Eco Cheesecake

I got a fabulous surprise on Tuesday - a plateful of delicious, organic, chocolate cheesecake confected by Stephen as a reward for our wonderful Eco group who have worked hard all year on bringing to life the plans for our grounds. Thank you so much.

We are a Gold Award School

A wonderful surprise today! A beautiful wooden plaque arrived from the Woodland Trust, conferring on us the honour of becoming one of their first Gold Award Schools for the tree planting our Wildlife Group and Eco Group have been doing throughout the year. thanks in particular to Derek Bailey, Stephen Hanna and to Jean Forbes of our Board of Governors, who drew up our grounds plan.

Bogs Away

After ages of trying to work out the logistics of installing Thunderboxes at Haughian House, we got an email from a much more normal supplier of composting toilets, and we are now going to get ourselves one of them.  The composting toilet will fit neatly into one of the wee outhouses joined onto the cottage, and will be convenient and easy to manage.  The scouting party heads out next Wednesday to measure up, and we hope to take delivery in July.  It would be really wonderful if we could have students out and using the cottage from September.  We'll also be putting up the solar lights and fitting the new water butt.  A team of Martin McParland, Pat Lenny and Robbie Mulholland at taking on the job.

Holiday Homes for Worms

Our two wormeries, who eat up the good bits of our food waste from the canteen, need a holiday home for two months.  They need to find families who will feed them regularly and look in on them to see that they are enjoying their holiday.  Advice and instructions are available about what they like and don't like.  Anyone able to offer them a placement should speak to Stephen Hanna or Ellen McVea.

Carbon Challenge

Years 9 and 10 took part in the Carbon Challenge, revisiting the carbon footprint of the college and working out what they could do to reduce it. One group worked on drama activities to draw attention to the issues; another group worked on the maths behind the issues; a third group worked on the science. There will be follow up, and Shimna will appear on a Carbon Challenge website where we can post the measures we take and our progress. Lots of the work we have done already for our Green Flag will fit the bill.

Matthew and Rebecca do us Proud

Matthew Rooney and Rebecca Boardman did us proud at the Down District Council speech making competition at Strangford Road.  Our two delivered an excellent account of all the eco work at Shimna.  We didn't win this time, but our speeches were based on a huge range of  eco work done by our students themselves, rather than suggestions as to what other people should do.  We are very happy to lead by example.

Minnesota Red Squirrels

I kept hearing from Minnesota natives that they had the occasional red squirrel.  Well, I now have evidence of my own to indicate that the red squirrels they mean are really grey ones with a bit of hair dye.  It's hard to explain, but when you see them in the flesh, it is very obvious that those auburn creatures are clearly related to greys and not our delicate wee reds.  Not that I wish them any harm of course!