Rag Bags

This terms Rag Bag collection raised us £52 so thank you to all those who donated. We have yet to decide what we will put this towards but we will keep you posted.

Trim Trail

The installation of the new trim trail is due to start on the 11th March so we are all very excited about that. The Green Team will be meeting with the playground squad shortly to organise a rota for pupil use as we expect it to be a popular place to play.

Litter – How can you help?

The Litter and Recycling Officers are currently drawing up a new litter pick rota so expect to see the team out and about soon. So how can you help? We want to be proud of our school and show it off to its best every day so please ensure that you put all your rubbish in a bin especially those milk carton straw wrappers,  they get everywhere! Watch out the classroom  spot checks will be starting up again shortly too. The Green Team are keen to name and shame both classes and staff who don’t look after their rubbish properly…. you have been warned!!!! Of course Wilt the Gnome will be making an appearance in the best classrooms, let’s hope he makes it out of Primary 1 this year they were super stars last year and no other class  got a look in.

Climate Week

It is National Climate Week this week and the Green Team will be taking part in the National Climate Week challenge. We can’t tell  you anything about it yet as it top secret but we will bring you a report on our challenge soon. Good luck Green Team!

Kitchen Vegetable Garden

The Green Team and kitchen staff have plenty of ideas about what they would like to see grown in the kitchen garden but if you have any requests or ideas now is the time to let us know. Leave a comment on this web page or put a note in the suggestion box on the Eco board table.

Disappointing News!

I was very sad to see that  someone does not appreciate all the hard work we have put into the school  grounds and has broken our Jubilee Plum Tree. Please look after all our living things especially our fruit trees as if we are kind to them they will reward us with fruit for the kitchen staff to create wonderful puddings to enjoy at lunch time. Lets hope we can look after our remaining trees and plants.

And Finally….

Eco-week will soon be upon us. We have lots of good ideas but if you have any suggestions for activities or themes you would like to see covered during our week leave a comment or pop a note in the suggestions box.

Mrs Thomas and the Green Team

Introducing the Team:

Chairman – Sam

Secretary – Ewan H

Publishers – Lucy and Beth

Communications Officer  - Ellen

Litter and Recycling Officers  – Ewan and Tilly

Energy Officer – Millie and Joesph

Water Officer  – Samantha

Grounds and Biodiversity Officers - Eve and Tom

Plants Galore!

A huge thank you to Caroline Samuel who has been helping us plant up bulbs and make beautiful Christmas table decorations which we sold at the Christmas fair and also at our Christmas assembly, making a healthy profit for the Green Team kitty.

Trim Trail

Exciting news we now have planning permission for our school trim trail. The work is scheduled for early March so hopefully  our new trim trail will be built in time for summer play times.

Harvest

We had a fantastic harvest from our first season using out new vegetable beds. Debbie used the produce to create some fantastic dishes for our tasting table and we hope to grow even more in 2013. Thanks to all who made this happen!

And Finally

Have a lovely Christmas and don’t forget to recycle those Christmas cards and  trees!

Best Wishes,

Mrs Thomas and the Green Team

Last year we entered and won a competition run by Dobbies  Garden Centre. We won gardening tools and a lunch for two pupils. I will shortly choose from last years Green Team who will attend but a big well done to all of you.

The new Green Team will be up and running again very soon and we are busy planning how to celebrate gaining our first green flag. Watch this space!

Mrs Thomas

Well done to everyone on the Green Team and Groundforce you have all worked so hard over the years to achieve this award. Well done to the rest of the school too as you have contributed to the award by thinking about litter, recycling and turning off the lights. A big thank you to our janitors Alan and James for all their help and to our willing and able band of parent helpers.

We have also had a very successful Open Gardens Day today with lots of visitors from the village and further a field in East Lothian coming to have a look at what we have achieved in the school grounds. I am pleased to say they were very impressed with what they saw. Thanks again to all our willing gardening angels (especially given the weather this week!) and to my Green Team and Groundforce helpers for their tour guide skills.

What a super week we have had. I am really very proud of you all, give yourselves a big tap on the back!

Mrs Thomas

School Grounds:

May saw the completion of our  raised vegetable beds and the installation of the fence and gate to complete our vegetable and fruit garden. We have already got cabbages, potatoes, beans and peas planted which will hopefully be ready to harvest when we return after the summer break. We have also put in some strawberry plants too. The fruit trees are flowering nicely and beginning to get established. Unfortunately we won’t get fruit from them this year, but it won’t be too long until we do. We have also taken delivery of two new rotating compost bins, one of which we have put into our fruit and vegetable garden. The other we have given to the nursery for their new garden which is really taking shape. James has been out planting up the memorial garden with the green team and it looks lovely now, they also planted some sunflowers along the wall by the ruby rose garden. Thanks as ever go to our hard working mums, James and Alan who are always helping us out – we couldn’t do it without you!

We are really looking forward to the 17th June when our school grounds will take part in the Scottish Open Gardens Scheme. The gates open at 1.30pm so please come along and see what we have been doing, you might just be rather impressed!

Eco – Summit

The Green team will be represented by Conal, Robin and Murron at an Eco-Summit taking place at Sandersons Wynd Primary School on Friday 8th June. They will get a chance to listen to some “green” speakers and share what we have been doing with other eco teams across East Lothian. They will also get the chance to chat with other groups to discuss ideas and share good practice.

Water:

We hope you enjoyed the water assembly – I bet you didn’t know you used so much water in a day! Remember the Green Team would really like you to save water by only taking what you need and turning off the taps where you can.

Litter:

Watch out all litter bugs! The inspection team will be doing spot checks again at any moment. Help us get our Green Flag by throwing rubbish in a bin and not dropping it on the ground. Remember the inside of the school is just as important. As ever our green team will be continuing to litter pick in the grounds but please ensure you save us a job by packing all your picnic and snack rubbish away or putting it into a bin.

A huge well done to P1/2 who are taking their eco duties very seriously. They now have a litter King and Queen who record the litter dropped on a chart with either a sad green face or a smiley pink face. What a super idea guys and I’m glad to see lots of pink faces on the chart, well done!

Green Flag Update:

The 13th  of June is D Day! The inspector from Eco-schools Scotland is coming to see us. She will be touring the school, looking at our paperwork, talking to pupils and to staff. If you see her ensure you have a welcoming smile upon your face

We are really hoping we will be able to report success in our mission to be granted our first green flag in our next newsletter, here’s hoping!

Mrs Thomas and the Green Team

Fruit and Vegetable Garden

You will have noticed that our to handy janitors, Alan and James, have been very busy constructing our raised beds for – A HUGE THANK YOU!!!!! We are now awaiting the arrival of our soil and compost so that we can start planting our vegetables. Thank you for all your ideas in the suggestions box we are in the process of sorting through them in order to organise the seeds we will need. The fruit trees are blosoming nicely and leaves beginning to come out, so please treat them with care. Shortly we hope to fence of the area that is our fruit and vegetable garden so that we can train raspberry and blackberry bushes on it. We can’t wait to try all this fruit and veg, yum!!

The Wildlife Garden

The wetland area has had a tidy and is looking much better! The reeds and other bog loving plants are beginning to come through again. The cowslips that we planted in the grassland area are all flowering well, so stick to the paths if you can so you don’t squash their growth. This term we also plan to add a little fairy magic to the wooded end of the wildlife garden so keep your eyes pealed! Only one negative to report with the wildlife garden – LITTER! When in the garden last week we found several snack wrappers, PLEASE, PLEASE take your litter to a bin. Remember the Eco code that Evie and Cara rapped about last year? Thank You!

Green Flag

Yes Mrs Thomas has finally got the paper work completed and sent off! We have our inspection on the 13th June 2012. The Green Team are really excited and are looking forward to showing off all their hard work. Please help us to get our green flag by thinking green and using the bins provided for your litter. They will fail us if there is litter on the ground or inside the buildings. The litter monitors will be on your case so lets make it an easy job for them by putting our snack wrappers, milk straw wrappers and milk cartons in the bin. I wonder who will win Wilt the Gnome this month? Although I have to say so far he’s looking very at home in P1/2, they’ve even made him a bed!

Groundforce

As usual the Groundforce team and it’s helpful parents have been hard at work tidying up the gardens and as you’ll see the grounds are looking much neater. Conal, Isaac and Conal’s mum have been busying weaving the willow structure back into shape – well done guys, it’s really taking shape! The team are also very excited about the imminent arrival of the soil for our raised beds…..Don’t forget you shovels and wellies on Thursday!

Assembly

We also updated the school at the end of April on all our work so far this year at our assembly. We made a great PowerPoint for you all which I will try and get onto this page for you. Guy’s you did a great job especially with all the technical hitches! Thank you to the parents that came to support too.

Mrs Thomas and The Green Team

Conal, Green Team P7

ECO-WEEK

Next week is Eco-Week and the Green Team have planned an exciting week of activities for you. As it is National Science and Engineering Week and National Climate Change Week too next week we have also included a science day and a climate change activity too. Have a look and see what you think:

Activities for Eco week 2012

Monday 12^th March 2012

Litter Spot checks – watch out for your Green Team member coming to check on your classroom,

Infant circle times – to get ideas about the vegetable plot and wildlife garden,

Weigh the amount of lunch waste we create

Tuesday 13^th March 2012

Planting – each class to plant a seed which will eventually be planted in the vegetable plot.

Climate Change Hour – an hour without power!

Wednesday 14^th March 2012

Science activity day – each class to do an activity from the Science and Engineering Week ideas packs: Move it! & Einstein’s Birthday Party Pack

How much waste? - Green Team to design a display to demonstrate how much waste we create at lunch

Thursday 15^th March 2012

Litter Action Day, talks and litter pick for each class

Friday 16^th March 2012

Dress Down day / Eco dress competition £1 (to raise funds for our vegetable plot)

We hope you enjoy the week and have fun dressing up (or down) with an Eco theme to raise money for our vegetable plot. Leave a comment and let us know what you enjoyed most during Eco-week and any ideas you have for our next Eco-week.

Mrs Thomas and the Green Team

Welcome to January’s Newsletter. Despite the cold and wind we have, as ever, been very busy.

December saw the restart of the Groundforce Team after school club and as you will see if you wander around the grounds they are already making an impression. They have been busy maintaining the memorial garden which now, despite the freezing cold and dark evenings of December, is looking vastly tidier and if you look carefully you will see the begins of Spring with the bulbs peeking through the soil. Please take care though we don’t want to squash Spring before it starts!

January saw the arrival of our first fruit trees for the garden and as the pictures show we had great fun preparing the ground (in the snow I might add- hardy souls my Groundforce Team!) and planting the trees. We have a mixture of varieties some we have heard of some we hadn’t, but we are now the proud owners of 2 plum trees, 2 pear trees and 4 apple trees. Unfortunately, we cannot let them fruit this year as they need to put their energies into growing and getting established, but next year there will, hopefully, be some home grown fruit on the lunch menu.

At this point I must say a huge thank you to James and Alan our fabulous janitors as with out their help to dig the holes we may have still been digging! I would also like to thank Mrs McGregor, Mrs Singh and Mrs Wrinn for their help and continued support, especially given the time of year. You are very much appreciated! I must also thank the children too, without them it would happen.

Next jobs are to find the wetland under the weeds and organise both the vegetable raised beds and the living fruit hedge for the garden.

This term the Green Team are targeting litter and water use. If we are to gain our Green Flag Award we must ensure our playground is litter free and that the inside of the school is litter free too. Not one straw wrapper must we drop! Watch out because the Green Team are on the case, a litter monitor will be visiting you shortly for a spot check.

With the lovely new toilets and the access to fresh water in classrooms we are also looking at our water use. One area that the team wants to target is the use of left over water in our classrooms. If you have a good idea about what we could do with it speak to one of the team or post a comment in our box.

Up and Coming Events to Look Forward To:

8th February 2012 – All Rag Bags must be in – please help us to raise much needed  funds by filling up a bag or two!

12th to 16th March 2012 – Eco week, science week and climate week. Lots’s will be happening this week to get everyone involved.

26th March 2012 - Green Team Assembly

16th June – The school will hopefully take part in the open gardens scheme.

A busy few months for us as you can see. Any help or support you can offer is always greatly appreciated.

Mrs Thomas and The Green Team

We are also excited about the imminent arrival of our fruit trees next week. If anyone is interested in lending a hand to get them planted please call the school office we would love to hear from you!

Mrs Thomas and the Green Team