Fair Trade Bake Off

As part of Fair Trade Fortnight, the CCHS Fair Trade group are organising a Big Fair Trade Bake-Off.   Open to all, pupils and staff - can your cake rise higher than Mrs Stuart's? The rules are....

· Bake at home and bring your creation with your recipe to H&FT (Home Ec) before registration on Thursday (7th)
· Your recipe must contain at least one Fairtrade ingredient and no nuts.
· Judging will be at the ‘Marketplace’ in the Assembly Hall at lunchtime Thursday
· If you let us sell your cakes the next day all proceeds will go to comic relief
· Find out more and register in the LRC NOW!



My mouth is watering already.....

One Planet Week preparations underway!

Next week, 4-8 March, is Currie High School's very own One Planet Week, where we celebrate all aspects of Global Citizenship. We have external speakers coming in, relevant curricular work happening throughout different departments and and a fun-filled marketplace planned for Thursday lunchtime.   We had our final planning meeting this lunchtime and it's looking to be a fantastic week, taking in Fair Trade Fortnight, Climate Week, International Women's Day and much more besides.

 

Even our canteen, The Dolphin Cafe, is taking part, with a special themed menu all week - a Taste of China on Monday, through to a celebration of Scottish food on Thursday. We can't wait!



 

Spring clean in the Quadrangle

The S3 xl group have been taking advantage of the beautiful spring-like weather we've been having to do a spring clean of the internal school Quad. This is part of the 'Conserve' challenge for their John Muir Award.

 

Cutting and raking up the wildflower meadow

Tidying up the wetland area by the pond

They're all out doing a litter pick today, well done folks!

Eco Banners Up!

Four silk eco-banners designed and painted by Art & Design students at Currie were hung in the entrance to the Sports Hall over the mid-term break and look beautiful!  The banners celebrate biodiversity, our natural environment, conserving our precious resources and a healthy, active lifestyle. The banners really brighten the entrance area, and all the materials were paid for with prize money from our Ashden Energy Award. Many thanks go to Mrs MacCulloch, Mrs Steel and all the pupils involved. Don't they look great!

Holocaust Memorial Day at Currie High

As the sun went down at the end of the train tracks of Auschwitz-Birkenau, a powerful silence fell over our group of 200 secondary school students. It was the first time that day that we had been able to stop and think, to reflect on the fact that everything we knew about the Holocaust, everything we had been told but did not want to believe, was true. 

Last year Paul Macbeth and I took part in the Lessons from Auschwitz Project. We attended two afternoon seminars and a one-day visit to the former Nazi extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, in order to gain a fuller understanding of the Holocaust, and to pass on the lessons that must be learnt from history to our school and community in order to ensure that they are never repeated. 

The theme of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day was ‘Communities Together: Build a Bridge’. In the week leading up to the 27^th of January we led assemblies, speaking to every year group at Currie about our experience of visiting the camps, and what we had learnt from it. During the assemblies the school choir performed relevant songs, and pupils read out testimonies from survivors of other more recent genocides in Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. 

Every pupil and member of staff at Currie, and members of the wider community, were encouraged to write their hopes and dreams for our community on a paper brick that would then go towards ‘building a bridge’ along the Guidance corridor. We took the colours of the Nazi classification system - which had been used to separate and isolate particular groups of society - and used them instead as the colours of our bricks, combining them to create a powerful reminder that every individual in society has a right to be living in a tolerant and respectful community, but also has a responsibility in maintaining it. 

Louisa Burden S6 

Feeding the veg boxes

We are lucky to have some big boxes in our school grounds for growing vegetables.  This afternoon some pupils stayed on after school to help weed the boxes and feed the soil with lots of lovely farmyard manure. This should mean the boxes will be ready to go for vegetable growing when the weather warms up a bit!

Litter films at the design stage

As part of our involvement in an Edinburgh Council 'Litterless Lunch' initiative, two S2 English classes learnt the ingredients for making an effective short film from Neil Rolland of Screen Education Edinburgh. Pupils worked in groups last week to 'storyboard' an idea for an anti-litter film for Currie High School. They will then peer assess all the ideas and, together with the Eco Committee, will choose the film idea with the largest potential impact.  12 pupils will then have the opportunity to make this film when we return from school after the mid-term break.  Our school's film will even be shown in the Edinburgh Filmhouse in May, on the big screen!