We have quite a few events coming up in the next month, but first an evaluation of yesterday’s Car Free/Car Share Day. Although a lot of staff members left their cars at home, we still have a long way to go to have more staff actively participating in this event.
Our next Committee meeting will be on Wednesday 6 February, in Miss Bigg’s room at 1pm. If you are a parents or a community member and are interested in getting involved with the Eco Committee, which decides on and implements most of our Eco activities at PHS, speak to Miss Bigg on 01316692324.
All members of the Portobello community and friends are cordially invited to a free showing of the food documentary PLANEAT on 20 February, 7pm at Portobello High School. A copy of PLANEAT has been provided by Eco-Schools Scotland as part of their Food On Film tour. The film tackles the links between our diet and health, and also between the food industry and climate change. This is a hugely relevant issue all over the world and we’re proud to be able to offer this showing to the local community. Please reply to this post if you’re keen to come along to give the Eco Team an idea of the numbers we should expect.
Although it’s been a log time since our last update, in the past few months we have been doing plenty of exciting things! We conducted a few assemblies in the school to raise awareness and to encourage more pupils to join the Eco Team. These assemblies were very successful and we have gained lots of new members who have contributed greatly to our current success 🙂
We also recently created our Eco Committee Action Plan for 2012/13. We plan to start recycling cans and bottles and also to promote the existing paper recycling and composting. Our plan also includes looking into the possibility of saving energy around the school building, improving the biodiversity garden and continuing our constant campaign against litter.
This term, some of our Eco Team visited the nearby Standard Life offices at Baileyfield Estate. We have maintained this link for some years and those of us who visited the offices this year were really impressed to see how many employees there support the environmentally friendly ideas the Green Team have implemented. it also reminded us that saving energy and resources also saves money!
A few weeks ago, some members of the Eco Team went along to Jewel & Esk College to assist in the creation of their garden. This afternoon was lots of fun and in the near future students from Jewel & Esk will be coming here to help us out in our own biodiversity garden.
At present we are focusing on a litter project we are doing in collaboration with Changeworks, funded by Zero Waste Scotland. All S1 and S2 pupils have attended a litter assembly and so far S2 pupils have also attended a drama workshop involving a performance and hotseating activity. A few members of our Eco Team have been trained as social reporters and are completing litter audits in the school ground. In the new year we will use the results from these, and also from surveys given to a sample from each year group, to make an Action Plan to help the school tackle litter.
we have lots of work to do in the new year! Don’t forget to contact us if you have any suggestions, comments or would like to get involved.
The summer term has seen our fabulous senior Eco Team members leave to sit exams – we’re sad to see them go. The remaining Eco Team would like to wish our old S6 good luck in the future and hopes that they won’t forget all their hard work for the environment in their lives after school!
Our junior Team has also worked hard. In June, they represented the school at the City of Edinburgh Council’s Eco-Schools Celebration at Napier University and received a certificate in acknowledgement of renewing our Green Flag this year. Eco Team pupils with Councillor Lesley Hinds
Our stall at the Edinburgh Eco-Schools Celebration
The following week, the junior Team ran a workshop at Changeworks’ Make Waste History summit based on paper use in the school, thanks to data and ideas provided by Barnaby Ghaui, a student of architecture at Edinburgh University who had been working with the Team. The summit was hosted by Portobello High School and discussed ways of reducing waste in schools. It proved an excellent base for sharing good practice and its activities included a trash fashion show, rubbish art competition and even a speech from a former pupil. Catriona Patterson now studies Sustainable Development at the University of St Andrews and attributes much of her enthusiasm for taking action for the environment to the opportunities she was given in Portobello’s Eco Committee.A full account of the summit is available in the Edinburgh Reporter’s article here.
Other pupils have also been busy with Eco Schools work. A large group of our S3 pupils teamed up with Jewel & Esk College students and staff to do a litter pick at Portobello beach and Figgate Park in May for the National Spring Clean. A photo taken of the event by a Jewel & Esk student, shown below, has since won the National Spring Clean photo competition, sponsored by Greggs.
Portobello HS and Jewel & Esk Valley College students and staff at the Spring Clean
Now we’re back from the summer holidays and already planning for the year ahead. Just now we’re doing our Environmental Review and will be using that to make our Action Plan for the coming year. We’d like to remind all staff and pupils at Portobello High School, as well as parents and community members, that we’d love for them to get involved with our Eco-Schools work in the coming years. If you have any questions or comments about what we do, or would like to come to a Committee meeting to share your ideas, please contact Miss Sophie Bigg at sophie.bigg@portobello.edin.sch.uk.
On Saturday 25 April our Eco Team hosted a morning session to clean up our biodiversity garden. Every generation came down to help us renovate the garden, from young kids to grandads. During the 3 hour session we cleared, re-edged and covered with bark the pathway, we cleared weeds away, repaired the fence, planted and put compost on flowerbeds. All hard work was rewarded with bacon rolls and hot drinks. A big thank you to everyone who gave up part of their Saturday to help!
As anyone who saw our pupils at PEDAL’s organic market on Saturday 7 April will know, PHS’s Eco Team will be holding the above gardening event from 10am to 1pm on Saturday 21 April. Pupils, parents and members of the wider community are all very welcome to come along, see what the Eco Team are working on in our school grounds and also have the opportunity to get involved!
Among the jobs you can help us out with are planting new plants, clearing and weeding flowerbeds, fixing the fence and sprucing up bark paths in the biodiversity garden. We also have some planters in the school ground that need a little care.
All volunteers will receive a free cup of tea/coffee and a bacon/vegetarian roll in payment for their efforts!
Although we have some plants, bark and membrane, wooden pallets for the fence, compost and some tools, we would be very grateful if you could bring your own tools to make sure we have enough to go round. Any unwanted plants or compost would be very welcome too!
To give us an idea of numbers for catering (or if you have any questions), please let Miss Bigg know if you plan to attend at sophie.bigg@portobello.edin.sch.uk.
Portobello High School has just become the first mainstream secondary school in Scotland to receive a fifth Green Flag Award, following our assessment with two representatives of Eco-Schools Scotland on Friday 2nd March 2012.
This renewal of the school’s Green Flag status was approved following of two years of work focusing on Litter, Food and the Environment and Sustaining Our World. As well as Eco Committee activities on these topics, which have recently included the adoption of Edinburgh Zoo’s giant pandas, an Eco Day with a quiz, assemblies and themed classes on global sustainability and our link with Kiurani High School in Kenya and various plant sales of our greenhouse produce, the assessors were told about curricular work done throughout the school. Subjects such as CDT, Home Economics and the new enrichment John Muir Award course showed off their environmental links.
The assessors commented in particular on the pleasing way in which dedicated Eco-Schools work has been sustained over such a long time at Portobello. The school has now held the coveted Green Flag award for 10 years.
A reminder to all staff and pupils that Tuesday 28th of February is a Car Free Car Share day. Please try your best to share a car or not use one at all. Thank You!
Thank you to all the people who donated money on Eco Day.We raised ÂŁ704.80 for Kiurani High School to buy a digital projector. Also thanks to all those who made an effort with dressing up. S1 Geography started to calculate their global footprint.
Coming up we have S1 litter workshops on Thursday the 2nd of February provided by the City of Edinburgh Council.
We will be holding a plant sale during the 4th years parent evening on Thursday the 2nd of February. All plants were grown in the greenhouse.
There will be a bake-sale on Friday the 3rd of February to help fundraise for re-adopting the polar bears with WWF and the giant pandas in Edinburgh Zoo.
Finally Tom Ballantine, a parent on the Eco Committee, is coming to do a workshop on climate change with the Eco Team on Wednesday the 8th of February.
By Alexander
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