in place. By digging deeper into a place, we connect with the wider world. Young people living today are the future of the planet. Youth movements are central to encouraging international efforts to tackle climate change. We hope that by welcoming primary and secondary school students, we can encourage them to build a brighter tomorrow and see the possibilities and solutions for solving some of today’s biggest issues.

With curriculum and SDG links throughout, walk through sustainable living examples that can deepen and enliven your approach to ESD in your school – We understand the importance of a Whole School Approach – we believe in student led action, engaging schools in becoming lighthouses for the wider community.

After one of our Education Visits, you will leave feeling inspired and empowered. You will become informed advocates for your school and students will get to witness the ripple effects of their actions.

Call us today
Education Officer
086 085 1576
[email protected]
We Offer

Our Packages

Choose from our list of Education Tours:
Guided Tour of Cloughjordan Ecovillage

Introductory Visit – Duration 2 hours

Prices €15 per student (minimum 15 students)
Themed Guided Tour with Facilitated Discussion

Focused Visit – Duration 3 hours (10am – 1pm)

Prices €20 per student (minimum 15 students)
Deep Dive for Applied Learning Tasks

Deep Dive – Duration 4 hours (11am – 3pm)

Cloughjordan Ecovillage is delighted to be working closely with secondary schools delivering the new leaving certificate Climate Action and Sustainable Development  course. Students can attend a new full day visit to support their Applied Learning Tasks.

Prices €25 per student (minimum 15 students)
Action Visit (Mondays and Tuesdays)

Deep Dive – Duration 4 hours (11am – 3pm)

Including guided tour, local farm lunch, community seed bank and creative writing session, companion workbook and facilitated classroom activity, plus support with your school action.

Prices €40 per student (lunch included, minimum 40 students)

    Let’s go
    Group Tour Request
    YOUR DEEP DIVE

    A full day immersion into sustainability and regeneration in action

    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)
    Some success stories

    SAMPLE VISITS Coming Soon!