One World Show!

This lunchtime we had an amazing One World Show in the assembly hall. Over 180 pupils and staff came to watch. There was an exhibition of art work from all years S1 to S6. 

S3 mirror and clock designs made out of recycled materials

Senior fashion designs inspired by the natural world

S4 corsets inspired by nature and made using recycled materials

S4-S6 eco architecture. Sustainability focussed and nature-inspired....

John and Jenna were our comperes for the event

Two S1 classes had African dance lessons in PE today, alongside live drumming, and some brave volunteers gave a public performance of the Kpanlogo dance from Ghana that they'd learnt

Elaine O'Donnell read her powerful poem 'What is?' that she submitted for the John Byrne Award competition

The Junior Drama club did short sketches they'd developed on the theme 'Its Not Fair!'

More from the Junior Drama club

The Fair Trade group did a presentation on why Fair Trade matters

Pupils modelled some amazing fashion designs inspired by our world and nature, created for Higher and Advanced Higher. 

Many thanks to everyone involved in making it a fantastic event!

New Climate Change Display

The Eco Committee have been working hard over the last few weeks on a new climate change display on our Eco board in the main foyer.  They want to raise awareness of climate change amongst staff, pupils and visitors to the school: what it is, why its important and what we can all do about it.

 



Climate Change

When we burn fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas, we release carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere that has been locked underground for millions of years.  The CO₂ acts like a layer of glass in a greenhouse, trapping more of the sun’s energy and heating up our planet.  

In November 2014 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published new findings from nearly 1000 scientists from around the world. The report shows that climate warming is definitely happening, and it is very clear that human activities are the main cause.  Climate change will affect everywhere, but the poorest people in the world will be affected most.  The IPCC report says we need significant action in the next 10 years to reduce the amount of CO₂ and other greenhouses gases we emit into the atmosphere.

What the school is doing

We are trying to reduce the carbon footprint of the school. We have:

·         30kW solar thermal panels on our sports hall roof that help heat the water in the swimming pool
·         Over 2000 energy-efficient light bulbs
·         Made sure doors and windows close properly so less heat is lost
·         We are trying to get our 11kW wind turbine back up and running!
·         We learn about climate change and energy issues in different departments

 What can you do? 

We can all help to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and protect our planet

·         Think about switching to a 100% renewable electricity supplier

·         Turn the heating down a few degrees – put on an extra jumper!

·         Walk, cycle or get public transport when you can instead of taking a car

·         Buy food grown locally not flown in from the other side of the world

·         Unplug your gadgets – even leaving chargers plugged in wastes energy

·         Contact your MSP or MP and ask them to support tough action on climate change in the UK and at the UN Climate Conference in 2015

Green Flag Award success!!

We had an assessment visit this morning from Dugald MacGilp of Eco-Schools Scotland.  The Eco Committee did a superb job of explaining how the Eco-Schools programme runs at Currie and taking him on a tour of the school and grounds to show off what we've been doing.

Pupils from S1 - S6 spoke about their work, from the Fair Trade group to those planning the visit to Chogoria High School or the activities of the school grounds volunteers, from our S1 Sustainable Development Education course to the S2 GO4SET group, from an anti-litter campaign to a sustainable house design unit and learning about Fair Trade in French.

Huge thanks to everyone who was involved in this morning's visit. Dugald said he was 'bowled over' by the level of knowledge and enthusiasm of the pupils he met, and that he was delighted to renew our Green Flag for another two years. Hurray for us!

New eco topics for the next two years

The Eco Committee have been hard at work this term, involving as many pupils as possible in doing an Environmental Review of the whole school. We do this to see what we're doing well as a school and what we could improve on.  Using this review, we have decided on our new topics of focus for Eco-Schools for 2013-2015!

These are:
- Litter
- Energy
- Health and wellbeing

We have asked every tutor group in the school to complete an eco ideas sheet, asking for ideas on actions for these and other Eco topics.   We can then put these into an action plan for this year. There are lots of exciting ideas already - keep those completed sheets coming in please!  We hope to make some real progress as a school on these three issues over the next two years, as well as continuing all the other eco-related work that is part of our life at Currie High.  If you'd like to get involved in the Eco Committee new members are always welcome, pupils, staff and parents. Just see Rachel Avery in the Environment office in the LRC on a Wednesday or a Thursday.

Learning for Sustainability workshop

A group of staff spent all day on Thursday 26 September working on a school vision for 'Learning for Sustainability'. This is a combined, holistic whole-school approach to outdoor learning, sustainable development education and global citizenship.   We do lots of great things as a school at the moment, but we want to improve and make sure every learner at Currie High has lots of high quality learning experiences outside the classroom, and making links to citizenship and sustainability.   We believe its a great way to provide a real-life context for learning, and give opportunities for learners to develop skills they will need in life after school.

During lunchtime, staff and pupils were invited to an open session in the community lounge where they could comment on the working group's thoughts so far. Thanks to the 40+ pupils and 20+ staff who came along and shared their views. Everything will be written up properly and shared soon!

John Muir Graphic Novel

A group of S2 and S3 pupil volunteers recently met an illustrator working on a graphic novel about the life of John Muir, the Scottish environmentalist.  They looked at a draft of the new novel and gave William Goldsmith the illustrator their ideas about his illustrations and the captions for the book. The Scottish Book Trust is going to give a class set of the novel to every secondary school in Scotland when it is published next year.  William and the author Julie Bertangna will return in October to show the pupils the next draft of the book.

The illustrator William Goldsmith showing pupils how he came up with design of John as a young boy

New eco display

The eco committee have been working on a new display that highlights all the fantastic work done at Currie over the last two years. We've been focussing on three different Eco topics:
- Litter
- Food and the Environment
- Sustaining Our World

The Eco Committee decided to make a tree with three parts, and show our actions in words and pictures as leaf shapes.

Early next session we'll do an Environmental Review of the whole school to see how we're doing and get ideas on how to improve. Then we'll choose some new topics to focus our efforts on.  If you have any ideas on how Currie High can be more sustainable please let someone from the Eco Committee know, or put your idea into the Suggestion Box in the LRC.

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!

Earthship Energy Fair

On Saturday 6 October Currie hosted the Earthship Energy Fair, held to celebrate workshops provided by Sustainable Communities Initiatives for P6 classes in our associated primary schools.

The Fair was opened by Alistair Darling MP and included stalls showcasing the work of pupils at Currie High School.

Alistair Darling and Johanna Carrie of Transition Edinburgh Pentlands

Stalls from the Earthship Energy Fair

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!

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.

Presentation success

Noorislam Uddin, Michael McGlade and Karen Craigie represented the school at the Eco-Schools in Edinburgh celebration event yesterday at Edinburgh Napier University.  They delivered an engaging presentation of our Eco work relating to food to over 120 pupils and teachers from across the city, encouraging them all to do their bit.

As part of the event we were awarded a certificate of our 4th Green Flag by Councillor Hinds.

More photos from the tree planting...

Pupils and staff from Currie Community High School and Woodlands School planting apple and plum trees in our Orchard.

Is that a hole or half a hole?

Tree...mendous work!

A good job well done - by the kids!

Who's the guy with the camera?

The 'A' (for Apple) Team

Our Fourth Green Flag

Some of our Eco Committee with our Fourth Green Flag from Eco Schools Scotland. We're all very happy to have received this award. We're one of only five High Schools in the whole of Scotland to have our Fourth Green Flag.

World Pizza

The Eco Committee today finished our Food Miles display for the foyer. We think it’s important to understand how far food often has to travel before it ends up on your plate!

Our Fourth Green Flag!

We heard from Eco Schools Scotland today that we've been awarded our fourth Green Flag! This is recognition of all the great work we've done over the last two years, particularly in the fields of Waste Minimisation, Biodiversity and Litter. Hurray for us!