Tuesday, 16 December 2008

Welcome Back Janet

Janet McIlVenna of Down District Council came in today to visit 9 Bearnagh to add to their knowledge of environmental work in the area of waste disposal. She gave a talk, showed slides, answered questions and led the class in a quiz. Janet will return in the new term to work with the class again and to meet up with the Eco Group. Upwards and onwards!

Award for Stephen

Everyone was delighted with the Award for Commitment to the Environment went to Stephen Hanna, staff member, who has joined in the work of our Eco Group. Stephen has looked through all the work already undertaken by the group over the past three years, and is helping us to focus on the work ahead for our Green Flag. The Award is made each year by governor Jean Forbes. So far the award has gone to students who are working or studying on environmental issues. This year we decided that it was right to honour a staff member who does both!

Friday, 12 December 2008

Eco Decoration

As well as our Eco friendly, recycled cardboard Christmas trees, courtesy of the Woodland Trust, we have decorated out canteen this year with the free Christmas wrapping paper distributed by the Guardian. The paper has been commissioned from a range of designers and celebrities and each one of them sparks off controversy about the meaning of Christmas.

Tuesday, 9 December 2008

Recycled Christmas Trees

Oour Eco group spent today's meeting putting together a pair of Christmas trees supplied by the Woodland Trust and made from recycled cardboard. The trees come with recycled cardboard baubles and look great! Our Eco Warriors also put up a series of seasonal posters in the canteen, which came free with the Guardian newspaper, and which represent the ideas of various artists and celebrities about Christmas. Look out for them!

Wednesday, 26 November 2008

Wildlife Group goes Planting

The Wildlife Group has been out planting bulbs and native species trees. Their next step is to organise some temporary fencing to alert the grounds maintenance team to the baby trees and growing plants.

Watch Out

9 Bearnagh has just launched its Eco campaign in support of the Green Flag Group. If the Green Flaggers need a survey done or a campaign launched, 9 Bearnagh will do the leg work. So far they plan to focus on making sure our outdoor recycling starts to really work. They also want to do some research to see if it really matters if we don't take the tops off our plastic bottles before we recycle. They will be organising the 4.00pm check on teachers' rooms and will check our fuel use and the separation of our indoor rubbish. Watch out!

Sunday, 16 November 2008

Eco Group Tuesdays

Our Eco Group now meets on Tuesdays in room 121 to fire ahead and win our Green Flag. Be there!

Tuesday, 11 November 2008

Yo We've Won our Silver Award


I am delighted to announce that we have just won our Silver Eco Schools Award. The Award is of course for our wholeschool efforts, but special mention must be made of year 10 who did all the surveys and checking and auditing last term. We will soon present the Award to Shimna and put a framed copy up in the entrance hall so that everyone who comes into the college will know the high value we put on preserving our environment. We are delighted that staff member Stephen Hanna is coming on board to work with our Eco Group to put together the bid for our Green Flag. Well done everybody.

Wednesday, 29 October 2008

Sixth Form Environmental Conference

A very important environmental event took place in September, the third annual conference on Environmental Change, for senior students of three Mourne schools : St Malachy’s High School, Castlewellan, Shimna Integrated College Newcastle and Kilkeel High School. Each year global issues are studied through local examples, and discussion groups look at our responsibilities as individuals.

The conference is organized by Newcastle 2000 Community Association, Northern Ireland Environment Link and Mourne Heritage Trust. The event was held in Newcastle Centre by kind permission of Down District Council.

The topics convered this year were Climate Change and Coastal Erosion; Energy from the sea – the turbine in the Strangford Narrows; Green building technology- the example of the proposed Gateway Centre in Newcastle; energy from the biomass- an opportunity for our farmers; the world food crisis and how we could respond.

Environmental studies are an important part of the curriculum in all three schools. Led by the Geography Teachers, students of these schools are beginning an annual monitoring of change in our coastal areas, to link with the on-going research of Professor Orford .

Squirrel Out of Sync

Half term gave me time to think about everything that went unblogged. A bad omission was the first sighting of a red squirrel since our feeding boxes went up. Georgia handed in the first report about two weeks ago. Those boxes actually seem worthwhile now. Last week's Observer magazine had an entire feature on red squirrels, and some rather more violent ways of keeping down the numbers among the greys. Other good news is that some red squirrels seem to be developing immunity to the dreaded squirrel pox spread by the greys. Keep an eye out for more red squirrel sightings, and pick up a report sheet outside the technology room. Be as exact as you can about where you have seen the squirrel.

Tuesday, 7 October 2008

Thunderboxes

We think we have finally found a solution to the toilet problem that prevents us making full use of the Haughian House. Thunderboxes is a company that makes ecofriendly loos which don't need to be on the water main. I am in the middle of trying to find some grant money to fund one.

Friday, 3 October 2008

EAGA Visit

We had a visit from EAGA this week, that's the organisation which granted us the money for the outdoor recycling bins. Now we know the next stage - we have been given a noticeboard to fill up with images of our Eco project. In November, we will be asked to bring our noticeboard to the awards ceremony in Belfast, where we will meet the eight other organisations which received a grant. Onwards and upwards - there is still a huge amount of awareness raising to do if we are to get the outdoor recycling operating successfully.

Friday, 19 September 2008

Slow but Steady Progress

We are indeed making slow but steady progress at the outdoor recycling. First week back, we were useless - mixed rubbish in both blue and black bins. However, after a bit of consciousness raising and kicking ourselves, the second week has produced a huge improvement. Keep kicking, and telling yourself - blue bin, bottles and cans. Bottles and Cans Bottles and Cans Bottles and Cans Bottles and Cans Bottles and Cans

Friday, 15 August 2008

Squirrel Boxes Progress

Gerry Magowan in technology, and Jean Forbes, governor, have been working hard on our red squirrel feeders and two are nearing completion. We will be looking for volunteers to keep them stocked with food, and the boxes clean and free from squirrel pox. Throughout our project, we have been supported by George Hanna, retired forester, who has been an invaluable source of local information on red squirrels, and the successful project already underway in Tollymore Forest.

Monday, 21 July 2008

Gardening Next

We have just received our Level one gardening certificate from the Royal Horticultural Society. We have long standing plans for our grounds and plenty of work has been competed over the years, for example the tree planing which gives us the grove beside the bendy fence. The next step will be the creation of our food garden, and you can watch this space to see how we get on.

Friday, 20 June 2008

Red Squirrel Feeders

We have taken delivery of our first red squirrel feeder and Gerry has taken it to bits to make a pattern which we will be able to use to make some more. Watch this space.

Roll Out the Blue Bins


Danas Kurmis, Daniel Allen and Daniel Irwin joined Robbie Mulholland in making the final decisions as to where the new blue recycling bins will go. When next year's term starts, the bins, and the new black landfill bins will all be in place. The good thing about the new bins is that they will work on the same recycling rules as our blue home bins.

Friday, 30 May 2008

Red Squirrel Triumph

Anne Carlin, who is always the first person into school in the morning, met a red squirrel in our grounds! She says there is usually a group of greys playing round our gates when she arrives to open up. This is really good news, because our year 8s are heading off to Tollymore in June to find out about our red squirrel population, and to set up feeding boxes which will keep up the food supplies for the reds, even if the greys are bigger and stronger and eat up most of what is available naturally.

Wednesday, 7 May 2008

Big Boxes

Those big boxes in the hall are the new outdoor recycling bins arriving. They are the bins won by year 9 for all their fantastic eco work over the last two terms. It's really good to see such a tangible outcome.

Sunday, 4 May 2008

Tucson, Arizona

As Haughian House is one of our main eco focuses this year, as we work to conserve the cottage as a really useful venue for art activities and for our expedition groups, from now on, this ecoblog will report on all the visits to and work on the cottage. The cottage is also a fantastic place to bring our many international visitors. Our new lease began on my birthday, 15th April, and our first international visitors stayed at the cottage the very next weekend. The visitors came from Tucson, Arizona, and have connections with a drama performance which will be visiting our students later in the term.

Thursday, 1 May 2008

Converting Other Schools

Iana Rodgers and Karen Malone made an excellent contribution to the Down District Council competition on waste and carbon footprints. The girls gave an account of the eco work done by the students who went before them, and of the tasks they had undertaken to follow in their reducing carbon footprints. They didn't win, but what was really good was that they were approached by an enthusiastic teacher from the winning school, asking for contacts with the Eco Schools system so that their students can also follow in the carbon reducing footsteps.

Sunday, 13 April 2008

Meet the Soccer Fans

Now that year 9s has finished checking up that teachers are finding it easy to follow the guidelines about an eco-friendly end to the school day, some volunteers are checking the soccer fixtures for Newcastle Football Club on our pitch. The idea is to draw the attention of spectators to the problem of plastic bottles throughout the grounds, even though other kinds of littering have been much improved. Our volunteers will encourage the fans to use the bins, and will tell them about our plans to try to fund proper recycling bins for outside. Just as we have been finding even more bottles at the end of lunchtime now that the weather is better, we bet we find more at the summer season matches.

Saturday, 16 February 2008

He's arrived

Dr Matthew Martin of St. Mary's College, Queen's University has arrived to work with our year 9 eco warriors. He is attending every class catching up with all the research already completed and the plans laid, and the class are learning from him how to use writing to get something done about the issues their research is turning up. Watch out for: blogs; letters to the press; letters to politicians; scripts for assembly; notes to staff; notices for form classes; posters in classrooms and all sorts of other pieces of writing.

Wednesday, 13 February 2008

9 Donard are watching you.

Volunteers from 9 Donard set up an eco patrol at 4.00pm today, the time at which the electricity tarif goes up. They have the data which reveals who left their room in eco-friendly fashion, and who forgot!

Wednesday, 6 February 2008

Wee Bin Hoke

We completed a very minor bin hoke compared to last year's marathon. We examined all the blue bins and grey bins for contamination and for recyclable items headed for landfill by mistake. 9Donard found that most blue bins were being used properly and that very few were contaminated. A much greater problem was that in many cases grey bins contained plastic drinks bottles which could have been recyled if they had gone into the right bin. 9Donard is now setting about channelling messages to all students and all teachers with reminders about the use of the bins. The next big job is to see how we can get ourselves recycling bins for outside and for the canteen.

Friday, 1 February 2008

Eco Progress

Year 9 are going great guns with their work for their Silver Award. Iana and Karen staffed a stall on Open Day, raising awareness with leaflets, and testing people on their quiz. They displayed products made with recycled materials: schoolbags, pencils, rulers, pencil cases, pens and also bio friendly washing powder. The classes have audited taps for drips, switches for wasted electricity, bins for contaminated litter, food for excess food miles etc. One class has decided to focus on challenging local fast food restaurants which use plastic bags and polystyrene boxes. One class has decided to try to support teachers in being eco-friendly at the end of a school day. One class has decided to focus on closing the recycling gap and encouraging local shops to stock products made from recycled materials. They might even take to selling stationery products themselves.

Saturday, 19 January 2008

Steps Forward

We completed our work for the Bronze Eco Award two years ago, and now we are working for the Silver Award. In that two years there has been a huge change in the number of students reporting that their parents/guardians either have already got a wind turbine or solar panels, or have looked into it or are planning to get one or other. Even larger numbers have instituted family policies of turning off the tap while you brush your teeth, changing to low energy light bulbs, replacing car journeys with share lifts, bus trips or walking. Everyone seems to be working at improving their recycling habits and some are composting. One thing that we thought might have changed is the number of people cycling more. People report that they don't yet understand how the cycle lanes in Newcastle will work when the roadworks are finished. We are also horrified that the glass and cardboard recycling in Newcastle may have to stop at Easter. Of course, all this is hearsay so far. Just wait until we complete our surverys and audits!

Friday, 18 January 2008

Another Year, Another Push

the big news for 2008 is that year 9 are going to take forward our Eco Schools agenda by applying for our Silver Award. Every single student in year 9 is working away on lists of ideas leading to a focused action plan. We will be digging up the results of all the surveys from our successful Bronze Award. The Silver Award requirements ask us to move the focus beyond the school and into the community, so you can expect to be interviewed and monitored at home!