Leaden Hall - Activities of the Eco Group - Mission Update!

January 2008 – July 2009

The highlight of January 2008 was our submission for the coveted Green Flag and confirmation on 11th January, after rigorous questioning by the two Assessors, that our school had more than achieved the level required. We were all delighted and the flag is now in place overlooking our playground and new sustainable wooden and copper classrooms.The highlight of June 2009 was winning the coveted DSCF Sustainable School’s National Teaching Award for the West of England.We were also thrilled to hear in June 2009 that our Comenius bid has been approved for two years from September 2009. This is a monthly project linking Poland, Cyprus, Italy and France entitled "From Acorns to Eco Warriors".However, nothing in Eco-land stops to rest and we will again be appointing our Eco Monitors in September 2009 and meeting weekly in break plotting and planning our next moves.Listed below are some of the many things we have undertaken during the period.

January 2008

• Christmas Cards – Woodland Trust
• 10th January – rubbish assembly – all classes involved (and some shamed!)
• 11th January – Assessors for the Green Flag interview children/staff
• Monitors consider a school-wide Eco Rap competition
• Big Bird Watch – RSPB
• Power Walking for parents
• Catering achieved 5 stars for Hygiene Inspection
• Project Group start the Red Door magazine with Eco section
• First Aid for parents
• World Book Day
• Start of the Eco Bird Club – parent needed to run it
• Refuge collections (ongoing) for women and children
• Boarders biking – helmets and bikes recycled from outgrown sources
• Wiltshire View magazine record our bulb planting for Myasthenia Gravis
• We continue to feed our birds in their ‘restaurant’ by our Conservatory dining room

February

• Plastic bags – give them up for lent competition by children’s star chart
• Notification of the CD Art day with Wiltshire Wildlife Trust – CD’s needed (recycle)
• Spanish girls need a family
• Leaden Hall trader – recycle items
• Nesting box set up and filmed directly into the Conservatory
• Living willow tunnel is created
• Nell from Nursery is the first pupil to record her bulb (from Myasthenia Gravis charity) to flower on 27th February.
• The Women’s Refuge writes thanking us gratefully for our ongoing support.
• Car sharing database is completed
• Walking bus scheme is increased

March

• Plastic Bag amnesty notified
• Bird Group meet weekly with Mrs O’Donnell, recording our nesting boxes and the birds which are interested in them
• 'To Let' signs put up for the birds.
• Eco monitor Deya (Yr2) interviews Mrs O’Donnell for the Red Door
• Children busy making star charts for their parents on the Plastic Bag promise
• Eco Monitors make and laminate signs for the Eco Rubbish Garden
• Eco Rubbish Garden is created with Year 4.
• Gifted & Talented maths duo, Annabel and Elizabeth, finalise the results of their investigations into the Review of our Grounds. They personally give two lessons to their class to get the ‘number crunching’ done.
• Salisbury Journal records our Green Flag success with our offer of help to other schools to start with Eco Schools.
• Parent, Bea Bedford, investigates Jute bags for Eco Club.
• Year 6 girls write to local stores and shops encouraging them to reconsider their use of plastic bags and questioning why they do not use biodegradable ones. Tesco and Waitrose reply
• Mrs Randle (teacher) considers how we could recycle the many polythene wrappers which come in the post each day. Unfortunately we would have to get them to Norfolk for this to happen.
• Nesting continues and is viewed all day in the Conservatory. Blue tits have 8 babies with 6 surviving and getting feathers.
• Our Green Cone arrives and it is placed in the Eco Garden. Daygirls now put their apple cores, banana skins and other foodstuffs into it. Tea bags from the kitchen are also composted in it.
• Wiltshire Wildlife Trust – Longleat conference on Eco Schools presentation by SL

April

• We continue our Spanish link with the return of Ana and Maria Bilbao from Spain but we are not successful in finding a placement quickly enough for Andrea and Leticia locally.
• Miss Pegg and Mrs Oliver (teachers) hunt for schools to join our next international Comenius project "The Environment, Saving The Planet".
• Eco Gardening starts again. Parent helpers are sought and obtained (Mrs Barkshire and Mrs McLeod).
• We have our 1-day Plastic Bag Amnesty and collect more than 2000 bags. Year 6 boarders sort and count the bags. Eco Monitors fill our minibus and take them to M&S where Louisa Knee, Publicity Manager, receives them back "We are always happy to help local schools, well done to all the girls" she says.
• Local Magistrates run a workshop with Year 6 to show them how the court system works in Salisbury.
• Boarders have a 'Hands On' workshop with small animals held by Kate Prevett
• Eco Monitors organise a Bird Quiz – on Yellow Pages and also directly on our Intranet
• 22 April – Eco Assembly on rubbish with Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, followed by a whole morning of art for Year 5 – making beautiful wall plaques from digarded CDs. We hang these in our Eco Garden.
• SL meets Claire from Minstead Primary School and ….. from Morgan Vale School giving short presentation on how they can start their Eco Schools award scheme at their schools. We offer their pupils a chance to visit us to see for themselves and meet our Monitors

May

• Year 2 make a4 booklets on Green Plants and the Environment
• Year 1 and nursery count and record plants growing in our garden.
• Potatoes start to grow. This year we planted potatoes, runner beans, peas, beetroot, courgettes, cucumbers, leeks, onions, corn, tomatoes, spinach and in our herb garden we have mint, parsley (flat and curly), marjoram, dill and fennel – plus something which we can’t name! We have also planted raspberry canes, sunflowers, nasturtiums, marigolds, begonias, cornflowers and cosmos.
• 8th May – Salisbury Journal article in their 'Living:Going Green' section after interviewing Eco Monitors at our school. They pass on our encouragement for every school to participate in the Eco Schools challenge once more offering our help to any school who needs advice on how to start.
• Bea Bedford is the winner of the Plastic Bag Challenge and is awarded a solar powered garden light.
• Eco Monitors notify the winner of the Bird Quiz in Assembly. Joint winners are Camille Kippen and Phoebe Aldridge.

June

• We organise a "Bikability" cycling proficiency course for Year 6 girls with Wiltshire CC Pathways scheme. It runs throughout June.
• Eco monitors meet Jonathan Ball, Dean and Chapter representative for a new recycling scheme in the Close, to tell him how we recycle at present, and to offer our help in his quest. He is surprised that we have already achieved so much but is equally disappointed that our letters to the Council on behalf of the larger institutions in the Close have not led to a better system of collection.
• A chicken is hatched in 3Be. When it is old enough Mrs Beveridge puts it in the Bird Hide and children can see it happily playing in there! It is then taken to Serena’s family to live.
• We ask pupils to collect the elastic bands dropped by the postman so we can return them to the post office. They are all over Salisbury on the roadways!
• Uniform Sale

July

• Morgan Vale School Eco Monitors visit Leaden Hall. Our Eco Monitors give an A-Z presentation on our projects and some tips on how to start. We organise an Eco Garden game and both school’s Monitors race around recognising plants, answering questions and recording their answers.
• We are given a hedgehog house! Not one day later a poorly hedgehog is seen in the car park by Amy and we are dispatched to bring it to school. We put it safely and warmly in the house in a quiet part of the garden where it now lives.
• Year 6 have given us a wormery! We will have this up and running (or slithering) in the Autumn term.

Ongoing throughout the year:

• Weekly meetings of the Eco Monitors on Tuesday break
• Bird Hide is opened daily
• Recycling of inkjet cartridges, mobile phones, paper and cardboard, batteries, filters, glass, tin, clothes, shoes,
• Walking bus and school bus runs are increasing
• Eco Board is regularly changed with challenges, information or displays.
• Monitors turn off lights, turn down heating, close doors, turn off ‘stand by’ equipment, monitor the bins and relay information to their classes.
• Hardly a week goes by when we don’t have a "WeGoEco" moment in assembly – sometimes giving information, sometimes advice and frequently offering challenges to keep everyone on their Eco-Toes!
• The Eco Garden is used for maths lessons and science lessons – we know this because there are frequently groups of children down there with teachers during lessons covering various aspects of the curriculum

September

• 5.9.08 New Eco display
• 8.9.08 Anusha presents 2142 elastic bands
• 9.9.09 first double lunch eco club meeting to count bands -3830 bands collected
• Monitors sign up
• 16.9.08 666 more bands collected
• Dug up and peeled our potatoes
• Made Eco badges
• GPO poem and poster made in club

October

• 1.10.08 GPO Go Eco poem
• Band count now 4621 in club
• Stripped sunflower seeds for the birds
• Collected apples for the freezer for the birds
• Fed the green cone (constantly from Kitchen vegetable peelings)
• Stripped lavender
• Made badges
• Redesigned Eco Board with badges
• 9.10.08 Assembly when Badges presented
• New Eco Motto – Classy Clean Awesome Green ECO
• Eco boarders (Kirsty, O, Annabel Ellie, Camille
• Eco Badge Winner announced in Assembly

November

• 3.11.08 Eco Assembly
• 4.11.08 First official meeting of the new Monitors in the Logia at break
• 6.11.08 Eco Police first round
• 7.11.08 New Eco Board design
• Stripped lavender and made lavender bags in club
• 11.11.08 Hunt for Wheat on internet – made bags
• 14.11.08 Assembly to explain the Eco Police to school
• Flags awarded by Police – problems associated getting into classrooms
• 18.11.08 Sorted cartridges in Club
• 21.11.08 Sorted cartridges in club
• 22.11.08 Vestry provided us with cartridges
• 23.11.08 Collection of cartridges for recycling
• 21.11.08 Willow Workshop organised for 29th nov
• 25.11.08 Eco Club
• 28.11.08 Hampshire Wildlife Trust assembly to present school with Waste Free Day award for Hampshire.

January 09

• 7.1.09 Silent Night in Greek (Global participation)
• Swahili spoken and taught in Assembly (hello, welcome)
• Rosie asked for any new Eco Monitors to see Mrs L for badges (assembly)
• 12.1.09 Mrs Taylor read an Eco book on the world being captured by fiends
• 13.1.09 Mrs Lloyd and Mrs Litherland introduced yr 4 girls to new science project on Compost and asked for volunteers.
• MEANING of ECO on the Eco Board
• Birdwatch – Year 3 drawings, listening,
• 14.1.09 WWF Assembly on compost followed by Pre Prep workshops on making bird puppets
• 19.1.09 New eco board design with Tree Dedication to WeGoEco
• 21.1.09 WWF Assembly on Climate Change followed by Yr 4 workshop on recycling and paper making.
• Mrs Downer offers to help with Comenius project and international issues
• Comenius documentation forwarded. Information on progress will be some time in the Summer term.
• 20.1.09 Eco Welly drawings. Welly competitions
• Yellow pages competitions on newspapers
• Club meetings drawing wellies.
• Ongoing collection of clothes and toiletries for Refuge.
• RHS letter and application for award sent off (level 1)

February

• SL lecture to Wiltshire Wildlife conference on Sustainability. Global Perspective issues.
• Letters to Hunter Boots, Red Funnel, RSPB, RHS
• Received the Level 1 RHS Award from the Campaign for School Gardening.
• Wiltshire Children & Young People’s Plan Consultation award certificate received.
• Held the Welly Competition. Letters received in support from Hunter Boots Ltd, Paul Sample (Head of Local Council), RSPB, RHS, Red Funnel Ferries, Hedgehog Rescue.
• WWF Presentation in Assembly for Welly Competition - Winners picture in the Salisbury Journal 7.3.09 issue plus on their website
• Contacted by Vision-News.tv for a filming date on our school (Ecology issues).
• Arrival of the Wormery and the Compost Bin.
• 1st meetings of the 'Cabbages' project group (Serena, Evie, Imogen) and research and setting up of the equipment. Girls sent emails to WWF regarding positioning of bins. Card sent off for the worms.
• Climate change Workshop – we joined the Wiltshire Green Map (Wiltshire World Changers.org) offering to help other schools become Eco Schools.
• Joined the Climate Cops Academy

March

• Worms arrived. Hugh delight as we put them in their new home. Compost Bin also put in position.
• Trevor Gilbert helped us by rotavating the Eco Garden
• Boarders (Allie, Charlotte, Ophelia) pulled the remaining leeks and kale and prepared them in the kitchens with Joe Bennet. Girls served them at supper and all agreed they were fantastic even though they don’t like leeks or green vegetables!
• Bird box camera turned on and rotation of lunch tables started again for all to see progress.
• 1st sighting of blue tits entering box on Mrs Stares birthday!
• Birds starting to bring in twigs. Record book being completed and short video snaps taken to record progress on the nest.
• Mrs Taylor has an entomologist friend who is prepared to spend some time with us. Thoughts include getting all the digital microscopes into DCT room and allowing girls time to record river water findings. Future ICT project powerpoint.
• First sighting of our goldfish in the pond
• First sighting of frogspawn.
• Nomination for the Sustainable School of the Year by a parent
• Confirmation that we have been short-listed for the award!
• Chair of Governors brings in willow cuttings. Mr Gilbert lengthens our Willow Tunnel in the garden and makes a low 'fence' by the Coach House. Girls interested in making a similar hedge around the Eco garden. Willow cut and awaiting Summer term.
• Crew from Vision News TV arrive and film some of Eco Club members talking. Film is available on their website www.vision-news.tv and copy bought for school.
• Lunch gardening club meeting on final Wednesday of term to plant potatoes – earlies and lates.
• Leaden Hall Has Talent – Animal Dances by Year 5

April

• Set up FLORA challenge. Goal 2000 tokens to buy a portable oven for homeless setting out again.
• Worms fed over the holidays by Mrs Lloyd.
• Frogspawn collection & poem competition
• Sent off for the Water Watch Challenge l for all pupils
• Peter Callanan, Manager of the Post Office visited on 22nd April, answering 20 questions in assembly and accepting 4621 elastic bands
• Visit from DCSF Sustainable Schools Award judges
• Excellent WWF Workshop for Year 5 on wind power
• Dig up our biodegradable garden and record results – replace items for next year
• More lavender bags made in Eco Club

May

• Invitation to classes for our next 'Any Questions' visitor from the NHS
• Weekly project continuing on our composting investigations
• Gardening started in earnest during lunch breaks – brainwave using plastic carrier bags as overshoes for the mud as girls don’t have wellies
• Comenius project accepted! Starting Sept 09 we have a two year, monthly, project linking Poland, Italy, France, Cyprus.

June

• FINALIST FOR THE SUSTAINABLE TEACHING AWARD and PRIMARY TEACHER OF THE YEAR for Emily Cooke our Head of Sport who encourages all girls that they can participate and love sport (nominated by a pupil). We are invited to Bath Assembly Rooms for the ceremony and will take as many children/staff as possible.
• Gardening in earnest. Weeds taking over. Lovely hot weather and a few raspberries to eat. Lettuces growing and being eaten.
• 2 Hedgehogs are seen in our garden, one large and one smaller. They live in different places. Large one sleeps by day next to the hedgehog house.
• Birds are not nesting as well this year. Bird box shows a few sticks, then no further action. We wonder whether squirrels have frightened them.
• WINNER of the DSCF Sustainable School Award for the West of England and Distinction in the Primary Teacher Award for Emily Cooke
• Invitations sent out for our new club starting in September "Weaving the Web" for Eco and other issues by podcast.
• Completion of our research project on composting. Black Bin, Wormery or Green Cone. We love the worms but for efficiency and value for money we recommend the Green Cone.
• Items continuing to go to the Women’s Refuge and other charities.
• Unwanted computer equipment taken to Jamie's Charity, an SSF a charitable organisation that provides training and employment opportunities to socially excluded adults in Southampton.

End of term

Continuing weekly with our Future projects 2009

• Any Questions – Line up to include the NHS, Police, Fire Department and a Government office. NHS consultant already accepted.
• International Airshow idea accepted by Governors for recycling and design sharing with Comenius and other partners Gents cloths for Damascus House
• Record an Eco diary weekly on podcast "Weaving the Web" club
• Water challenge
• Undertake a second Energy Challenge
• Waste Busting Challenge
• Help all families calculate their carbon footprint
• Make kites
• Use our portable digital microscopes to see what is in the compost and elsewhere in the garden (pond life)
• Poem competition on topics of Water, Sunshine, Plants and Friends
• Set up the Eco website
• Be awarded Generation Green Leaves to spend on eco equipment
• Carbon Free International Airshow to organise starting 2 term project in January for end of summer term 2010.
• Clean out our pond
• Create an Eco Game
• Monthly Market for recycling and selling produce from school families.