An update

Since our last post the plants in the grounds have been growing and growing, here are some quick update photos of how things are looking.

Green Flag Inspection

This Monday the Eco Schools assessor is due to call to look at the work we have done over the last two years. We’ll let you know how it goes. It’s also a great excuse to get the blog going again!

Cheeky Squirrel

For a while now we have been wondering where the peanuts have been going. Now we have the proof. This cheeky grey squirrel has been plundering the bird feeder and the bins(!) for their contents. I’m glad to say that it has not put off the birds who are now regulars of the bird feeders.

Cloud Burst!

The pond 20 minutes after heavy rain, fuller than usual but coping easily

Today we have had the most amazing heavy rain and it was a really good chance to see how the Sustainable Urban drainage System coped with the downpour. Although I did not venture out during the rain the whole of 6U came with me to have a look 20 minutes later. We found that the swales (ditches) coped easily and that the pond simply swallowed up the extra water and helped clear some of the algae that has been forming in the pond out of the way. Though the algae is now partly blocking the outfall and we will need to keep an eye on this. It was impressive though to see just how much water can be absorbed by this system when all the traditional drains were struggling.

Bug Boxes

After placing bird and bat boxes around the grounds we have now put a range of individually designed and built bug boxes around the grounds and allotment. Many thanks to all the pupils who have either built or helped place these boxes we look forward to seing all the insects that will make them their home.

Eco Club

After all the exciting new projects of the past three (and more) years we are now settling into the routine of looking after the projects. We spent last Eco Club catching up on those little jobs like filling the bird feeders and checking the wildflower meadow. Next week we will be weeding the tree nursery. While none of these jobs are exciting they are all needed to keep the projects going and bring with them their own satisfaction of a job well done. Well thats what we keep telling each other! We will be having an Eco action Team meeting soon where we will think up some more exciting projects…

How not to grow a cabbage!

Its been a bad (or is that good?) year for catepillars in the allotment this year, we came across this sad example in gardening club the other day. I think we will be netting our cabbages next year!

May and April Update

Ok so we are not doing so well at updating the blog. Ican only say in our defence that this is due to things being so busy in Eco Club. First many thanks to our new Eco Action Team who had their first meeting in April. We had a new round of elections and now have a fresh team (with some familiar faces as well) to take us forwards to next years Green Flag reapplication. You can read the minutes of the last meeting by clicking on the link on the Action Team page. Inside the building recycling and composting continues well though we have let to make significant progress on the saving power target. Outside in the allotment things progress as indeed they do throughout the grounds. Many thanks goes to the pupils who have spent time going around the grounds taking photos of the wild and semi wild plant life that has begun to take hold in the various habitats we have created throughout the school grounds. We now need to name all the various species, if you recognise any of the plants featured below please add a comment telling us as we need to know!

March Update

Too long has passed again without updating the blog. We have been really busy this month with eco club finishing off the last few things on our action plan. This month has seen the appointment of our new Eco Action Team who will meet next week to begin work on the new Eco Action Plan. This will give us a new set of objectives to aim towards.

March has so far seen the Bird and Bat boxes finally installed in trees around our grounds. We were joined that day by our local tree wardens who did the climbing and dangerous bits for us, many thanks to them. In the allotment things have started to grow with broad beans springing up and the garlic coming on well. We now have lots of things planted ready for the warmth of Spring to arrive! The pond has also seen a good clear out thanks to our pond expert Greg Thurlow, many thanks to him as he has now removed the green algae that has built up due to the messing about with the swale system that feeds it by the school developers. Yellow Flag (iris) has now been planted in the pond to help minimise the effects of nitrates in the pond. Inside the building our drive to become a fairtrade school is gathering pace with events like the year 8 enterprise day which had Fairtrade and sustainability as its theme. We are also pushing forwards with our recycling initiatives which along with energy saving will be up for discussion next week by the Eco Action Team.

Eco Club put up bird boxes with the help of local tree wardens

February Roundup

Although Eco Club is in its quiet season there has been a lot going on around the school. It was great to see that old computers were going on to have a second life. Our network manager had already done everything possible to keep them in service as long as possible, now they have gone to have another life in use in Africa. It was good to see so much pupil involvement in this process. Waste management is a key issue and again it has been great to see the recycling team working hard around the school. We have now collected well over 100 bags of recycled paper since starting and the bins continue to be well used. Over the winter over 120 trees and shrubs have been planted in the school grounds by pupils and staff (100 trees in the new tree nursery) and we have begun to think about what action can be taken with saving energy around the school.  At the moment we are in the middle of the selection procedure for the new Eco Action Team who will drive our work forwards as the year progresses.

We also have lots of schemes and activities coming up. Next weeks theme is Fairtrade and there will be Assemblies and activities to mark this. We also have a Fairtrade and sustainability Enterprise day in March involving  all of Year 8.  This Friday we have our local tree wardens coming in to work with us putting up nearly 30 bird, bug and bat boxes (many of which have been made by pupils). Next week will also mark the start of work in the allotment again. We have received our free potato pack from the British Potato Council and we have bought our early and main crop seed potatoes which we will plant out next Tuesday in Gardening Club.

At the same time this is also a wonderful time of year to sit back and watch the fruits of last years work as bulbs come up and birds feed at the feeder and the trees start producing buds.

Film Stars!

Just to say thank you to all of you who agreed to be fimed doing your recycling collection and composting. The filming was for an advert for Leicestershire Council showing how they are helping schools achieve Eco School Status. Seems fair since it was Leicestershire who provided us with the recycling and composting bins free of charge!

Tomorrow in Eco Club we will be continuing our quest to become more energy efficient as a school with a survey of energy use.

Save Energy

We have had saving energy down as a key target for our Eco Action team for several months now but done very little about it. This term seems like the right time to tackle this important issue.

I have to admit that I am not the best energy saver myself and have been put to shame by a number of you! Because today is the first day of 2009 I have made a personal New Years resolution to save as much energy as possible without affecting quality of life. Over the next year I will  be doing a series of entries to let you know how I’m getting on so you can see if you can beat my energy saving attempts.

My efforts have begun with the purchase of an energy monitor to see how much electricity I’m using and the purchase of some energy saving bulbs, I’ll let you know how I get on.

In school we are hoping to go through a similar process, obviously we are lucky to have a well insulated new building crammed full of energy saving features, but that does not mean we can’t do better still! We have already identified lights and computers being left on as an area to save on already. Again there will be much more on this to follow.

Bird Boxes

Bird boxes

Earlier this year we were given some money by Oadby and Wigston Council and Leicestershire’s Stepping Stones Project to build and buy a selection of bird and bat boxes to be put up around our grounds. These are now to be put up in time for spring. Above are some of the boxes lovingly hand crafted by pupils.

Tree Nursery

Today we planted 100 trees! Members of year 6 paired up to plant the trees during their registration and lunch times. The idea is that the trees will grow in the nursery for the next few seasons before being transplanted and used in a restoration project in the Midlands where trees are needed.  The whole project has been made possible and is being carried out in association with the Earth Restoration Service. Thanks must also go to all the staff who helped with the planting today. Trees planted included Oak, Rowan, Ash and Willow. We look forward to seeing these trees come into leaf in the spring.

Tree Nursery

Tree Nursery

Next Friday will see the arrival of 100 trees to be planted in our new tree nursery. More details on this will follow soon. Above is a photo of the two raised beds where our year 6 will plant the trees. Once the trees have grown to a certain height they will be dug up to be used in a restoration project, this scheme is being run in association with the Earth Restoration Service.

Although the blog has been quiet for the past month Eco Club has not been. The Allotment has been weeded and prepared for winter. Gardening Club met for the last time this year on Tuesday and the bird boxes are going up very soon. We are also close to making some exciting purchases for our bat club, but more on this later.

Measuring Up…

Today we began the process of gathering data from our school grounds in Eco Club. Mr. Lowe took a number of Eco Clubbers into the grounds to measure trees so we can plot their growth over the coming seasons, it was quite impressive to see the team measuring the height using triangulation! we also used a GPS to measure our height above sea level and location (94m) and a trundle wheel to measure the distance between a focal point tree at the end of the car park and the school entrance (100m). The data team will eventually collect data on all our eco projects for use across the school. The rest of the team were busy planting rescued birch trees around the grounds, fingers crossed that they survive as we are not yet into the planting season.

At the end of the month we hope to welcome the original designer of the grounds David Singleton to one of our eco clubs. We are keen to find out what he makes of the ways in which we use and have added to his designs since our school was rebuilt.

Finally some of you will know that we are hoping to set up a school link with Mrs. Briggs new school Scalloway Junior in the Shetland Isles. I notice that they too are an Eco School and have been awarded a Green Flag, now there is a thought.

Green Flag

Eco Schools Green Flag

Well at last we have our Green Flag on display. The Green Flag symbolises a lot of hard work by a lot of people to make our school a more sustainable place. It is of course only the start of the journey with lots of new challenges and projects ahead. We can only take inspiration from Water Leys Primary school (one of our feeder schools) who became one of a handful of schools to be awarded their fourth flag and had their celebration Assembly last week. Congratulations to them.

Gardening Club

Today we continued the task of clearing the allotment ready for the winter. The runner beans are still producing and we found a few more carrots today but that is about it. We got around to picking the sweetcorn today, it has been disappointing due to the poor weather and us being late in planting out, at least there are a number of happy rabbits and hens in Wigston tonight. We also divided out the onions among the garden clubbers. We hope to run gardening club up to half term and then we will have a break for the winter. Eco club are to take on the task of clearing out the pond and joining in the Big Tidy Up which has had to be rescheduled due to the closure of the school on the original date. More on that soon.

Tree Nursery

The finishing touches are just being made to the raised beds that will form the tree nursery which is being developed with support from the Earth Resoration Service. Pictures and more details will follow soon.

Bats about Bats

Today Mr. Pratt led a lunchtime session about bats. We went outside to find some good spots to put bat boxes. Thanks to the 30+ pupils who came along today for all your suggestions, we will meet again soon and hopefully get the bat boxes in place. If you missed todays meeting remember eco club meets on Friday and there will also be a meeting to decide where to put over 20 bird boxes!