Pumpherston and Uphall Station CPS Blog
A place for news, information and sharing learning from PUSCPS
There will be no meeting of the Eco club this week (Thu 16th May) as all the teachers will be at a training meeting. The Club will be back again next week so don’t forget!
In the meantime, Eco People, your challenge is to take some Eco Action at home and post news of it on the Blog!
Today at Eco club Mrs Hull introduced Fergus, the new School Sunflower. We are taking part in the Sunflower Challenge run by Rural connect and will be looking after Fergus and hoping he will grow taller than any other sunflower in a West Lothian School. Today’s challenge was putting him in a bigger pot as he had outgrown the pot he was put in only 2 weeks ago!  He has been gently tethered to the side of the building. Please wave to him as you go by in the morning and have a look at how tall he is – but please DON’T TOUCH as he is very fragile!
At 4pm today he measured 1 metre tall – can anyone estimate when he will reach the same height as Miss Speirs?
This week we will be learning a lot about our school grounds and tidying up our local community!
Throughout the week every class are taking on eco challenges and there are three big events happening;
Wednesday – tree planting in the school driveway and around the BMX track with staff and students from the Oatridge campus of the Scottish Agricultural College
Thursday– National Spring Clean when we are joined by the Environmental Wardens to pick up litter in Pumpherston and Uphall Station
Friday – Orchard Day! We will be planting our new Community orchard with Fruitful Schools and a team from News International who sponsored this as a competition prize in The Scottish Sun newspaper.
Great News! 
We can confirm that the date for our Orchard planting with News International and Fruitful Schools will take place on Friday 19th April 2013. Please contact the school office if you are able to help. We’d like as many helpers as possible to make this a true Community Orchard! Come along and join the fun from 9.30 am.
Our school will be taking part in the 3 stages of the Big Pedal 2013. On the 28th Feb, 8th March and 20th March we will be counting the number of children, staff and parents who cycle or scoot to school. Our results are logged with the national Big Pedal event and we will be given a place in the race! More news at assembly from the JRSOs.
Get more information from http://bigpedal.org.uk/
The sponsors of our Community Orchard have asked us to postpone the planting day once more. We are sorry to disappoint you with this news, and hope to bring news of a definite date very soon. Everyone is hoping this change of date will increase our chances of warmer (and drier?) weather…
Our school is a member of The Pod website which has lots of eco ideas and games to play. You can have a look at their latest e-zine at http://www.jointhepod.org/student-zone/
We have a new date for Orchard Day!
Make a note in your diaries – Wednesday 20th February – that’s when Fruitful schools are planning to bring their team with support from News International who sponsored the Orchard Offer.  Mrs Hull’s going to try and book some dry weather for that week…
Any parents or friends who would like to help would be very welcome. Contact the school office and we’ll get in touch with details.
On Friday 14th December Primary 2 and 3 were well wrapped up in the cold and frost to work with our friends from the Oatridge campus of Scotland’s Rural College. They planted tree seedlings from the Woodland trust around the perimeter fence at the SUDS pond area of the school grounds. These little plants will grow in to rose, hawthorn, dogwood and holly hedges and encourage lots of different wildlife into the nature area at the pond. One special seedling was not planted – a Royal Oak, grown from seed collected from one of the royal household estates. This will be given a special position closer to the school, as part of the Jubilee Wood project.
The planting of our orchard has been postponed until the New Year, in the hope that we will have better weather.
We will still be planting the tree seedlings from the Woodland trust on Friday 14th as planned, with help from our friends at Oatridge. Thank you to all parents who offered help with the orchard – we will be in touch when the new date is announced.
