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.