Girls Go Green week

Beans! Norwich High School for Girls GDST

Last month saw many schools focussing even harder than usual on their green credentials during the GSA Girls Go Green week. Below is a round-up of how some of the young eco-warriors are getting on…

Growing and Bio-diversity

At Channing School, girls are not only growing and selling vegetables, but are also keeping chickens! Headmistress, Barbara Elliott, commented “We have had chickens for a year now and they have proved very popular with everyone. The girls are very committed to the welfare of the chickens, and have learned a great deal about what is required when looking after livestock. We sell the eggs and put the money back into the scheme. On Founders’ Day last July, the girls even made pancakes outdoors using the eggs, and we harvested all the remaining vegetables for the parents.”

In keeping with the Autumn season, pupils and their parents at Hethersett Old Hall School harvested apples from the school orchard, and tried their hand at making their own organic apple juice. The school hired an apple crushing machine and press, and the girls had the opportunity to come along during the day to see how it worked, collect and press apples and taste the fresh juice straight from the trees. Stephen Crump, Headmaster, said; “It was a fun hands-on learning experience for our girls (and parents!). We’re so fortunate to have the orchard on site, and we hope the day will serve as a reminder that apple juice doesn’t just come in a carton from the supermarket. It will provide our pupils with a practical lesson in sustainability and reducing food miles.”

An ‘Insect Hotel’ has been built by the girls at Edgbaston High School for Girls by planting bulbs – daffodils, crocuses, bluebells, snowdrops, anemone, tulips, iris, winter aconite and plants like helleborus, and violas. Homes for wildlife are being built from recycled materials and seeds sown for woodland plants which will be a source of food for wildlife.

Even the youngest eco-warriors are hard at work with girls from Nursery upwards at Norwich High School for Girls GDST growing an amazing array of vegetables and fruit this year. The school kitchen staff are also involved, sending egg shells over to the garden to ward off snails and slugs, and visiting the herb garden to demonstrate to the girls how to harvest the herbs. Similarly the allotment and the gardening ‘Welly club’ has been the favourite Green Project so far at St Catherine’s School Twickenham. It has been so successful they are doubling the size of their gardening area and also investigating the feasibility of a butterfly house!

The Environmental Team at Moreton Hall are planning a Carbon Footprint Wood, and celebrated Girls Go Green week with the first Moreton honey from their bee hive in the Wildlife Garden and the opening of a new Forest School area.

Recycling

An increasingly popular event in schools is the ‘swap shop’ where the emphasis is on reusing and recycling items and reducing waste. At Bruton School for Girls students were asked to bring in 5 good quality but unwanted items including books, CDs, DVDs and clothes. Each student then donated 50 pence to take up to three items of their choice, with the money raised contributing to further eco projects in school. Similarly girls at Merchant Taylors’ Girls’ School brought their unwanted clothes and accessories into school and then paid £1 to fill a (recycled!) carrier with any items they liked the look of, and students from Central Newcastle High School GDST brought in old novels, text books and revision guides which were sold on with the proceeds going to a green charity.

At Burgess Hill School for Girls, students were given 3 days to collect enough recyclable materials to make a ball gown and accessories. They then had 2 hours to create the gown before parading the final product to the whole school at the end of the day! Sir William Perkins’s School also held an evening ECO Fashion Show for charity shop outfits and ones made from recycled materials.

Energy saving

All schools are concerned with the amount of energy they consume and are doing their best to reduce wastage – at Withington Girls’ School a girl was elected in each form to be responsible for switching off the lights in the rooms when they are not in use during the week. The electricity used during this week was recorded and the money saved used to buy energy saving bulbs.

Wychwood School launched Girls Go Green week by signing up to the 10:10 campaign and asking girls to do the same starting with taking a piece of pink card (as in the 10:10 campaign) and writing on it what they personally (or their families) will try to do to achieve the 10% reduction in emissions by 2010. See www.1010uk.org for further information on the campaign.

Environmental Charities

The Abbey School has embarked on a project designed to transform old mobiles into seeds and tools for Africa in conjunction with a charity run by Canterbury University. Sixth form girls put together a short drama piece entitled ‘The Tale of the Mobile Phones’ to demonstrate how we, in the developed world, discard things without a second thought for a newer model. The girls were encouraged to bring in their old mobile phones and these will be sent to the charity and recycled to purchase seed, water butts and tools for primary children in many African countries. Similarly Thornton School are raising money which will be used to buy wind up radios, torches and recharging units for a primary school in Nigeria for use in their community, and St Catherine’s School Bramley have nominated Cool Earth as their eco-charity this year and as a school are buying some acres of the Peruvian rainforest in South America to help combat illegal deforestation and logging.

Stonar School continues to raise funds for the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, one of the UK’s most successful nature conservation charities. They promote the idea of ‘Rebuilding Biodiversity’ and remain committed to promoting community action, working with young people, promoting environmentally friendly actions and life-styles and inspiring people about nature and the environment. In keeping with these aims, Stonar School is already home to a wonderful array of wildlife including a protected species of newt, ducks, moorhens, pheasants, partridge, deer and horses!

As part of the Maynard School’s contribution to ‘Girls go Green Week’ students went to Parke in Bovey Tracey to help the National Trust in the Walled Garden and the orchard. The award winning Walled Garden was a ‘jungle’ 18 months ago and has been restored by the National Trust and Bovey Climate Action so that vegetables and fruit can once again be grown to feed local people. There is even a solar powered pump which raises water from the well to water the plants. Each girl worked on each of the four projects – picking 77 large bags of apples which have since been pressed and 250 litres of juice produced, making two large composting bins so that all the waste clippings can be turned into compost, helped to create a new path to allow visitors to get around the garden safely and made a pond and mini wetland to attract wildlife – frogs and toads will help eat any pesky slugs and snails! The day is featured on the National Trust blog .

Westfield School Junior House demonstrated their Green Flag Status by taking part in The Big Tidy, enlisting the help of Newcastle City Council. Children went to nearby parks, equipped with gloves, litter-pickers and black bags, to collect and dispose of the weekend accumulation of litter. The girls were amazed at how much rubbish could accumulate in a park in one weekend; it made them very appreciative of the job done by the park keepers.

Keep up the good work….