Explorer scouts = fantastic

The Edge Explorer Scout Unit have been working with Currie High on their Environmental Partnership Award. Last week a whole group of Explorer Scouts and leaders came in to school on a Saturday to start things off.  They totally cleared an overgrown bed of shrubs near the main entrance to the school. They'll be back in a couple of weeks to plant 8 soft fruit bushes, as a resource for the whole school community to use.   

 

 

 They also found the time to do a big litter pick of Roley's Wood, and collected 12 bags of litter from the woods.   Roley herself was on hand to help with the task.   A new JASS litter group will be starting next week, led by S6 Gemma King, and this should help keep on top of litter from now on.

 

 Many thanks to Edge Explorer Scouts and their leaders for all your hard work!

 

We launch our new Grant Scheme!

On Monday we launch our brand new CurriEco Grant Scheme! We were lucky enough to be donated £3500 from PiP to use for environmental projects in the school. We wanted to give everyone the chance to decide how the money was spent! 

The Eco Committee have been working hard to come up with a simple application form (designed by Noorislam Uddin). Pupils, parents and staff are encouraged to come up with ideas to improve the environment of the school, or to help make us more sustainable.  The Eco Committee, with support from the Sustainable School Working Group, will decide which projects will get the money. Get those ideas coming in - before the deadline of 12 October!

From soil to plate

Last session Intermediate Biology pupils grew some vegetables as part of their plants unit.  Some of these pupils are now studying Hospitality.  Today, Hospitality students practised different cuts of potato (Julienne, Brunoise etc) using potatoes grown by Abby, Jordi and others from their class.  They then transformed the potatoes into tasty pakoras!

Mini shelters with xl

The new S3 xl group have been exploring the Millennium woodland strips in the school grounds as part of their work towards a John Muir Award. Last week we pruned some of the lower branches near the path and created habitat piles from the cuttings. This week we used natural found materials in the wood to make mini shelters - and tested how waterproof and windproof they are. In a few weeks time we'll work as a group to make a bigger shelter.

The return of the Green Man!

Earlier this year Mrs Steel piloted a new lesson for S1s in Art & Design, creating Green Man sculptures in Roley's Wood. This week each of the S1 classes has been out in the woods, after learning a little about the history and significance of the Green Man through the ages.  They've been working in pairs to create fantastic faces out of clay and found natural materials; leaves, flowers, seeds, feathers and stones.   Go down to Roley's Wood today and see how many Green Men you can find staring back at you from amongst the trees...

 

 

Harvesting our veg

Biology S4 pupils harvested some of their produce today. It hadn't been a brilliant season, with poor weather over the summer and not enough weeding, but we still managed to get some good potatoes and carrots!

CurriEco work continues...

We've not been back at school a month yet and lots of Eco work has already happened this term. New products were launched by the Fair Trade group for the Friday tuckshops, the S3 xl group have been exploring the school grounds and pruning trees in the wildlife corridor, and our Eco Committee continues to meet with new enthusiastic members.

Our fantastic Eco Committee for the 2012-13 session....

We elected people for different roles within the committee (Organiser, Minutes Taker, PR, Litter Leader etc) and continued to plan our publicity campaign and launch of a new grant scheme. The school was given money from Parents in Partnership (PiP) for environmental improvements last term. We're organising a simple application form so any pupil or member of staff can apply to the Eco Committee for some money to support an eco project.