Tag Archives: Eco

Kemnay Academy

Greener Kemnay Design Logo Competition Winner

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Greener Kemnay is a community group that was set up in 2012 to promote environmental living in the village of Kemnay.  It meets on the second Tuesday of every month.  The membership is growing.  It has a Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, and regular members.

It has planted hundreds of trees in the village of Kemnay, many of which were planted in the school grounds.

It has run workshops on environmental lifestyles – it held a Permaculture Course, for example, in the village in March with an expert ‘permaculturalist’ visiting to teach for two days.

It is planning (with Aberdeenshire Council) walking routes through Kemnay and on the village’s outskirts;

It is planning a walking route to Inverurie, and a walking route to Kintore.

It is planning to get involved with Kemnay Academy’s school garden.

It is planning to promote growing food in community areas in the village.

It is gathering ideas for EVERY sort of environmental lifestyle improvement that could improve life in Kemnay.

 Its logo competition has been won by S3 student, Tricia Kelly.  Here’s her winning design.  Well done, Tricia.

Kemnay Academy

Tree-mendous Effort @Kemany Academy

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Pupils and staff at the Academy were joined by local folk to plant trees in Kemnay on Sunday (March 17).

Very rainy weather, plus sleet, did not deter Keren Lovie, Nathan Di Marco, Catherine Chadbourn, Emma Thomson, Isobel Thomson, and Ewan Guild joining teachers Mr Bayliss, Mrs McGregor, and Mrs Tumelty in planting trees in and around the Academy area.

The tree-planting event was organised by local group, Greener Kemnay, and saw some two dozen people – local residents, guides, and family of the pupils and staff – plant hundreds of trees around the village.

Kemnay Academy

A Scottish Baccalaureate First for Kemnay Academy

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This year two S6 students, Fergus Milne and Alistair Mackay, have been working on the Scottish Baccalaureate in Science.  This unique course is only open to students that are studying two science subjects at Advanced Higher level, along with an additional Higher subject.  The Baccalaureate project involves researching and collating information on a topic of the pupil’s choice, in preparation for a final presentation.  The presentation itself can take any form – it can be a written report, a talk, a video, or anything else that the student can come up with.  However, the majority of the work for the Baccalaureate lies in the many reports and progress reviews that the student has to complete throughout the course.

The topic that Alistair has chosen for his project is ‘Food Sustainability’.  This involves looking into the amount of food we consume in our culture and the inefficient practices inherent to their production.  Fergus’ topic charts ‘The Development of Prosthetics’, following the changing nature of artificial limbs through history from wooden Egyptian toes to thought-controlled bionic legs.  Alistair has chosen to present his findings in the form of a written report, while Fergus is planning to give an oral presentation to a group of students of different ages.

Kennethmont School

Fundraising Coffee Morning at Kennethmont

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On Wednesday 30th January pupils from Kennethmont Primary School held a fundraising coffee morning in aid of Mary’s Meals.

 The coffee afternoon had a Scottish theme and visitors were served coffee and shortbread and enjoyed a range of entertainment by the entertainment group.  This included Highland dancing, Scottish music and recitations of Scottish poems.

 They successfully planned and organised the event through a joint initiative between the Health & Eco Group and the Pupil Council.

 A total of £70 was raised at this event and 15 filled back packs were also collected on the afternoon.

 The Coffee Afternoon was very well attended by all members of the community.

 The Pupil Groups plan to make this a regular monthly event with different themes and any monies raised will go to different charities. 

Dates for your diary – Wednesday 27th February     Coffee Afternoon from 2-3pm

                                 – Wednesday  27th March

                                 – Wednesday 24th April

                                 – Wednesday 29th May

                                 – Wednesday 26th June

Mill o' Forest

Mill O’Forest 4th Green Flag Award

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Mill O’ Forest Primary School is delighted to announce that it has received a fourth Green Flag from Eco Schools Scotland in conjunction with Keep Scotland Beautiful. The continuation of our Green Flag status was awarded after the whole school studied Biodiversity, School Grounds and Litter for the last two years. The award recognises the school’s achievement towards a sustainable lifestyle and the commitment we make to ensuring that environmental awareness and action are an intrinsic part of our school life and ethos. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the pupils, parents and members of the community who helped us on the journey to attaining our fourth Green Flag.

Donna Reekie

Acting Depute Head

Well done Mill O’Forest 🙂

Slains

Slains Eco Team Award

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This is the very first time that Slains School has entered the “Formartine Beginning to Blossom” competition and we are absolutely thrilled to have been chosen as the overall winners and were presented with a Gold award. The Eco Team from Slains School is very ably headed up by Mrs Frances Slesser, upper stages teacher. This year two of our parent helpers have been very involved with the Eco Group, Dr Tracy Coxon and Mrs Robyn Bates.

 The children who were charged with the duty of showing the judges round were, Caitlyn Norrie, Lauren Sinclair, Sophie Coxon and Lily Burrows. This year the judges were Bob Davis and Carol Baxter of Beechgrove Garden fame.

The whole school is delighted to have won and to mark the occasion all of the school children had an extra 15 minutes of Golden Time that week. In keeping with the theme of the Olympics, Mrs Robyn Bates took home the litter – pickers

 and sprayed them Gold!

From a very happy Slains School 🙂 

Kemnay Academy

Kemnay Academy to recycle all its food waste

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Kemnay Academy’s ability to recycle all its food waste took a giant leap forward in June when

our electric composting machine – called The Rocket – was switched on.

Staff at the Academy were shown how to use the machine by Glasgow-based environmentalist Frank McMaster, who uses a Rocket – which is a brand name – in the college where he teaches.

Kemnay Academy will be the first academy in Aberdeenshire to recycle all its food waste.  The resulting compost will be used on its garden that grows potatoes, cabbages, neeps, and other vegetables. 

The Academy currently produces approximately 60kg of food waste from its canteen, snack machines, HE department and in staff bases every week.

Teachers from the Academy’s RMPS department which set up the garden three years ago and the composting scheme 18 months ago were trained in the use of the Rocket by Mr McMaster.

Teacher of RMPS, George Clail, said:

“We’re thrilled to be getting this training, and being able to use the Rocket.

“The idea that we, as a school, can recycle all our food waste is exciting in itself.  But we’re showing youngsters in this area what can be done with food waste – something that is part of their everyday lives – and that is educational in a fundamental sense of the word.”

Mr Clail concluded:

“This is exciting not just for the school, but for the community as well, as we at the Academy would like to invite local people to get involved with our garden and composting projects.”

Mr M Bayliss

Udny Green School

Udny Green Eco Fun Day

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Our Eco Fun Day On 25th April 2012, we joined 11 other schools for an ECO fun day at Haddo Estate. On arrival we all congregated in the theatre to discuss the day’s schedule. Our first activity was building bird houses which was a fun challenge. Our next activity was a tour of Haddo House which we thoroughly enjoyed. We especially liked the paintings, finding the secret passage, the library and all the history connected to the house. After lunch we planted Hawthorn and Rowan trees behind the Pheasantry. We discovered that making a T-cut to plant trees was very effective. Unfortunately we were only able to plant two trees per school. We finished the day by becoming Nature Detectives. We had to find and solve clues to a crime that had taken place. A stoat had knocked over a blue-tit nest box and eaten the eggs. We all greatly enjoyed our day out and would gladly do it all again. Thank you very much to everyone who helped organise the day.