Mr Roderick has very kindly put together some advice for us all to follow to help combat climate change.  For further details of other national events for Climate Week click here.

Plans are in-hand for increased eco activity at NBHS so … watch this space

We were congratulated on the wide variety of activities and curricular links included under the eco-schools banner and the highlight for the inspector was “meeting with and talking to the enthusiastic pupils and being shown all the work happening within the school.  I was particularly pleased to see how many of the pupils and staff were involved with the Eco-Schools work and the curricular linking that was going on throughout the school.”

As well as having presentations from the Fairtrade and Citizenship groups, the inspectors were given a tour of the  school and the school grounds, a visit to the Tree o’Clock site at the Law, met with community representatives to discuss food markets and talked to our S6 sports coaches about health and wellbeing.

There were also particular highlights unique to NBHS.  The inspector said: “The Malawi group deserves a special mention with the success of their fundraising and subsequent trip.  In addition, I was impressed with the variety of curricular links happening in the school and felt this was a real strength.  It was obvious that all the pupils were enthusiastic about the work they were doing and I was interested to see everything from Bee Keeping to the Slow Food Movement within the school.”

We now have a lovely Green Flag that will take pride of place at the front of the school but we have to keep up the efforts and build on this success so the renewal visit in two years will be equally successful.

There are many students and staff involved in giving presentations to the inspectors and the whole school is involved in one way or another so, whether successful or not, it should be a fun event – complemented by our Dress Down Day with a green theme (we’re hoping for some inventiveness on the part of our students).

For your information, the timetable we have somewhat ambitiously outlined for the inspectors is shown below:

Green Flag inspection timetable – Friday, February 11^th

All presentations/discussions in Social Sciences 2 if not outside

10.00  Arrival and tour of school

Colin Sutherland, Claire Prete and John Rutter with members of the student eco-committees (Andrew, Beth, Jasmine, Dougie, all S6)

10.15  Malawi presentation

Gill Casson with students who visited our partner school in summer 2010

10.35  Schools grounds tour

Craig Stebbing with geocacheing pupils (Chris, Fergus, Osian (possibly to talk Forest Schools), Ruaridh)

10.45  Beekeeping

Nick Parker with Louise Melvin, Tom Lansdown, Cammy – possible trip to see the bees depending on weather

10.55  Tree o’Clock

Sandro McClintock and Jen Edwards (East Lothian Ranger) with Baxter, James, Gregor, Lewis and Dougie

11.10  School gardens and grounds

Trish Shepherd and Claire Prete with representatives from S1, S2 and S3, Chris and Gregor including a tour of the School gardens

11.20  Fairtrade (with coffee and biscuits)

Jane Lowe with members of the Fairtrade group – Kirsty and Katie, Beth, Nandini and Catherine

11.30  Citizenship

Members of the Citizenship group – Katie, Jamie and Kirsten

11.40  Food days, Fidra Fair and markets

Guidance staff and Jo Argyle Robinson

11.50  Health and Wellbeing

Helen Walker with S6 student coaches

12.00  Farewells

Now competent in the use of axes, knives, bow saws and fire steels they have been making their own mallets and turning their hands to constructing some really quite impressive forest shelters. 

Mr Rutter, meanwhile, is attempting (unsuccessfully) to make fire by rubbing two sticks together.

Check out the pictures below and watch out for more updates.

First off, they have updated the school eco code – the result (shown below) will now be displayed in all classrooms

And they have also decided on the main points of the action plan for rubbish 2010/2011 

Please keep coming back to these pages to see developments (and how you can help) over the coming weeks

Many activities within the school already contribute to the programme – Malawi, School Grounds plans, Beekeeping, Forest School and Health and Wellbeing to name a few – and we have a band of dedicated pupils looking to co-ordinate activity over the coming months.

If you have any ideas on how we can improve links with the community or move forward on any of our plans, please contact Mr Rutter at the school.

The series of practical sessions is all about encouraging self-reliance and leadership amongst the participants, experiencing and getting to know the forest environment and using tools such as axes, knives and saws in a controlled setting.

Check the pictures below to see some perfect (almost) bench making: neat axe work, lashes being frapped and weight-testing of the final product.

We’ve also been devising some forest games which we hope to share with our cluster primary partners later in the year.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be (re)discovering how to make fire, making some of our own tools and building shelters.  Watch this space…

Many of you may remember a cold, wet day last December when we attempted to help break the world tree planting record.  Unfortunately, on a nationwide scale, we failed but, locally, we do have a lovely plantation of 200 trees – most seemingly doing quite well – at the Law.

The BBC’s Breathing Places have sent us a plaque to commemorate our efforts and this is now planted alongside the trees.  Hopefully the site will flourish as a fitting reminder of our endeavours in the years to come.

In the meantime, here’s a few more previously unpublished pictures from the December 5th, 2009.