2013-14

 Thank you, Mr Kearton!

The Eco Team has been effectively and tirelessly led by Mr Iain Kearton. He has been ably supported by Mrs Susan Mackay and Mrs Sally Nowell, with wonderful input from parents Phoebe and Corrine, and the entire team of pupils, staff and parents has achieved a tremendous amount this year under his direction.

On 23rd May, Mr Kearton organised a fantastic celebration at Lauriston Castle as a 'thank you' for the energy, enthusiasm and dedication the pupils have put into Sciennes' many eco-projects and pilots this year. Read here about the huge amount achieved on the Eco Team Blog and view photos from the Lauriston Castle event.


We want to thank Mr Kearton for all his hard work and expertise in leading the Eco Team so successfully and with a fond farewell, we wish him and his family every happiness as they get ready for their new adventure in the north of Scotland.

 

Lauriston Castle

On 23rd May, the eco-group were invited to the idyllic grounds of Lauriston Castle as a 'thank you' for the energy, enthusiasm and dedication they have put into Sciennes' many eco-projects and pilots this year.

The eco-group have achieved a huge amount in 2013-14 and this is due overwhelmingly to the willingness of our eco-reps to come forward with ideas and take on new challenges - without such an enthusiastic group of class reps we would have achieved a fraction of our aims for the year!

Our trip to Lauriston Castle was a fitting end to the school year. We had a full day of exploration and discovering, as the photos below show. Our eco-reps were fascinated by pond dipping, leaving just enough time for a quick bit of den building after lunch. Many thanks to Theo's dad for supporting our trip - always take a biologist with you on a field trip!

Our current eco-reps will continue to represent their classes in the next session until a new group is elected in September or October.

Well done eco-team on a rewarding and productive year's work and thanks for being such a great bunch to work with!

The eco-group in action!

 

Eco-energy exchange

Our Eco-group's energy team were invited to City Chambers yesterday to tell the world about the energy-saving things we have been doing this year.

We were invited as one of 6 schools who have been taking part in trialling new resources and ideas for the Council.

Edinburgh Council is very keen to reduce the amount of fuel we use keeping the City's schools warm, bright and switched on - and to reduce the greenhouse gases we create by burning fossil fuels.

We were very impressed by City Chambers - it was amazing to walk in the front of the building from the Royal Mile, and to look out the back windows and be so high up! (Just a shame the weather wasn't smiling!)

We were very, very impressive in the way we spoke about our work this year. Confident, clear, and with no signs of nerves!

We well deserved the wee snack provided, and looked quite the part!

We enjoyed sharing our thoughts and suggestions with the others schools at City Chambers, and were pleased to hear Andy Gray, Head of Schools, talking about the Council's future plans.

 

 ECO AT SCIENNES MINDMAP

Click here to see SpicyNodes Mindmap of Sciennes Eco 2012-2014

 

 

 

Rag Bag Thank You!

Our Eco team, led by Mr Kearton and Mrs Mackay, raised an amazing £113.60 from their recent Ragbag appeal. Thank you to all families who kindly donated and supported our Recycling efforts. The money will be used for school resources.

 

Rag Ad

Sciennes Primary is holding a rag bag collection on Wednesday 12th March.

Our eco-group have created this short ad to promote rag bag recycling in school. We hope you like it!

All clothes, textiles, pairs of shoes, fabric and materials are welcome. 

This is a good opportunity to give your wardrobe a spring clean as the warmer weather approaches, and bring in any old, out grown or worn out clothes.

We can accept the following items:

• All men’s, ladies' and children’s clothing
• Paired shoes (tied together)
• Handbags, bags, ties & belts
• Household linen & towels

We cannot accept the following items:

• Duvets both synthetic and feathered
• Pillows & cushions
• Carpets & Rugs
• Soiled or wet clothing
• Uniforms & workwear
• Shredded or mutilated textile material
• Textile off cuts, yarns or threaded material

All donations will be reused where appropriate, or recycled for other uses where they cannot be reused.

The more materials we can collect, the more funds we will raise for our school.

A bag will be sent home with each older sibling on or before Friday 7th March. If you need extra bags, please use plastic bags or sacks from home.

We are asking for bags to be filled and returned on Wednesday 12th March. We do not have space in school to store bags before they are uplifted, so PLEASE only return them on the 12th.

Here are some photos from the Advert shoot, taken in the Eco Garden. Thank you to parent helpers who supported with the after school activity.

Mr Kearton and the Eco Group

 

 

Power from the pupils

Visitors from the City Council's energy team paid a trip to P4 and P7 today, inspiring children with a very practical example of renewable energy in action.

 Using ScotMid's "Smoothie bike", 4A and 7A used pedal power to create healthy fruit smoothies. P4s and P7s have recently been exploring energy and renewable energy with our Science Specialist, Mr McKenna, and our visitors were impressed by children's knowledge and scientific thinking.

The smoothie bike gave us a practical experience of just how much power is needed to run everyday items. Opinion divided amongst the different groups as to the right balance of peach, pineapple or banana in their recipes, but all agreed that the bike itself was quite a cool thing.

 

Sciennes Recycling Food Waste Pilot

Thank you to Anita Sharkey, Waste Education Officer for City of Edinburgh Council, who came to talk to the Eco Committee on Friday 29th November and was keen to find out about our Food Waste pilot.

Tackling food waste

An exciting new recycling scheme is being piloted in four Edinburgh schools. Food waste is to be collected and recycled to help reach the Scottish Government’s environmental targets. The trial will to help find out how much food waste there is in our schools. Sciennes and Pentlans Primaries have been chosen as sites for the pilot.

If successful, food waste recycling will be rolled out across the city. Vice-Convenor of Transport and Environment Councillor Jim Orr supports the scheme. He said:

In order to meet our targets of recycling at least 50 per cent of our rubbish we all have to make more of an effort. Collecting leftover food from schools will send a fantastic message to pupils – the future generation of recyclers.

The collected food will be recycled by anaerobic digestion at Scottish Water’s Deerdykes facility. As well as reducing landfill waste this type of recycling can turn waste food in to a fertiliser or a fuel-source.

http://edinburghbrightfutures.com/2013/10/11/round-up-friday-11-october-2013/

 

Autumn clean up

Thank you to the Sciennes families who stayed back a wee while after school yesterday to support our Clean Up campaign.

Children from P1 to P7 enthusiastically wielded litter pickers and bin bags supplied by the Council and Keeping Scotland Beautiful.

With the help of their parents, Mrs Nowell and Mrs Mackay, we completely filled one of the big school bins with what we found in just half an hour!

It has been found that where litter is already present in an area people are more likely to drop their litter. Hopefully, just by making the Sciennes area cleaner, we will deter people from dropping litter in future.

 

 

Energy watchdogs

Sciennes’ new energy watchdogs are taking the lead in improving our school’s impact on the environment.

 

Starting during Switch off fortnight, our watchdogs are encourage staff and pupils to make simple energy savings by: turning off lights and electrical equipment when they are not needed, and heating classrooms sensibly by adjusting radiators rather than opening windows.

Each year at Sciennes, we use a substantial amount of oil, gas and electricity to heat our school and pool, and light our classrooms.

Our energy watchdogs are hoping to reduce our carbon footprint, and the school’s bills, throughout the year by taking these simple steps. We are also working closely with experts at the City Council to try out other energy saving measures before they are rolled out to other City schools next year.

    Mr Kearton and some members of the Eco Committee

 

 

Keeping Sciennes Beautiful

Our eco-committee is enthusiastically supporting Edinburgh's Clean Up day of action on 29 November, and invites all children from P1 to P7 to bring a parent or carer along and take part!

Litter can be a problem in our school grounds. A constant frustration for our many ecologically-minded children is that a good deal of the litter we collect seems to blow into our playground from the surrounding streets.

To help tackle this, we will meet at school on Friday 29th November at 12.20pm to collect litter from our nearby streets and green spaces.

You are welcome join us and to stay for as long or as short as you wish. However, we ask that all children be accompanied and supervised by a responsible adult.

If you have a litter picker at home, and suitable gloves, please bring them along!

New Eco Reps

Congratulations to our new Eco Reps who were elected by their classmates. This year P3 pupils will be working together on a separate Eco project throughout the year, so only P4-P7 Eco Reps will be involved in the whole school meetings. Mr Kearton and Mrs Nowell met with new and old reps on Friday 25th October. Mrs Mackay, Ms Christie and Ms Gallagher will also support the work of the Eco Committee and everyone looks forward to maintaining and building on all the excellent work undertaken by the group.

P4 Evelyn, Sarah, Lyla
P5 Rose, Sophie, Laiba
P6 Theo, Ava, Jessica
P7 Dylan, Eva, Iona