Events Autumn 2006 - Summer 2007

Welcome to this year's activities

Potatoes In March, we were given three seed potatoes from Potatoes for Schools. We planted these in compost (made from composted garden waste at Christchurch) and left them in the greenhouse. We followed instructions from Potatoes for Schools and within six weeks, this was the result! We intended to use the potatoes on Eco Day, but in the end we had too many as we were given so many vegetables by Laverstoke Park organic farm. Harvest therefore was a week later - on July 10th: two days too late to enter a competition! This is the fantastic result! One batch of potatoes has been cleaned to show them off.  Eco Day 2007    For a full account of the day, together with all photos click here Eco Day 2007 proved to be as wet as Eco Day 2006! The day started with a Fairtrade fashion show: clothes were generously donated by Sana Stephens of 'Timber' and were modelled by students from Years 7, 10 and 12. Sana then gave a brief talk and showed a video about the development of 'People Tree', an ethical clothing company.  After a short Fairtrade activity, students listened to a presentation from Nicole Van Den Eijnen from 'Changing the World'. Nicole subsequently ran two workshops. Students then moved into groups for a lively Fairtrade trading game. Students were randomly assigned to workshop groups. Details of the workshops are given here

Birds of Prey We love our visits from Liberty's. Not just are they entertaining in their own right but they teach us the importance of maintaining the food chains. Without producers and those that feed on them, there would be no raptors!  Liberty's Reptile and Raptor Centre do great work with animals. Not just do they offer visits and flying displays to the public, they are also also a rescue centre for many wild injured birds of prey. Liberty's were kind enough to bring in three magnificent birds of prey on Midsummer's Day, June 21st. Students were enthralled by a hawk and a vulture that were flown between Jason and Jon across the lab, narrowly missing heads! There was also opportunity for students to handle a young owl, as these photos show. This was a brilliant lunchtime session and we are sorry that some students were not allowed in, but remember in future that 1.00pm start means just that! Huge thanks to Liberty's for this event.    Litter Two Year 13 students helped a class with litter collection and then analysed the results. The categories were kept the same as for previous surveys to allow comparison, there are two versions of the data available - one in Word and the other in Excel (for ICT teachers!). Click here - in 'surveys'. The data shows that plastic bottles continue to be a problem. We are therefore looking to find a good bottle recycling bin. We already have a skip, and some classrooms have collecting bins. More are needed outside. Another significant change shows a significant proportion of waste is brought in from twon at lunchtime. The overall MASS of waste is slightly down on last year (based on similar sampling methods and 20 minutes of samplingtime)   Owl pellet dissection Thanks again to Liberty's Reptile and Raptor Centre, Year 7 and 8 students had the chance to dissect an owl pellet at lunchtime. Students were given safety instructions and embarked on dissection with gusto! Skulls, jaw bones, limbs, ribs and teeth revealed the owls' diets - mainly rodents - both large and small, although one or two students had bird skeletons.  Most students were reluctant to hand over their bones but weren't allowed to take them home for safety reasons. Photos were taken instead: click here to see and to download. And, yes, we hope that we will have another session of owl pellet dissection!   Working with willow Sustainability is one of the key ideas behind the environmental group's activities, and what better way to celebrate sustainability than by creating structures from willow?  Using withies straight from the Somerset fens, students created a large willow dome. They received expert tuition from Sarah Meikle, who then started another sculpture, a stag, based on the animal on the Ringwood badge. By mid afternoon, Year 13 art students had joined in creating a human form. When sculpture was given rabbit ears by a Year 7 student, 'Bottom' was created. The Art Department were delighted to be given most of the remaining withies at the end of the day, and we await the creation of other characters from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.  A little willow was retained and planted in the science wild area. We hope that we will be able to harvest withies regularly from this truly sustainable crop. Maybe there won't be enough to coppice as carbon-neutral fuel, but we will certainly be able to replicate our willow day. For photos of the event, click here.

More tree planting! The Woodland Trust provided more trees in March. This time, the Eco Group agreed to pass these to the care of the students who will be visiting Kenya this summer. Thus, half a dozen of these students, assisted by Eco people spent a lunchtime planting trees to help offset their calculated carbon emissions. Rather than planting in the school grounds, these trees were planted in Carvers playing fields for the Town Council.

Purbeck School visit Ringwood students hosted a visit from Purbeck School in Dorset. The students of Purbeck School, a 14 to 18 comprehensive, are keen to 'green up' their school. They are aiming for an Eco-schools Green Flag Award and a small group came to Ringwood to pick up some tips. Students were given half an hour's presentation on Ringwood's work, after which questions were raised. Finally, they split into two groups, both of which were shown around the school by Ringwood students. We hope that the route, devised by Robbie-Anne, will become the framework of our Eco Trail this summer. Purbeck people!

Specialist Schools and Academies Trust debates Several students made presentations for the SSAT's internet debates. There were two themes, Global Poverty and  Global Resources - How do we Protect the Planet?  Our students contributed to both. Two were chosen for the Poverty debate, Kim and Stef's , and James'. Harriet and Liz, Sophie, Robbie-Anne, Joe, Georgia, Laura, Katherine, Oliver, Jenny and Thomas saw their presentations appear for the second debate. They certainly created a great deal of discussion world-wide! Well done to all students whose presentations were used, and commiserations to those whose were not selected!  Go to http://www.sst-inet.net/ where the presentations will be stored for a short time. They are also available on the school's VLE.

Fair Trade March 2007 Ringwood Town Councillors Brian Terry and Neville Chard enjoyed a cup of Fairtrade coffee in the school canteen before presenting students Stef Edwards and Kim Abell with a  copy of the certificate showing that Ringwood has achieved Fairtrade Town status.  At break, sixth formers organised a superb Fairtrade cafe sponsored by Sainsburys and Ringwood  Town Council.  All goods, from bananas and pineapples, to Geobars, biscuits and chocolate, were sold. Photos of the event appear here.

Fair Trade February 2007 Ringwood is now a Fair Trade town. A group of students met with members of Ringwood Town Council on February 14th to discuss what happens next. the Minutes of that meeting will appear here as soon as they become available, but the following summary shows the main outcomes: The Town Council were told about recent initiatives taking place in school such as assemblies during Fair Trade fortnight, Fair Trade lunches (several have been held by the Eco Group) and a proposed fair trade cafe on March 7th. The council will actively support our Fair Trade cafe on March 7th, during Fair Trade fortnight. It is hoped that they will provide a little money. The council wish to present the certificate showing Ringwood's status as a Fair Trade town to students at the school. We hope this will take place in a sixth form assembly as it was sixth formers who were present at the meeting. We were told that the school indicated that students would take responsibility for producing a Fair Trade directory and produce posters to be displayed in shops.  Steph and Kim have already started to make the directory and Josie agreed to attend to the posters.

Birds December 2006 - January 2007 Thanks to Nick Walraven (Year 10) and a growing team of Year 7 students, our bird population is being kept well fed.  However, birds’ energy needs increase when weather gets colder, so Nick led a short session making fat balls from melted fat and seed, on Thursday lunchtime. In January, we carried out the annual RSPB bird count in the school grounds. Phil Collins (sixth form) organised this event, which was enjoyed by 32 students. The results of our Birdwatch and photos of the event appear here.

Christmas cards Once more, Ringwood collected Christmas cards for the Woodland Trust. The response was fantastic, particularly in tutor groups. Some groups have collected thousands of cards. Altogether, we collected 21 clear sacks of cards this year, doubling the quantity collected last year!

Fair Trade and Eco Party December 7th Thanks to Harriet King and Liz Spender (Year 12) we had a very successful Eco party. Lots of other sixth form students lent a hand. Students (Eco ‘regulars’ and Green Reps) brought along an item of Fair Trade food, home-cooked food or locally produced food to share with others. An interesting collection of food and drink included lots of Fair Trade fruit juice, coffee, biscuits and chocolate, and delicious cakes prepared from Fair Trade ingredients. We also had plenty of Fair Trade bananas! A Christmas tree, newly dug up, was decorated with recyclables - empty packages, scraps of fabric, wool, old cards and milk bottle tops. Many tree decorations are made out of non-biodegradable substances, often in distant countries with questionable working practices.  The tree was subsequently taken over to the sixth form entrance where it remained until the end of term. It has, of course, been replanted! All photos here

Meet the Animals 2: November 30th More photos here Are children turning to virtual pets, rather than the real thing? Are Playstations and iPods replacing pets in the modern home? And does the pace of modern life leave little room for animals? The percentage of UK pet-owning homes has dropped to 48% today, from 56% in 1999. Ringwood School certainly bucks the trend!  Interest in animals is alive and kicking at the school. Hundreds of students enjoyed last Thursday’s busy ‘Meet the Animals’ session which gave an opportunity to see and handle a great variety of animals.  Students brought in animals of all types, necessitating the separation of the cute and cuddly from the scaley or slimey! For some, this was their first opportunity to hold a rabbit, a cat or a guinea pig, or to experience the lick of a dog. Certainly, for the majority, the chance to touch a ferret, a bantam, chicken or a snake, was a unique experience. Meet the Animals was set up to acknowledge the diverse roles that animals play in our lives, whether as pets, wild animals or farm animals.  There are particular benefits in encouraging children to care for animals: looking after a companion animal can help develop a sense of responsibility and compassion, and can even help in coming to terms with life's more difficult issues.  Sometimes it’s easier to confide in an animal than a human! Animals can encourage an active lifestyle too, with dog ownership in particular leading to greater levels of exercise. Is the fall in pet ownership a bad thing? Not according to animal charities who believe it could be a good sign, showing that people are becoming more responsible and not taking on a pet they know they could not care for properly. There is no doubt that this type of event is popular. We hope that while acknowledging that animals can be great fun, the event also increased students’ interest in animals and their respect for the animal world. The school is very grateful indeed to those parents, friends and students who kindly brought in animals. Thank you to everyone who made this a huge success, especially those students and parents who brought in their animals, to the staff who gave up their lunchtime and to Caroline Gillespie for organising the event. More photos here.

Green Ringwood students offset their carbon emissions!   Big Dig November 23rd Full set of photos here Thirty Eco-aware students from the school planted small trees in the school grounds during National Tree Week, making November's BIG DIG another great success for the School. Big Digs are a regular feature of the Eco Group's grounds improvement programme, with trees generously supplied by the Woodland Trust, a group whose ambitious children's tree-planting project will help plant 12 million trees over the next five years. The school supports the Trust by collecting mobile phones and Christmas cards. A feature of the Big Dig was that students were encouraged to ask their tutors to work out their carbon emissions that resulted from their personal transport during the summer holidays!  Many did exactly that, and other students worked out their own emissions. All students who planted trees now understand the significance of tree planting as a means of offsetting their carbon emissions, even if planting one tree seemed very insignificant. Importantly, for this Big Dig, in addition to Eco 'regulars' undertaking planting, tutor groups in Years 7, 8 and 9, sent their Green Reps to plant a tree for the group.  Sixth formers Dan Loveys and Joe Riley distributed the trees to students, together with a label that was planted alongside the tree. This showed the planter’ name and tutor group with the name of the tree species, thus allowing students to track the progress of their tree. Russell Etheridge, the school groundsman, prepared the soil, making planting an easy job. Those who took part in the planting gained Green Points for their tutor groups. An innovatory scheme has been introduced at the school whereby students gain points for their tutor group in exchange for environmental action. This may involve tree planting, pond clearance or maintaining wildlife feeders, but it can also include bringing in materials for recycling such as milk bottle tops, batteries, polythene, mobiles or old CDs. A battle for Green Point supremacy is currently being fought between Year 7 tutor groups. Full set of photos here

Meeting of School Grounds Advisors Group November 7th This national group of advisors held a three hour meeting at Ringwood School on Tuesday. Mr Etheridge and Mrs Hickman attended the meeting. Stephanie Edwards, Kim Abell, and Gemma Keith ably escorted the visitors to the meeting on Tuesday afternoon, and told them something about our environmental action.

Greening up Western Downland School  November 2nd Thanks to the efforts of the highly active members of its Eco Group, Ringwood School obtained a Green Flag Award earlier this year. The group goes from strength to strength and the school remains the only secondary school in Hampshire to have obtained the Green Flag.   Following recent guidelines from the Department for Education and Science, the Head Teacher of Western Downland School, Rockbourne, was keen to develop a whole-school approach to sustainable development. Hearing of Ringwood’s success, he invited six students into his school to help on a staff inset day that was given over to sustainability. Robbie Anne Williams, Ben Marshall, Rebecca Cox (sixth form); Jack Campion, Kim Abell (Year 10), and George Attwill (Year 8), represented the school.  Each student has, in his or her own way, made an outstanding contribution to the work of the Eco Group.   Mrs Hickman gave a short illustrated talk about the work at Ringwood that had led to the Green Flag Award and outlined the innovatory projects that have been introduced subsequently, such as the Tree Trail project, Eco Day 2006 and the Green Point scheme.  A short break followed during which Ringwood students were shown around the school grounds. With Western Downland’s emphasis on play, their grounds made an interesting contrast to Ringwood's. Students then joined staff of Western Downland who were organised into small working groups. Topics taken by the groups corresponded to the headings that will be used in schools’ self evaluations for future Ofsted inspections. These are very similar to the framework followed by schools for Eco-Schools assessments, so our students were familiar with such topic headings as energy, food, water, the grounds, travel and biodiversity. Each student worked singly with a group, a daunting prospect for the faint hearted! However, without exception, students rose to the challenge. Mark Saxby, the Head Teacher, was delighted with Ringwood students’ contribution. They were congratulated and thanked warmly by all Rockbourne staff. Western Downland School are now organising the information they need to write evaluative statements and identify key priorities for the school’s sustainable development.

Energy Do you have any good ideas about the way in which we could save energy in school? If you had £2000 for energy improvements, what would you spend it on? E-mail suggestions here or use the suggestion box in reception

Stag beetle larvae in the conservation area Sixth former Zoe Patterson spent an interesting lunch hour with Year 7 students in the conservation area. Our log pile has attracted stag beetles. The photo below shows the moment when the students found larvae

Planting the Ann Steggall pond Students in the Eco Group have been collecting suggestions for the replanting of the Ann Steggall pond for the last few weeks. This is the the tiny fish pond in the quadrangle outside the PE changing rooms: it has suffered from a small amount of damage over the summer and the Eco Group are keen to restore it to its former glory. James Bridle, Nick Walraven, Jack Campion, Roland Percival and George Attwill all helped a pond professional, Richard Trim, to restock the pond on Tuesday morning.  The pond has now been completely renovated although we will have to wait until spring to see the results of the planting. Renovating this small pond was good practice for the big one, the school wildlife pond. This is a much bigger project needing more money, time and better weather!

Green Card and Green Points system This scheme was launched in October 2006. A card, designed by Kathryn Craigdaillie (sixth form) has been given out to all tutor groups in Years 7, 8 and 9. It is marked with 25 distinctive icons, and each icon gets stamped with a Green Point, in exchange for worthy environmental action. A Green Point may be obtained by the tutor group collecting a certain quantity of recyclables, by attendance at certain  events, such as tree planting, or through a member of the tutor group introducing a new and successful idea. A full list appears here, in How to get Green Points. When the Green Card has been filled up, every member of the tutor group gets a small reward - one that reinforces the ideas and ethos of EcoSchools. Certain students bring in large collections, and we know that they are backed often by parents setting up collections at work. We are very grateful to both parents and students when this happens. It is very important that we know who these people are so that we can acknowledge their help, so if you are one of our big collectors, or a parent of a big collector, please make sure that you have given your name to the ladies in reception.

Chairman and Secretary 2006 - 2007 Robbie Ann will be Student Chairman of the Eco Group this year, and Rebecca Cox will continue as Secretary. Well done to both students.  Thanks must go to our outgoing Chairman, Ben R Marshall for his excellent work over the past year. Both Ben and Becky put in a great deal of time and effort earlier in the year in connection with our successful Green Flag application.

Green Reps This year, all tutor groups have been asked to choose or elect a Green Rep. These are seen as an important way of relaying information in both directions: Green Reps can take environmental messages into the classroom, and they can bring information from the classroom to the Eco Group. Eco (or Green) Reps have an important role in the tutor group. If you are a Rep. you should try to Make sure that there is at least one copy of 'How to get Green points' in the tutor group room. Download here.  Make sure that notices are read out from the Week Ahead and are then displayed. Bring ideas from the tutor group to the attention of the Eco Group Run recycling efficiently  in the tutor group. You should make sure that the clear sack with paper is taken to the paper skip during Friday afternoon registration, and that the empty bag is returned to the silver bin. You must also make sure that the collection bags of other recyclables, such as milk bottle tops, batteries, corks, printer cartridges, mobiles, CDs, DVDs and postage stamps are regularly emptied. Make sure recycling bags are labelled. Clearly identifiable labels are used. If your room hasn't got one, see reprographics. If you find another room without a label ask the teacher to get a label from reprographics! Keep an eye on these labels and if these get damaged, replace them. Green Reps in Years 7-9 make sure that 'Green point' recyclables are credited with a Green point Empty a bottle/can bin if one exists in the room. If there isn’t one, you should ask for one! Make sure that there is a labelled ‘Re-use’ box for rough paper in the room, and that the paper recycling bin's label is renewed when it becomes worn. Make sure that the Eco Code and ‘6Rs’ are displayed in the room Make sure that 'What goes where' is displayed in the room. Be willing and ready to explain the system to new people in your tutor group. Don't forget new teachers too!