CurriEco Grant Scheme final results....

The school received £3500 from PiP for environmental improvement projects in the school. The Eco-Committee organised for pupils and staff to apply for some of this money.  After careful consideration, the ‘winning’ applications are below.  Money remaining = £362.50 to be allocated on a rolling basis.

Project	Cost	Who is involved
Supporting S1 SDE projects. All S1s do a practical  project to improve the environment (9 weeks at the end of  their Sustainable Development Education course). £40 per class maximum per year.	£1000 over 4 years	Mr Toal and SDE teachers (Ms Bond, Ms Barlow, Mr Radford and all S1 pupils)
Eco-Art posters. Two or three large scale (A0) posters professionally printed onto boards of eco-themed Art work for permanent display in foyer.	£300 max	Mrs Steel & A&D pupils
Redecorate the school canteen using eco-themed decorations (wall mural and on lockers)	£300 max	Katherine Macfarlane & Joanne Pryde S6 + JASS group + Advanced Higher Art pupils + Mrs Steel
Eco-Film competition - Pupils make a short film on an environmental topic. Shortlist shown at lunchtime and best voted for by pupil audience. Entries used on website, shown in foyer, at parents evenings etc. £100 each year. (£50 1st prize, £30 2nd prize, £20 3rd prize)	£300 over 3 years	Mr Farren + CurriEco team
Bird boxes and materials for making birdboxes. Installing some long-life woodcrete boxes to start monitoring their success in the Nest Record Scheme from this Spring. Wooden boxes made for common and threatened species by CDT pupils later this session and in subsequent years.	£250 max £100 for woodcrete boxes, £150 for materials	Mr Walton + Mr Watson + S5/6 CDT pupils + group of  pupil volunteers as bird box monitors
Watering system for greenhouse. A simple automatic timed watering system would mean we can use the greenhouse to grow fruit, vegetables etc as they wouldn’t die over the holidays.	£280	Rachel Avery + Int Biology + Other pupils
Wireless bird box camera to show live footage of the  inside of a bird box on the screen in the foyer	£183.50	Mr Walton + other staff
Bed of soft fruit bushes at front of school and manure for school orchard, vegetable boxes and soft fruit.	£181	EDGE Explorer Scouts (Led by Owen & Trish Davies, parents)
Pin badges for pupils in the Eco Committee & working on Eco projects in the school to raise profile of Eco activities.	£100 max	Clara Morriss & Karen Craigie  S6 (Eco Committee)
Big pupil-designed stickers on litter bins in school foyer and outside, encouraging people not to drop litter	£70	Gemma King 6K2 with S2 JASS litter group
Native wildflowers for a wetland in Roleys Wood	£68	EDGE Explorer Scouts (Led by Owen & Trish Davies, parents)
Solar powered fountain for wildlife pond in Quadrangle. To oxygenate water to help the health of the pond and as an example of renewable energy.	£65	Mr Hermiston
Three thermos jugs for serving Fair Trade teas and coffees at events, parents evenings etc. This raises money for good causes such as our sponsored pupils in Chogoria High School, Kenya	£40	Fair Trade group

Festive cooking on an open fire

The S3 xl group have been out in the school grounds Period 5 every Thursday doing work towards their John Muir Award.  Today was the last time this term, and to celebrate we used our newly acquired skills to do some cooking outdoors.

Lighting the fire safely. Notice the neatly organised sticks graded by size!

Some of the group made a simple damper bread dough with self raising flour, water, sultanas and a touch of sugar and salt

We cleaned freshly harvested sticks with potato peelers, wrapped the dough around the stick and cooked our bread over the fire

Ms McMaster was a big fan!

Yum!

Housing is a human right!

The Amnesty International group had a stall at the School Show all this week. We were raising awareness of forced evictions throughout the world by showing a exhibition of images from Amnesty. 

We also encouraged people coming to the show to participate in our action to support Roma people in Italy.  They are being discriminated against in many ways, including being forcibly removed from their homes, often with little or no warning.  We asked people to sign a paper brick to show they supported the Human Rights of Roma people in Italy. Amnesty International Youth Groups across the UK are asking people to sign bricks too. All the collected bricks will be made into a huge house and sent to the Italian Prime Minister, asking him to prevent forced evictions of Roma in Italy.

Clara and Lewis from the AI group with our wall of signed bricks

 

Fair Trade Group

This term the Fair Trade group has been very active in promoting Fair Trade snacks in school at our popular tuckshop on Fridays at break. Pupils are encouraged to actively choose to buy Fair Trade to support small producers in the developing world but it’s not just altruism, the products really do taste extra special!

 The group has also been serving Fair Trade tea, coffee and snacks at various community events and are willing to do this for community groups and so promote Fair Trade in the wider community .

This term the funds that we raise will be put towards the fees for the four pupils that the school sponsors at Chogoria High School, our partner school in Kenya.

Explorer Scouts finish their project

The EDGE Explorer Scouts finished their Environmental Partnership Award with the school.

Planting 10 species of native wildflowers by the burn in Roley's Wood

Adding in the muck to the soft fruit bed

Covering with meed matting and making holes to plant the soft fruit bushes. 

 

 

Some of the Explorer Scouts with the finished bed of red currants, black currants, white currants and gooseberries.

Many thanks to Trish and Owen Davies, EDGE Explorer Scout Leaders, and all the Scouts for their help!

Eco-Schools display

The Eco -Committee have done a colourful display to show what we're doing towards our next Green Flag for Eco-Schools.  The display shows photos of what we are doing towards our Food & Environment, Litter and Sustaining Our World topics, and includes our Action Plans for this session.

This display in the main foyer has been up for a community energy fayre, PiP meeting and other events at the school. Lots of people can see the Eco work we've been up to and are planning for the rest of this year!

Biodiversity begins with a Bee...

The S1 Sustainable Development Education classes have finished their Biodiversity unit by learning about the importance of bees and other pollinators. They made posters to raise awareness of Colony Collapse Disorder and the need for conservation of our bees.

Shelter building with S3 xl

Pupils have been learning safe methods to fell small trees, thinning the woodland and creating poles for their shelters

They have also been learning different knots. Natasha and Connor are using square lashing in their shelter.

One of the team's completed shelters

Litter action team!

Gemma, Amina and Haneen have been working hard to tackle litter around our school grounds. Lots of crisp packets are blown into the pond in the Green Garden, outside Mrs Mackinnon's office. They managed to clean them all up in record time just before the light faded!

Before - Yuck!

 

Afterwards - Much nicer!

Child soldiers campaign

Our S1s are learning about child soldiers in their Modern Studies lessons at the moment, and preparing campaigns to raise awareness and take action on the issue. Peter Sawkins of 1A and his team prepared this fantastic film, which is being shown in the school foyer.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDyEXjeszfI

I am Malala

This coming Saturday, 10 November, is Malala Day. Malala Yousafzai is a 14 year old girl from Pakistan. She was shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for girls' education.  She is now recovering in hospital in Birmingham and making a slow but good recovery. The Amnesty International group at Currie are encouraging pupils and staff to sign the petition in support of Malala and the 32 million girls around the world who are not able to get an education.
 To sign the petition visit  www.iamMalala.org