Our festival will be raising awareness of the climate crisis and celebrating actions taken towards sustainability. By emphasising positive change, we can help to empower people to develop more sustainable lifestyles. A vision of a better future will be at the forefront of the festival, stressing how many of today’s problems can be addressed through action on climate change.
Wednesday 12 July – Eco Day 2023
Our School Council successfully built on their vision for Climate Action this week. Following their achievements at the LOVE Northumberland Awards they held their annual Eco Day on Wednesday – celebrating their achievements and recognising the contribution our school has made to Climate Action across the year. The event is well supported by community volunteers and a multi-generational alumni.
There was a huge range of activities that were part of the Eco Day, the purpose to enrich, inspire and further educate our students. Students were involved in plant propagation, bug hunts and even wild yoga.
“Everyone had such a good day and took part with such enthusiasm, energy and interest. The creativity was inspiring – we’re true Eco warriors! “
The work of our School Council is underpinned by the facilitation work of long-time colleague Sheila Clark who is an advocate of agency in young people and also one of our climate champions. She has inspired our School Council with her steadfastness; supporting their organisation and nurturing their enthusiasm.
Sixth Form Litter Pick
Our new Senior Students; George, Liam, Andrew and Will organised their peers to take care of our school. Despite the wet weather there were five shifts of sixth form students gathering lots of bags of rubbish from across our huge site with the support of Keep Britain Tidy.
Waste Management
Students were given a short talk from Dr Wendy Fail about waste management practices in Northumberland and how we can all reduce, reuse and recycle more. There were excellent curriculum links for Geography students. Students were given the opportunity to design a poster for the side of NCC Bin Lorries. The competition was open to Year 9 and 10 students. The winning entry below will receive a breakfast for their tutor group.
Well Being
There is documented evidence that gardening and being outdoors in nature supports mental health and well being. Students had the opportunity to take part in a number of activities from gardening and junk modelling.
I liked finding out about the issues of waste and really enjoyed reusing plastics to make models that we could attach climate messages to.”
Education
Ex student Georgia returned to talk about her Entomology studies at Newcastle University with a Bug hunt!
“I have really enjoyed the bug hunts, and learning about the different classifications of insects, and finding out that not all bees sting. There’s a lot more bees than I thought! “
History students were able to learn about the work of William Turner in our William turner Garden with a talk from Dr Marie Addyman on the importance of plants as medicines in 16th century
Belvederes
Thank you to Professor Fiona Crisp for allowing our students to use her Belvedere idea. She created it for her exhibition in Sunderland Museum and winter gardens and Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art.
Assemblies
Our Trustee and Climate Champion, Paul Carvin will lead a week of assemblies highlighting the positive things we have done as a Trust and school to be more sustainable. The message will be one of positivity and of the importance of individual, as well as collective action. The assemblies will run in all year groups – even our new Year 12, as part of our Bridging event.
Climate themed TED talks
Dr Bone will be running a series of TED talks on the theme of climate change
6th Form plant give away
Plant pots, soil & seeds – for students to plant and take home – an engagement of care with the soil where we live, learning to nurture and watch things grow.
This follows on from an excellent day during Enrichment Week at The Roost, where getting back to nature and appreciating the beauty of out surroundings was the order of the day.
Pledges – ‘I’ll play my part”
Students will write on a paper leaf their own pledge for how they will care for this world – these will be collected and displayed in the ASC.
There will be an outline of a world map (made by students) with the words ‘I’ll play my part in taking care of this world’ on it. Students will be invited to place a fingerprint on the map with an ink pad.
Creative Writing About the Climate
Mr Tracey will lead our creative writing group.
The Big Environmental Debate
Taking place on Tuesday after school the Debate Club will focus on the motion ‘individual apathy is the greatest threat to our climate’.
Climate positive film screening – David Attenborough
Climate change, its causes, effects and management are a cornerstone of the Geography curriculum. Further enriching this is the many works of Sir David Attenborough. The Geography Department will be screening ‘A Life on our Planet’ on Thursday lunch time in C24.
Art
During Enrichment Week students created their own recycled paper, focused on reducing waste. Several students will exhibit their work where they have used environmental issues as their inspiration.
During Enrichment Week quite a few Year 9 students worked with a local artist to produce intricate drawings inspired by the Pacific Ocean and World Ocean Day.
Year 11 Literary Society Poems and Stories
Melting Kingdom, by Amelia Lamb
Imagine if the world was destroying your home.
Imagine if the floor was melting beneath your feet and you had to swim around the clock, just to stay afloat and alive.
Imagine if your food was slipping through your fingers, forcing you to go to greater lengths for just a small portion a day. Imagine having to move your family out of your house to swim miles, before they can really walk.
Imagine being powerless to help the world, crumbling and melting around you. Imagine the terror.
Imagine being a polar bear.
Hundreds of these beautiful creatures are dying because of human greenhouse gas emissions.
Help them now while we still can.
Things as simple as turning off a light, or not leaving things on standby can all contribute massively to the movement to make our world a better place.
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The beginning of a movement, by Amelia Lamb
At the front of the class, the teacher droned on. Most of the children were either distracted or bored, taking in little of the lesson. It wasn’t surprising. Things like this weren’t important to eight year olds. They were worlds away from the children’s games, friends and sheltered lives. Only later would they realise the significance of what they were told that day.
However, at the back, in the centre, one little girl sat forwards on her chair , wide eyes taking in the horrifying images on the board, attentive ears hanging on every word that her teacher was saying. She realised, years before her classmates, how important this issue was. How much it called for change. She didn’t underestimate what human activities were doing to the planet. It was there and then, Greta Thunberg realised she had to take action. Speak out, even if no one else would.
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Poem for Climate Change, by Eleanor Lamb
It would have been easy but now it’s too late.
It would have been easy, so why did we wait?
It would have been easy to change our ways.
It would have been easy, but we were all in a daze.
It should have been simple, we knew what to do.
It should have been simple but those days are through.
It should have been simple, with the world in our hands.
It should have been simple if we stuck to our plans.
It could have been solved, but we ignored the warnings.
It could have been solved- this planet’s constant warming.
It could have been solved before we were scared.
It could have been solved but not enough people cared.
It was easy to do but we just observed.
It was simple enough to spread the right word.
By now it would be sorted if we’d made the leader’s listen
But what use is a protest when we just dismiss them?
If we want to stop this, we have to act now.
No more waiting, we need to stick to our vow.
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