Projects 2004 - July 2005

Ringwood Home Page EcoSchools UK

ECO DAY So many of our Eco students are involved in exams throughout the summer - with long periods of study leave, that it seemed sensible to do something different during this period. Eco and Fair Trade Day was the big event of the summer. Unfortunately, it involved very few members of the EcoSchools Committee, but it did introduce the whole of Year 9 to the type of work that is going on. Eco Day has a complete section on this website. It can be accessed here.

January 2005 brought new opportunities. The energy projectgrew (see below); our interest in birds also developed (also below) and we have had a great response to our Christmas card campaign. In February, Ben launched a phenology group. Find out what this is and download the recording form

Christmas cards Cards were collected to give to the Woodland Trust. This excellent organisation is giving us some native British hedging plants that we will plant out in spring. If you would like to take part in the dig, see Mrs Hickman or e-mail via this link. By January 14th, two weeks into term, we have collected six large boxes of cards. Thanks to Mrs Fraser for boxing these up. If you still have cards, pelase bring them in as soon as possible. “More than a billion cards will have been sent by people in the UK this Christmas,” said Recycle Now supporter, Alistair McGowan, “and we want to recycle as many of these as possible to raise money to plant more trees and cut down on the amount of waste that traditionally gets binned at this time of year.”

Birds in January We already knew that we had house martins in the summer, dunnocks and house sparrows (yes!) that hide in the shrubs down the drive, and dozens of seagulls that wait for the end of break and lunchtime, but we didn't know how abundant they were. We also didn't know how many other species we had. We  therefore enrolled in the RSPB's 2005 Big School Birdwatch BIG SCHOOLS' BIRDWATCH and students counted the birds seen feeding in the school grounds for one hour on 3rd February.  As expected, these were largely wagtails, sparrows and gulls. We were disappointed by the numbers - but we had to run the survey at the end of the school day, and we hope that, by setting up feeders and nest boxes  in the grounds, we will see a greater variety of species next year.  Blackbird 3 Bluetit 2 GreatTit 1 House sparrow 6 Pied wagtail 20 Starling 2 Black headed gull 6 Some students also took part in the 2005  RSPB  Big Garden Birdwatch over the weekend of 29-30 January. This is the world's biggest bird survey. It involved simply watching and counting the birds in the garden or local park for an hour on either Saturday 29 or Sunday 30 January 2005, and then reporting back to the RSPB. The BBC has mp3 files of the songs of the most common British birds on their website. The BBC suggest you download them onto your mp3 player so that you can match them against the birdsong you hear when you're out The RSPB has a great website at http://www.rspb.org.uk where you can read about the Birdwatch and download your own survey forms.  If you are interested in owls, please again see Mr McNulty or Mrs Hickman. We have instructions for building an owl box. these were given out at our last EcoSchools meeting. We also have interesting information on bats that was given out at this meeting. if you missed it and would like information, please ask. You can also e-mail via this link.

Birds in February and March We have been given a small grant from the School Fund to buy bird feeders and nest boxes, and Mr McNulty's  birding group have already been busy making milk bottle bird feeders. They have fixed the first feeders around the school grounds so that we begin to attract more birds.  The newly installed next boxes and feeders have immediately  proved popular. During February, there has been a greater variety of birds - bluetits (seen exploring the new nest boxes), and both robins and chaffinches have regularly seen enjoying the new feeders. Two redwings have been spotted on the holly near the pond area. The pond itself is covered with frogspawn! The bird feeders have proved very popular! As this photo shows, pigeons  are particularly well cared for at Ringwood.

Birds in April, May and June Two of the nest boxes have seen two broods each of blue tits. The starlings have started nesting in the cavity wall of the science block, and sparrows are using two of the nest boxes (but not the sparrow lodge). House Martins which are usually common summer visitors have simply not arrived. SWIFTS have arrived (first seen the first Tuesday after Easter) and on fine days they swoop through the grounds at speed. We think they may be nesting in the new swift box. Swifts are one of the species that Springwatch asked us to record. Click on this link if you don't know what swifts look like. This photo might well have been taken at Ringwood!

Energy We all know that energy is being wasted. We are taking steps to do something about it. Firstly, we have enrolled with a group called the Energy Saving Trust that encourages energy saving and sustainability. Their useful website is at http://www.est.org.uk. We hope to carry out surveys of the energy being used in the school and will see where and how savings can be made. One reason that we have enrolled with EST is that the renewables project, started last December, requires baseline data. We need to see what energy is being used now, so that when the wind turbine and solar panels are completed, we can measure improvement. Currently, the sixth form are doing much background research for the wind turbine. The lads have been working on the turbine blades and have had problems with the alternator. However, great progress is being made. They  have been given detailed weather records for Ringwood. Click here to see a sample in Excel. These will greatly assist the deigning of the turbine blades. Thanks to Mike Osborne for these useful records.

March's Big Dig  After Christmas, we collected hundreds of Christmas cards for the Woodland Trust (see above), and during the first week in March, we were given 30 small hedge plants, all British native species, by the Woodland Trust. This is part of a world-wide movement that aims to get children planting trees. Staff and students brought in plants from their own gardens, and in all we had a grand total of 108 saplings!  These extra contributions also contributed to the diversity of the hedge. The plants were used to make a hedge around the pond area behind Science and Technology. The site previously gathered litter which blows from the South West across the field, and the slightly broken fence allowed litter in from the path to the pond area. Two Year 8 students cleared the litter and hedge planting occurred the next day. The Big Dig involved 55 people: pupils from every year group (7 through to 13), staff and governors. In appalling weather conditions, the group dug with energy and enthusiasm to put in all 108 plants in 25 minutes! It was a great effort!   The Big Dig Team We hope that the hedge will help to provide food, nesting sites and nesting materials for birds. The feeders that Mr McNulty put up in this area are already well used, and a hedge will help. Read about the Woodland Trust's scheme here ...

BIG LITTER AND RECYCLING SURVEY In July a group of students from Years 7 to 10 collected and weighed  all the litter that could be picked up in 1/2 hour during period 5. Material from the normal class litter picks were added to the collection. The result was a relatively clear site by Friday and a huge amount of litter. We had to make decisions about how to classify the litter immediately, so that it could be weighed. The outcomes of this litter survey are shown here in detail. The big take home message is that we have far too many plastic bottles and far too many metallicised plastic packets, such as those used for crisps. These (sadly) cannot be recycled and should be put in ordinary litter bins. Plastic bottles, however, CAN be recycled and should be put in the plastic bottle recycling bins. The same students also analysed the contents of a dozen clear sacks - those used in classrooms for recycling paper. Results of this survey are to be found here. The message here is that too much paper is being recycled before it's reused for scrap. thee should be a reuse box in all classrooms. If you spot a room without one,  ask the teacher to provide one and see Mrs Hickman for a 'reuse' label for the box. The data from all surveys (there were five in total) was analysed by Year 9 students on Eco Day

VISIT TO BLASHFORD STUDY CENTRE Several students enjoyed a rather quick lunchtime visit via school minibus to Blashford Study Centre. The centre has plenty of log piles that provide habitat for a host of wildlife, so surplus logs were gathered and brought back to schools to make a neatly stacked log pile for the conservation area. this should make good habitat for invertebrates like stag beetles, woodlice and woodwasps.  It will also provide a cool moist area in the heat of the summer for amphibians. Maintenance of the conservation area has continued throughout the summer, thanks to Robbie. Kieron and a group of helpful Year 8s.  A small nettle patch has been added and the small hedging plants have been watered during July's very hot dry weather. Baby frogs have been added to the pond and there have been two sessions of pond clearance. We will need more pond clearance sessions in September and the wild flowers will need to be cut so that there are flowers next year. if we leave these flowers to die down, grasses will move in to replace the flowers next year.                 Poppies from 2004. Clover 2005, with St John's Wort - one of the plants donated by Stewarts Gardenlands It was noticeable that we had far fewer poppies this year. that is to be expected as poppies like bare ground and dislike competition from other plants. This year we had lots of convolvulus (left) and dandelions (right). Laura and Jack sowed a small area with wildflower mix. Unfortunately, the heavy rains of the next two days washed the carefully scattered seed into clumps making this less successful than our previous sowing.

Last year (2003 - 2004) some of our projects included Pond clearance Wildflower garden. The trout project The allotment The national bluebell survey Click here to read about each of these 2003 -2004 projects.