New school year started.

Hi all,

we have been back now for the last 3 weeks  - sorry- I am only updating our blog now.  Well, as always after the summer break, the weeds had taken over the garden!  We have been very busy over the last 3 weeks clearing all the weeds and getting it ready for the winter.  We are onto the last raised bed and it is looking so much better now. 

We have a lovely group of 8 pupils who have faithfully came for the last 3 weeks and we hope to have even more next week. Here are some of the group hard at work! As you can see our scarecrow is looking a little sad.  The girls in the group, in particular, want our next task to be a makeover on the sad scarecrow! I think this can be arranged. 

We also found many caterpillars - here is one of our little friends.

That is all for now.  Will post a photo of our tidy garden in the next week or two when we get the last raised bed weeded and tidied.

FairTrade Event In NCIC

Hi all,

We were delighted and privileged to welcome a Fairtrade Rose flower producer from Kenya. This event was organised collectively with the Centre for Global Education, the Fairtrade Foundation and   three local schools and we were delighted that we were able to host this event in our school.

Everyone who attended were inspired and   enthused about Fairtrade after listening to Joseph Kibuta from Panda Flowers, Kenya and how Fairtrade is helping support and develop their communities in so many ways.  These included education, healthcare, transport and housing projects to name a few.  The schools who attended also shared the good practice that they are involved in within each of their schools and this was so inspirational and motivating for the pupils as they received other ideas of how they could develop and progress their aims to achieve the Fair Trade Schools award.

Kate from the Fairtrade Foundation also congratulated representatives from 9F who did so well in the Traidcraft competition on how well they had done in the Snack attack competition.

The pupils got involved with making the refreshments and they had made Fairtrade Banana and Chocolate Chip Muffins.  The recipe is below if you want to try it.  The muffins all went so I think that is a good enough endorsement of their taste and quality!

We also had Fairtrade bananas and Fairtrade chocolate fountain which also went down a treat!

Marks and Spencer donated some Fairtrade Chocolate Chip cookies which were yummy as well. Thank you for the donation – it was appreciated!

Fair Trade Banana and Chocolate Chip muffins

Ingredients

1 large egg

40 ml cooking oil

40 ml milk

3 mashed ripe bananas (fair Trade)

250 g flour

125 g granulated sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

100 g chocolate chips (fair trade)

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C (gas mk 6, 400°F).

Place the egg, oil, mashed bananas and milk in a large mixing bowl and beat together.

In another bowl place the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and chocolate chips and mix.  Pour in the liquid into the dry mix and stir until just blended.

Line a muffin tray with paper muffin cases, and then fill each case to just below the top with the muffin mixture.  Bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes. They are cooked when a skewer inserted into one and then removed comes out clean (apart from any chocolate!).

Well that is all for now - I hope you enjoy the muffins if you try them!

Will update soon.

Final Visit to the Brook Residential Home for the year.

Last Monday we had our final visit of the year to the Brook and we had a celebration event to celebrate the success of the garden with the residents.  The lettuces were ready to pull and the potatoes are growing well.  They should be ready in September so we will keep in touch with them and see how they tasted. 

Unfortunately, the greenhouse that had been donated to them got destroyed in the recent storm and they had to give the courgettes and tomato plants to family members of the residents who had greenhouses.  These things happen,  however they are still enjoying going out and watering the plants that are growing.

The home is now actively recycling their paper in the paper bin which was one of the presentations that the children had given to the residents earlier in the project so this has been another effect of the project.

All in all, the benefit to the children and elderly residents was most evident in the fact that they were all spending time together.  This experience has indeed had some long lasting effects on all involved and the pupils involved all felt that their self-confidence has increased since embarking on this project.

We hope that we will continue this in the Spring term of next year. 

Here is a photo below of the pupils and residents enjoying the sunshine in the garden.

Will update with more info soon!

Highly Commended in FAIRTRADE COMPETITION

Hi all,
 we are delighted to say that we received a highly commended award for our entry into the 'Snack Attack Challenge' competition which was a UK wide competition.

Our competition entry can be viewed on the Traidcraft website and the pupils are delighted with the recognition that they received for all their hard work in producing this entry.

Well done 9F!!!

http://www.traidcraftschools.co.uk/NR/exeres/6479DDBF-CE2A-423D-8F59-BE0F03EA46F6,frameless.htm?NRMODE=Published

We unfortunately had to cancell the Brook visit today due to the North West road closures but we hope to go next week instead.

We are also busy next week as we are attending the Awards cermony for the Eco-Unesco Environmental awards in the Mansion House in Dublin.  Good luck to the Eco-Club members who will be presenting to the judging panel at this event. 

That is all for now - will keep all informed as the weeks go on.

Brook monthly visit today.

Hi all,

We forgot to update the blog last week as we were so busy with attending the ECO-UNESCO Eco-Den  in Craigavon .  We had a great day and we hope we will be successful in getting through to the finals in Dublin.

The pupil presentation that was shown on the day is uploaded below and it explains a bit of what our project and club is all about.  This is photostory 3 movie.  We would recommend this Windows software as it is very easy to use and it is free the download.
We hope you enjoy it.

We also just wanted to update you on what we were up to today.  We were back at the Brook today and even though their was only 7 north coast representatives we got a lot done.  We actually felt that with the fewer numbers the elderly residents were more confortable and there was loads of interaction today. 

Ellen in front of the greenhouse.

These are the courgettes planted in their growbags in the greenhouse.

This is Margaret and Mrs Nutt who had a great day planting all the lettuces with Louise, Becky, and Sheena.

The onions are starting to come on - this photo is not very clear but the green bits are the onions.

The potatoes are not coming through yet but I am sure it will not be long.  The signs are in place now.  I think they look very well.

These are all the photos from today.  We also felt really good about our project today as Sandra was telling us that some of the residents that are sometimes reluctant to come outside their rooms are now easy to coax into going outside to see how the plants are growing.  This is really good and the pupils were very proud of the fact that their  input could be making a real difference on the lives of the elderly residents.

That is all for now.  Will update next week.

Well done Becky! And Our Fair Trade competition entry.

Hi all,

we are delighted that Becky from our eco-club has been selected to represent Coleraine Borough Council at the North West Heat of the Youth Speak 2011 Environmental Public Speaking competition.  Both Lucie and Becky had worked hard on their speeches and they were a real credit to themselves and the school. 
The final is 14th May in Craigavon Civic Centre so Becky will be putting lots of practice in between now and then.

At Eco-club this week we were preparing for the Eco-Den event next week and we hope we will be able to impress at this event as well.

In Year 9, 9F are entering the Fair Trade Snack Attack competition which involves designing packaging for a Fair Trade snack.  The pictures below show their entry.  We are making our fruit and nut clusters next Wednesday.  The pupils have put a lot of effort into their entry and even if they don't win- they all have enjoyed the process and learnt so much about Fair Trade and what it involves.

Planted hedging plants from the Woodland Trust Today in school!

Hi all,

we planted our hedgerow pack today in school.  We had received our hedgerow pack from the Woodland Trust last week. 

The hedgerow pack containing 30 plants of the following species:

•6 of each - Hawthorn, Hazel, Holly, Dog rose, Dogwood.

•The trees can be planted as a traditional hedgerow and provide an excellent habitat for wildlife.

•A mixture of species within a native hedgerow is an excellent habitat for small birds and mammals too.

Here is a weblink for the Woodland Trust  - it has a short video on it which explains the benefits of trees and hedges to us, wildlife and our environment.

http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/more-trees-more-good/Pages/campaign.aspx

Also this week  - Lucie and Becky took part in the Youth Speak 2011 Competition.  They presented their speech in front of their class and Mrs Waters from Coleraine Borough Council on the topic of Love food Hate Waste!  They were really excellent and both girls had devoted a lot of time into researching this topic as their speeches were full of interesting facts that made all of us think twice about portion sizes and reducing our waste of all descriptions.

Well done Lucie and Becky for participating!

Will update next week!

Potatoes planted today.

Hi all,

We had a great day today.  There were even more residents involved and the young and old had a productive day together.

As always, there were a few hiccups - the minibus was being used by another teacher and they were delayed elsewhere.  We all piled into the teachers cars and we arrived only 10 minutes late - better late than never!

We then got busy digging and raking.  The residents all got to plant a potato each and everyone seems genuinely excited about seeing the plants growing.



The group of workers who enjoyed the sunshine today in the Brook Garden.

  
The courgettes that we planted last week are huge compared to the ones that we planted in school.  We thought the warm constant heat of the nursing home and regular watering by the residents has made a very comfortable environment for the seeds to germinate.  Our's definitely would not even be half the size - but I am sure they will catch up.

We had taken loads of photos today  - I will upload some tomorrow - I do not have my camera at hand.

Other developments with eco-club are:

• we are delighted that we have been shortlisted to go to the ECO-UNESCO Eco Den on 5th April to showcase this project.  We will have to get our heads together to make our pitch to the judges a winning one.
• Lucie, Sheena and Becky have been selected from the eco-club members to represent the school in an environmental public speaking competition - YOUTH SPEAK 2011- on the topic of 'Love food, hate waste'.  If you want to find out more on this topic look at the following website for facts and figures: http://www.lovefoodhatewasteni.org  The girls are being judged on Monday 21st March- so we wish them luck.
• We have planted some flower seeds in seed trays  - pansy's, lobelia's, busy lizzy's  - to brighen up dull areas in the school.
• We have planted some lettuce seeds as well earlier this week. 
• The tomatoes and peppers are still thriving - getting bigger and bigger everyday.

That is all for now - will add photos tomorrow.

The planting gets started at the Brook!

Hi all,
we had another busy day today.   18 pupils from North Coast made our weekly visit to the Brook Nursing Home.  The pupils are really enjoying this project and the fact that so many want to be involved shows how successful this is. 

Here are some photos of what we all got up to today.

Onions sets planted and a fleece cover put over them to protect them from the elements and the birds!

Seed potatoes are set out to 'chit' -ready for planting next week.

The residents involved wanted their names on their pots so they could see whose was growing first.



Courgette seeds planted in our home made mini propagator's or as one of the residents called them "mini-greenhouse's" which I think is a better description of them.

Tomatoes and lettuce seeds were planted in seed trays today.

I think you will agree that we had a pretty busy but successful day.

Will keep everyone posted of all activities as we go along.  See you next week.

Home-made Eco-propagator

Hello,
we planted some courgettes in a simple home-made eco-propagator made out of the top of a 2 litre plastic drinks bottle.

Here is a photo of our efforts.

We will keep you posted with the progress of our courgettes.

This a photo of one of the sweet peas seeds that have germinated.

Our peppers are also getting bigger.

And our tomatoes too.

These do have propagator lids on them to keep the moisture in  - we just take the lids off for the photos.

Will keep you all posted of progress as we go along.

Many hands make light work!

Hi all,

Week 2 of our project and what a success it was!  We cleared the site of all the shrubs and bulbs and the pupils and residents replanted all of these so that nothing was wasted.  The plants were moved to a new home and they are shown in the photos below.

The bulbs got a new home as well!

The pupils and residents got stuck in to getting the vegetable bed ready by weeding and clearing the remaining site.  Here is some of those involved hard at work.  Personally, I think some are having too much fun!

More workers!

Some residents and pupils were hard at  work making signs that we are going to varnish and get put into the garden.  I think they did a fantastic job!

We had a great day today and we are looking forward to next week when we will get planting our vegetable garden.  We need to decide what is suitable to plant at this time of year - so some homework for us for this week.

Below is some photos of the seeds that have germinated in my room this week.







Red Pepper Seeds Germinated.




Cherry Tomato seeds germinated.

I also have a photo below of the sign we made recently out of some wood and recycled bottle tops.  I like it and we think it is a eco-friendly sign for our club.  We used a glue gun to stick the bottle tops to the wood.




We also decorated a large wooden plant holder with these - but a word of warning - the frost does something to the glue and all the tops fell off.  It did look nice before the frost - here it is below (it is the coloured box sitting on the table):

Any suggestions of how we could keep the bottle tops on would be appreciated!
 
Anyway that is all for now,  will update next week after our next visit to The Brook.





The Eco Intergenerational Project started on 22/02/11

Hi all,
just updating to let you all know that we have started an exciting project where 18 of the students from our school are working along with the elderly residents in a local nursing home.
We started last week and on the first session the students presented the residents with a paper bin for recycling their paper waste.  They also had made posters to put up on the notice boards to remind them to do this. 

The pupils educated the residents on the what was suitable to recycle in the bin:

• newspapers
• magazines
• empty loo roll holders
• phone books
• cards
• plain envelopes without windows

They also highlighted some that were not suitable:

• tissues
• envelopes with windows

The pupils and the elderly then toured the gardens and selected a suitable site for digging up and making into a vegetable garden.  They chose a section of the garden which is just in front of the residents cafe, where in the spring and summer months they can sit and enjoy watching the vegetables and fruit as it grows.
The day was finished off with a great cup of tea and coffee and the young and elderly mingled and enjoyed each others company.

One lady summed up the feeling by saying:

"this was just like a tonic for me today - thanks for coming!" 

Young and old had had a great day but the real work starts next week!

Will update soon!