2011-12

Miss Claire Phillips, Ms Mel Ross and Mr Iain Kearton lead Sciennes School Eco Committee projects in school involving Eco representatives from each class, and the school community as a whole.

Thursday 26th May and Friday 27th May will see the culmination of recent schoolwide ECO projects.

Miss Phillips and Ms Ross have put a great deal of effort into completing an application to maintain the school's Green Flag status and recently met with representatives from the School Council Sustainability Group to explore future projects.

The Sciennes Eco Committee has been very busy this year. Congratulations on working so hard to get our second Green Flag.  

Overall very good progress with the targets set out in our Action Plan.

Here is what we have done so far!

Waste Minimisation:

Bins throughout the school have been replaced with much smaller bins and better recycling facilities. Children have been asked to recycle more and take their lunch waste home. This has made a huge difference to the amount of waste that needs to be uplifted from the school. It has been reduced from four large bins being uplifted three times a week to two bins being uplifted twice a week.

Sciennes is now registered with Rag Bags and we are currently collecting for our first Rag Bag collection on 2nd June.

There is an ongoing focus on reducing the amount of paper used in school. P6C has started an enterprise project to reuse the shredded paper within the school and sell it as pet bedding to raise money for the Eco Garden.  Please contact them if you are interested.

The Eco Week is based on waste minimization & recycling. This will be held on 26/27th May.  Lower school will be recycling waste to make wildlife feeders. Upper school is using recycled waste to create outfits for a Trash Fashion Show. This is then being modelled on an outdoor catwalk for the whole school and parents. Children across the school are currently collecting waste with great enthusiasm in preparation.

Litter:

Litter surveys have been conducted with P2 children and members of the Eco committee that expressed a keen interest in biodiversity.

School Service Support Officers select children at breaks and lunch from across the year groups to be the Litter Patrol Squad. They use litter pickers to clean the playground and encourage the use of playground bins.

A litter campaign will start soon with posters promoting the anti-litter message hopefully being displayed in shops within the community. These will be made by the children.


Health & Wellbeing:

Sciennes Health & Wellbeing Development Group are involved in surveying children's snacks so that they can promote healthier alternatives.

Health & Wellbeing Development groups from cluster schools are planning to meet to discuss the implementation of health & wellbeing in learning and teaching.

The Big Pedal Day was held in March 2011 to promote active and sustainable transport to school. This was a huge success with teachers, parents and children cycling to school to earn house points. Well done everyone involved!

Sustaining Our World:

The whole school has been involved in creating a better Scotland. Each child was given £1 to use in a project to improve life in Scotland. This resulted in money being used to give to local charities, host tea parties for the local community amongst other things. A display was made in school and further promoted within the cluster. MP Michael Moore and MSP Mike Pringle were extremely impressed by the project when they visited school.

The whole school participated in Fairtrade Fortnight. Children were taught about cotton farming, unfair wages/working conditions and what they can do about it through lessons, homework, listening to a speaker, stall, assemblies, taste tests, competitions, tuck shop, artwork, school displays and videos. Money was raised for Hillview Primary in South Africa through raffling of Fairtrade Hampers.

Children will soon be able to apply to join a Fairtrade committee. Members are to be appointed with a view to beginning meetings at the start of the 11/12 session and working towards Fairtrade status.

Children involved with the choir and orchestra have raised almost £1000 for resources for our link school, Hillview Primary in South Africa, through a concert attended by parents and members of the community.

School Grounds/Biodiversity:

The school garden has been tidied and harvested. The vegetables were used to make soup by Primary 3 during their Food & Farming project. A planting schedule has been made to include more vegetables and a herb planter.  Primary 2 has been given specific responsibility for the planting and maintenance of the eco garden so that in P3 they will be able to harvest the food they have tended. A member of the support staff has been given responsibility for the overview of this area.

The Eco Committee has researched and prepared a winning bid for a Biodiversity Garden to be located within Sciennes' school grounds. The children worked hard to produce a film to outline their plan interviewing pupils, staff and parents. £250 was awarded.

The Eco committee are working alongside a P2/3 class and teacher to find the best way to use this money to increase biodiversity in Sciennes. Until plans are finalized some P4 children have been re-planting the tubs in the back playground. Pupil Council members will be replanting the tubs in the main playground.

An audit was undertaken by members of the Eco Committee in order to inform decisions on how best to improve biodiversity within school grounds.

An outdoor quiet area has been created by DHT and Pupil Council within the school playground to accommodate children who wish for a calmer area to spend their break times. This has been researched and resourced with an assortment of quiet activities.

Our eco code is due to be renewed. This will be set as a homework task so please get your thinking caps on. The lucky winner will have their eco code displayed on the Eco board for the following year. More details to follow.

Many thanks for all your support this year.