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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.