What we do

Autumn 2007 - Summer 2008                              Welcome to this year's activities

The end of Making a Mint Making a Mint moved into production phase throughout the summer term. We experimented with 'muddling' but found it made a leafy mix! We then opted for distillation and got a perfect mint extract.   Hours were spent in the lab making minty candles, drawer liners and car air fresheners. With Mrs Whalen's and Mr Tennyson's help, we sold these at the PTA's car boot sale. Years 7 and 8 then enjoyed a couple of lunchtime 'cook ins' and produced minty goods such as peppermint creams and peppermint crackle. These have been sold at breaktime stalls on several occasions in July. Mrs Whalen's smoothies and shakes became legendary! We have now heard that we're into the top ten schools and we're particularly pleased since we opted to use Fairtrade products as much as possible. Almost all our chocolate has been Fairtrade.  Our profits will all go to Roots and Shoots of the Jane Goodall Institute to support work with chimpanzees. Below - at the car boot sale. Read an article about 'Freshly Minted' here!
The Climate Change Garden project 2008 This has been the biggest environmental challenge of the year, and possibly of the last five years! It has been an ambitious project to use rainwater wisely, while simultaneously creating an area that would be relaxing, attractive, and eventually useful for study. Read all about it here. Photographs of the project appear on the main school website, but the photo below shows some of the wildflowers planted as plugs into the bank behind the two ponds.  Students are particularly grateful to the Wessex Salmon and Rivers Trust's Tesco award of £500. this will allow them to implement the final phase of the garden's development. Read more about the project here. In July we carried out a survey of the ponds. We found that they were both teeming with life, but interestingly, there were no whirlygig beetles in the pond that contains the fish. These fabulous underwater microscope shots show the range of species that have moved in!     Photos below show some of the animals found in the bank planted with British native grass and wildflowers.
Painted ladies We have raised some Painted Lady butterflies from eggs. After watching them develop into caterpillars, we saw them pupate and about a fortnight later, the butterflies emerged. In the wild, adults emerge in August and September. These Year 7 students  released our butterflies in an area of school where there is a variety of nectar-rich flowers: buddleia and lavender are favourites. Painted ladies (Cynthia cardui) do not hibernate in Britain; instead they migrate to and from northern Africa. The entire British population migrates! They can arrive in early spring, but late May and June are more usual. They are fairly common across Britain, numerous in some years. Painted lady butterflies have a pale buffy-orange background colour to the upper wings. The forewings have black tips marked with white spots; the hind wings have rows of black spots. The undersides are pale with blue eyespots. Females lay their small, green eggs on a range of species, such as nettles and mallows, but thistles the  favourite species. Caterpillars are black, speckled with tiny white spots and have a yellow stripe down each side. They are covered in spines.
The new ponds The two new ponds that are part of the Climate Change Garden are now almost complete. As the photo shows, the water has cleared, an excellent T-shaped dipping platform has been constructed and we have planted baskets of plants, trying to keep similar species in both ponds. The pond furthest from the camera (and near the raised beds in the background) has been left for nature to take its course, while the pond in the foreground has been lightly stocked with roach (a native British freshwater fish). This will let students compare the populations of invertebrate species in both ponds. Many students have worked particularly hard on this project and it is good to be able to start work now on the dry part of the Climate Change Garden project   Above:  Mr Reading with Conor and Steph, stocking the pond with roach (March 08).
Willow dome repair The willow that students collected from Minstead Study Centre has rooted well. During a tutor group session in early April, Eco Reps from Years 7 and 8 helped to repair our damaged dome. Thanks to Nick and Mike from Year 11 for their help. We hope that a wet April will really help the willow to root this time.
A second Green Flag.  We were assessed for our second Green Flag in March and came through with flying colours. A strong team of students talked to our assessor and showed him round the school, but it is important to recognise that this award represents the work of everyone: students from all year groups, staff, governors and the many parents who support in different ways, for instance, through our recycling schemes.  Thank you everyone! Here the flag is being presented to Miss Edwards by the Town Mayor.
First planting of the raised beds Lots of vegetables have been raised from seed in the lab. Planting out of onion sets by Year 7 and 8 students started early in the year. Here, Jack is planting out Cauliflower 'Graffiti'. The 'invertebrate apartment' can be seen in the background. This was started in February by Mrs Hickman and Mrs Osborne and was completed by a Year 8 team in March.
Making a Mint (continued) We have now extracted essential oil from our mint. We have carried out distillation as shown by the photo below, and 'muddling' as demonstrated by Robbie (below) Some of the extraction team, muddling!
Fairtrade Fortnight Thanks to Timber of Ringwood, and to Sainsbury's and Waitrose, we were able to hold a Fairtrade stall in the canteen. Chocolate and products made from chocolate, sold particularly well, and all bananas were sold by the following day. We found that some, but not all, students were willing to pay more for Fairtrade fruit juice than for non-Fairtrade. We also had a section of the canteen devoted to 'Making a  Mint'. Using Fairtrade chocolate and the first extracted mint oil, students made chocolate mint crackle,  chocolate mint shortbread, truffles and  chocolate mint peppermint creams. All sold very quickly, showing us that there is a big market for chocolate and mint! A profit was made, but it was less than it would have been with non-Fairtrade chocolate. As this was a celebration of Fairtrade, we were happy for this to be the case.
Climate Change Garden We entered a 'Futures' competition at the end of January, and the team that planned a climate change garden have won £250. They will now work with advisors from Hampshire County Council on the first phase of the project before going through to the final to be held in Winchester in July. The Climate Change Garden team (minus Jack, who returned to lend his expertise after officially leaving school on May 9th)
Making a Mint 'Making a  Mint' has started with gusto. Led by Rachel Giles and Rachel Cakebread, students have sown (and germinated) mint seeds and have taken root and shoot cuttings. We have cuttings everywhere, and will soon experiment with extracting essential oil. Business Studies students will next be involved in the production and marketing of goods made from mint. if you would like to join this phase of the project, see Mr Tennyson. If you have a good idea for a product that could be made, e-mail your idea, using the 'ideas' link on the front page of this website.
Accessing the SSAT i-net debates Some of our sixth form students’ work on CLIMATE CHANGE is showcased on the SSAT i-net website. Excellent!       Go to http://www.cybertext.net.au/student08_inet_mar/studentPerspectives.php          This will take you to the presentations.  If you want to discuss them (or reply to someone who’s said something about your work)  go to General Discussion – forum – resources      'Main Topics’ (from General Discussion) are student discussions of climate change that are not related to the presentations  You should be able to access this quite easily. If you can’t, please see Mrs Oldfield
Working with willow Did you miss out at school? Would you like another go?  19th April - Willow Sculpture Workshop 10.30am to 4pm, Itchen Valley Country Park, Allington Lane, West End, Southampton, SO30 3HQ A leisurely introduction to the art of willow sculpture using dried willow complete with bark.  The morning will be spent covering the basic techniques needed for the task.  You will then move on to design and make your own medium scale willow sculpture ideal for your garden or home.  Subjects include birds, small woodland animals and organic shapes.  You do not need any previous experience of working with willow. £45 which includes all materials. Contact Jacqueline Rolls on 07981 103704 jax@... www.jaxsarts.co.uk
Birdwatch As usual, many students enjoyed taking part in RSPB's annual Birdwatch. Unfortunately, we discovered some unwelcome trends. Our results for Birdwatch 2008 are here.
Christmas Cards This was a bumper year for Christmas cards. We collected 15 large sacks of cards: a 100% increase on last year. All cards have go to the Woodland Trust's Christmas appeal and we wait to see if the national target of 100 million cards has been reached. Last year the scheme collected 93m cards, raising £100,000 for the charity and enabling it to plant 22,000 trees.  BT will purchase an oak sapling from the Woodland Trust  for every new customer who signs up to receive paper-free billing.    Thanks to everyone, staff, parents, visitors and students, who brought in their cards for this appeal.
Stamps The Albatross Appeal to which we send all our stamps, has featured on the radio all week (the first week of Spring Term). Thanks to Christmas, LOTS of stamps have come in this week. The photo below shows a small proportion of them. These brilliant students in 8H spend many lunchtimes dealing with Tutor Group recycling. Here, they are trimming the rather generous edges off some of the stamps. We have also managed to collect six sacks of Christmas cards in the first week of term!
Fairtrade Christmas party Thanks to Harriet King and a team of sixth form helpers, younger students enjoyed a party at which the ONLY food was Fairtrade. Well done and thanks to Harriet and to all helpers. Below: home-made chocolate cake!
Environmentally friendly cosmetics This was a fun workshop for students in Years 7 and 8. It was sponsored by Ringwood Carnival Committee, and details will appear in Green News. Below: home-made lip gloss!
Paper collection Arrangements for paper collection have changed. there will be no fur5ther Monday collections form Monmouth, and each year group has its own day. Eco Reps are responsible for emptying clear sacks in their rooms. Staff are responsible for offices, although they may ask a nearby Eco Rep. All details are in the Week Ahead.
More mobiles! A team of Year 8 students sorted and removed SIM cards from 54 mobiles at lunchtime on November 30th. they then packed them into (recycled) envelopes onto which 'Pudsey' Freepost labels were stuck. LIke the previous batch, these mobiles will fetch £5 each for BBC's Children in Need appeal. This batch alone will produce £270, which, added to the previous 50 mobiles, gives over £500.  Thank you to everyone who has given mobiles and to the Year 8 packing team! Photos here.
Paper survey On November 30th, paper collection arrangements changed, with Eco reps taking paper directly to the paper skip at lunchtime, where they were met by Mrs White. Helped by a Year 9 team and some willing sixth formers, Mrs White carried out a survey of the paper put out for recycling during the week. Weather conditions were bad and the site around the skips was congested with contractors, but paper had to be disposed of, and clear sacks had to be returned to classrooms, so the survey went ahead. The survey showed the following Number of clear sacks emptied:  57 Average weight: 3.75kg Total weight: 213.75kg As expected, most paper was 'office paper' - used for photocopying. Weather conditions and congestion at the site made it difficult to assess the proportion of sheets that were thrown out single sided. Mrs White therefore proposes carrying out a second survey at the same time next week.
Visit to MInstead Study Centre On Wednesday November 21st, twenty one students visited Minstead Study Centre at the invitation of Jane Pownall, Head of Centre. There were two aims: the first was to collect willow from the grounds of the centre in order to patch up our own slightly damaged willow dome. Students were taught by John Gardner how to cut and bundle up the willow (as shown in some of the photographs) and brought back about 6 pieces each.  The second aim was to see the new centre, built with sustainability in mind. Students were able to see what can be done with a building, and couldn't believe their eyes when they first saw the 'Eco building 'as they hadn't been told that it was built on stilts!  Students learnt that there is no concrete - it is entirely wooden, and that includes decorative, hand carved wooden panels. There are attractive stainless steel sculptures everywhere that students enjoyed finding. There is a solar panel on the wooden shingles of the roof and tdigital readouts on a large wooden panel allow the monitoring of energy and water use. Rainwater is harvested from the roof and is collected in a large tank for flushing toilets and fro use in the garden where organic vegetables are grown. Inside, natural fabrics are used such as linen and jute, and the floors are covered with marmoleum. All lighting is energy efficient. Students were particularly impressed by the leather beanbags and superb dormitory facilities.  Students are writing a report on the visit and on the sustainable features in the building.  Below: what to do with a plastic milk bottle!  All Minstead pictures are here   A visit to Minstead Study Centre The trip to Minstead was really inspiring, as there were so many little things they did that we could incorporate into our school’s eco system. One was the bins with the three sections; one for plastic, one for paper and a smaller one for landfill. Having one of these in each room around the school will encourage people to recycle more, as students who forget about recycling will go to the bin, and see the different sections, therefore encouraging students to use the different sections. Another inspiring idea was the use of rain water for flushing the toilets. At Minstead they collected rainwater from the roof, and pumped it into the toilets, it was then used to flush the toilets with, Of course the water for washing hands with, was clean, filtered water, but by using rain water for the toilets that reduced the amount used by a large percentage. Only one small problem came with the colour of this water, and those who went will know what that was! The whole building was made from biodegradable materials. The foundations of the buildings were wood, and rather than flattening the land and making a concrete base, long poles of wood were inserted into the ground, and the whole building was balancing on this. The flooring in the building was made from linseed oil, ‘woodflour’, pine rosin, jute and limestone, rather than plastic, and therefore would biodegrade when the building was no longer usable.  When we were there, we learnt how to cut willow, the branches that grew upwards were ok to cut, whereas the ones that grew downwards were dying and wouldn’t have been very useful for replacing the willow of our willow dome with. Once we cut the willow. We were then taught how to tie up a large bundle using another piece. Twisting it until the fibres broke the willow then formed a rope-like structure. These were just a few of the many things that I learnt about and found very interesting from the trip to Minstead.  I just wished I could have stayed there longer. Stephanie Edwards
Big Dig November 2007 We now have two new wildlife ponds, but as yet, no dipping platforms. We intend to create a hedge around this new area to make habitat and to screen off the ponds. Tuesday 20th November was booked for our Dig, so despite the pouring rain, it went ahead and seventy trees were planted in about 20 minutes. At least the ground was soft! Most of the the plants came from the Woodland Trust and consisted of hawthorn, hazel, holly, dog rose, dogwood bay and buckthorn. They were planted as a traditional hedgerow, but only as a single row. They should provide an excellent habitat for wildlife. Below: Miss Edwards gives it some welly! Below: the second team of planters. Early planters diappeared rather quickly, thanks to the weather! Some of this second team stayed to the end.  LOTS of pictures of the Big DIg are here
Carbon Challenge Year 11 students took part in The BP Carbon Challenge Roadshow in November. he Carbon Challenge is a high-impact Science, Maths and Enterprise roadshow for 14 to 16 year old students. Students work together over two two-hour sessions to examine a school’s carbon footprint and learn about carbon reduction through a variety of activities using film, websites, interactive calculators, 3D-style mats and other visual material.
Raised beds Good news! We have been given enough money to buy three more raised beds for next year. One of them will have a cage over the top so that we can grow brassicas. Meanwhile, we are buying a netting system that will let us raise butterflies too! As before, we will buy raised beds made from recycled plastic, as this is a really good way of reusing a waste material. Our onions, lettuce and beetroot were fantastic (see Jenny's Green News) and the plastic beds seemed to provide a perfect growing environment (there is a double skin, so the soil is warmed). We will also use a mixture of our own compost and 'recycled' compost - obtained from the rotting down of household waste at Stanpit.
Green Cards Thanks to Mrs Lax's superb efforts with the carnival float (see Green News and main school news item), Ringwood Carnival Committee have made a generous donation of £500 to help us take the Green Card Scheme into the upper school. Plans are being made to introduce the scheme to Year 10 after Christmas.
Meet the Animals 2007 Thanks to Sarah and Joe, our Biology Principal Students, his year's Meet the Animals was an even bigger event than last year's, and students enjoyed a greater variety of animals than ever before: we had cats, dogs, gerbils, rabbits, mice, hamsters, snakes, stick insects, hermit crabs, snakes, chinchillas, fish, axolotls, giant African Land Snails.  Why do we hold 'Meet the Animals'? Firstly, because it's enjoyable, and secondly, to give those who never have chance to touch or to handle an animal to do so. Thank you to everyone who brought in an animal, whether large or small, and who contributed to this very happy event.  There are so many photos that only the first dozen or so have been made to fully enlarge when you click. (Photos are here).  However, if you would like to have a large (electronic) copy of a particular photo, just e-mail here.
Tools for Self Reliance Many of you currently in Years 10 to 12 will have worked with Tools for Self Reliance, helping to refurbish tools and packing a box for Africa. Likewise, many of you will remember working with Cliff Lewis on Eco Day. Now, this enterprising and inspiring group of people have now donated dozens of tools - spades, forks, trowels, rakes and hoes to support the new allotment behind Linwood. 'Dig for Victory' on Eco Day started the campaign! A visit to Netley Marsh, the national headquarters of Tools for Self Reliance, is planned.
We are what we do Last summer, the coordinator of two inspirational books, 'Change the World for a Fiver' and 'Change the World 9 to 5' came into school to work with Year 9 students. She has invited Ringwood to help launch the third book, and throughout the 8th to 12th September, students considered what small actions would really change the world. The central idea is that lots of people carrying out the same small action can have a big effect. Check some examples on the inspirational WAWWD website at http://www.wearewhatwedo.org/ . This link shows some of the early work done by students. It will be used at the book launch on October 15th in London. For Year 9 students, this work will continue a little longer as Mrs Weston would like a book made up entirely from ideas of Year 9 students.  How to load up your entry Go to www.smallactionsbigchange.org.uk Step 1 – Accessing resources Go to ‘About competition’ where you will find resources and materials for teachers and youth workers – click on the link and register your school/organisation.   You now have access to all resources and materials (Mrs Weston has done all this already so you start at Step 2)  Step 2 – Registering an action Go to ‘Add your action’.  This will ask you to register again (as this is to register an action as opposed to registering for resources and this is the same page that young people themselves use). Fill in all the details – ideally in the display name you would have a young person leading on this or have the school name/year group/name of organisation in there Press ‘Add’ at the bottom once you filled everything out  Step 3 – Uploading an action You will be taken straight through to the page where you can upload an action, description and image – fill in all the required fields Remember to upload the image as a jpeg and make sure that the file is not too big (ideally not bigger than 1 MB) Once done, you will get a confirmation email and the action will go live once it has been approved.  Above: the start of the launch party in London
Moths There was great excitement in the lab during the week before half term when one of Miss Easton's Chinese Oak Silk Moths hatched early.  The beautiful big green caterpillars spun their silky cocoons in early October and we expected metamorphosis to take until spring. We were wrong, but don't know yet whether the rest will likewise emerge as moths or whether this is a 'one off'  Chinese Oak Silk Moth
The Science Pond Last year, we obtained a grant to create a new science pond as the liner of the old one is badly damaged by the roots of rushes (Greater Reedmace). During the summer holidays, two large holes were dug in the area of ground where we keep our raised beds. Richard trim, a pond specialist, has worked very hard with several Year 8 and Year 10 students and we now have one pond with a liner. Some transfer of animals from the old pond has already taken place. More will be moved shortly. Meanwhile, we await the arrival of the second pond liner which will allow completion of the project. Below: the start of one of the ponds.
Ringwood Carnival The year began with Mrs Lax's fantastic entry for Ringwood Carnival. Global Warning gained third prize! A full account of this appears on the main school website. If that disappears, there is a more permanent article in Ringwood in The News .
Eco Council The Eco Group is growing enormously: there are now over 90 students involved in one way or another. We have decided that, this year, Eco reps will form an Eco Council. Eco reps do a great job in Tutor Groups but they need to be kept up to date. They also need to report back on what's happening in Tutor Groups. After Autumn half term, the Eco Council will meet separately. Meetings will be short and will be held in Tutor Group time. Of course, and rep who is interested, is more than welcome at the normal Eco meetings as well.