Primary 6/7 at Port Ellen were learning about renewable energy and wave power and decided that we would make wave power devices for the Junior Saltire Awards. These awards are open to schools around Scotland who want to design and build their own wave powered electricity generating devices. As we already have lots of Marine renewables on Islay, with the Limpet in Portnahaven and the new tidal generator planned for the sound of Jura, we thought we should have a go.
Category Archives: Eco Schools
Innellan Primary Health Week
Week beginning 13th May saw the start of Innellan Primary School’s Health Week. This was to be a week of very exciting opportunities and a chance to learn about health matters.
On Monday 13th May the pupils all went to The Velvet Path Trekking Centre. The children all got the chance to ride a pony and had a tour of the Centre.
Tuesday 14th May saw the pupils learning about Golf!
Continue reading Innellan Primary Health Week
Barcaldine Keeping Scotland Tidy
Barcaldine Primary School went along to Sutherland’s Grove to take part in the National Clean Up Scotland initiative. The children enjoyed the glorious weather to delve into the forest in search of rubbish! We were very pleased with our fairly empty black bags – the forest was very clean!! We did manage to find one peculiar piece of rubbish as one pupil seems to do every year – a rolled piece of tin!
The Beaver Academy
Ashfield Primary have been working alongside Oly Hemmings from the Scottish Beaver Trial to develop the links between the school and the beaver project. As the local school to the trial site, pupils, parents and staff were keen to make the most of this fantastic resource. The pupils have been guinea pigs for a new workshop being developed and have recently visited the trial site to view the beaver dam. The pupils are now the proud adoptive parents of Millie the beaver and will be following her progress as time goes on.
Come and Play Week at the Stramash Outdoor Nursery
It’s been a busy week at the Stramash Outdoor Nursery, with over 60 parents and carers joining the children in the great outdoors. Lots of seeds and flowers have been planted, as well as making flower pots out of recycled cans. Parents have been involved in storytelling and some have even been climbing the trees with the children and making mud stew in their outdoor kitchen.
Continue reading Come and Play Week at the Stramash Outdoor Nursery
St. Andrew’s Primary School had some very unusual visitors on Friday 10th May.
As part of our Eco School programme, we invited the Zoolab team to our school. Alannah from Zoolab introduced us to Justin the snake, Mercedes and Nibbler the rats, Fluffy the tarantula and many more interesting creatures. We enjoyed getting to know the animals and found out lots about mini-beasts, classifying animals, life-cycles and food webs.
Continue reading St. Andrew’s Primary School had some very unusual visitors on Friday 10th May.
Lochdonhead Primary Daffodil Tea
On Friday 26th April Lochdonhead Primary held a very successful daffodil tea morning. All the members of the public were invited to come along and participate in the various activities and sales. There was a baking stall, a plant sale where you could buy a variety of herbs and flowers, arts and crafts, a lucky dip, catch the duck competition and a raffle. All of this was held in the top classroom, while in the bottom classroom fresh cakes, teas and coffees were served. Continue reading Lochdonhead Primary Daffodil Tea
GARELOCHHEAD’S GONE WITH THE WIND!
With the proposal in our local area, P6/5 decided to investigate wind farms further.
Most people have an opinion of some sort on the topic and even in P6/5 everyone had their own personal thoughts and feelings. We decided to visit Whitelee Windfarm in East Renfrewshire to learn more.
Sky Rainforest Rescue School Challenge
Lochdonhead Primary schools upper class have just completed a rainforest challenge. There were 3 challenges to choose from. We chose Food We Eat. It was very, very fun and exciting. We had to do a survey of before and after the challenge and had fantastic results: Continue reading Sky Rainforest Rescue School Challenge
Bat Boxes at Ardrishaig Primary
On possibly the wettest day of the month Brian and Laura from SNH and the Forestry Commission visited Ardrishaig Primary to tell the eco-committee all about bats!
Brian and Laura hold special bat handling licenses and they explained that you need a licence to legally look into bat boxes or to relocate bats. They told the committee about the work they do in Argyll to protect bats and also about the work he and Laura do to help people who find bats in their houses.
Continue reading Bat Boxes at Ardrishaig Primary
BAG2SCHOOL IN TOBERMORY
Tobermory High School had a fantastic response to their Bag2school collection. A total of 110 bags of textiles were donated on the day to raise funds for the school, This is a great effort from our small school. Pupils have really embraced the challenge to beat last year’s collection total. In doing so they have helped to reduce items going to landfill and helped to contribute to the “sustainability” topic of the eco schools programme.
New Polytunnel at Barcaldine Primary
Children at Barcaldine Primary School are excited and eager to get started planting in their new polytunnel which was funded by Scottish Sea Farms.
Here is Barcaldine Primary School showing off their new Fourth Green Flag.
The children were commended for the steady progress that they had made since their last award in 2011 and also for having so many sound ideas for the future. Families, local community, local business and environmental organisations were involved in this journey. The children were particularly commended for the progress that they made with their transport topic via events such as the Big Pedal and the assessors were delighted to hear of the wonderful use the children were making of their local cycle path. Continue reading Here is Barcaldine Primary School showing off their new Fourth Green Flag.
Furnace P5-7 Rainforest Presentation
The children in P5-7 at Furnace gave a presentation of the work they had been covering on their inter-disciplinary topic on the Rainforest to friends and family this week. Some of the children explained to all who came along about the animals and plants that were on their wall display explaining about the different layers of the Rainforest.
GO GREEN DAY AT CLACHAN PRIMARY
The children of Achahoish Primary and Skipness Primary joined the pupils in Clachan for their Go Green Day. We shared a morning of Geocaching and all had fun using the GPS receivers to locate buried treasure clues. After our lunch we shared four workshops together. We planted sunflower seeds in handmade newspaper pots, we created a human tree, we used fairtrade ingredients to bake Easter nests and we worked together to build a Go Green Scarecrow.
Continue reading GO GREEN DAY AT CLACHAN PRIMARY
Greeen Flag erected at St Joseph’s Primary
The children, parents and staff of St. Joseph’s Primary were delighted to see their Green Flag finally erected this week. A very enthusiastic Eco Group were very pleased as they are very committed in their mission to make all things ‘Eco-Friendly’ at St Joseph’s. Each year the Eco Committee encourage all children and staff to audit the school for ‘green’ capacity and from this audit produce their own ‘Eco Plan’ for the school.
News from Kilninver Primary
RAG BAG
On the 5th March we emptied the Rag bin and have managed to raise £99. This is our highest total yet. We set our team of organisers the challenge of making the bags weigh as close to 5Kg as possible. As you can see from the photos we weighed the bags to make sure that they were round about the same size.
If they were very heavy we shared their contents among the smaller bags.
In the new term we are going to buy new playground toys with the money raised. Continue reading News from Kilninver Primary
WWF Earth Hour on the Isle of Luing
As part of our Eco Schools work the children decided to take part in WWF Earth Hour. They decided to wear something bright and also planned several outdoor activities to do for one hour; these included art using natural materials, having fun with the parachute and learning a new playground game. Unfortunately the weather was against us, and indoor activities had to be thought of.
Continue reading WWF Earth Hour on the Isle of Luing
Third Green Flag for Luing
Luing’s third green flag proudly hoisted.
Over the past two years all the pupils of Luing Primary have been working very hard towards their third green flag. They investigated the subjects: – waste minimisation, litter and water.
Lochdonhead playgound development
The pupils of Lochdonhead Primary School have planned, resourced, gained funding, and overseen the development of their school playground, creating a story glen, based on an old Gaelic tale, Iolaire Loch Treig. The pupils have worked with various artists and they are even working with pupils in a secondary school in Harrogate, who are designing wooden story boards based on our children’s designs.
We now have a fantastic imaginative play area, including a willow dome with tunnels, a willow cave and a log ringed area.
