FairTrade Treasure Hunt Winners

From Izzy Lynn, Yr 7

Following a successful week of 'treasure hunting' for FairTrade goods around Cowbridge six lucky winners were chosen and attended a prize giving ceremony on Saturday 9th March. Prizes were handed out by the Mayor and Cowbridge Comprehensive's Headteacher Mrs Debra Thomas.

 

 

The lucky winners received an array of FairTrade food items and some discount vouchers, all of which were kindly donated by local businesses. A huge thanks you to everyone who took part and many thanks to the shops who kindly donated prizes. It was wonderful to see the school and local FairTrade groups coming together and working within the community to promote this worthwhile cause.

 

The businesses involved were:

Pebble

Arboreal

Cocca Eco

Bizzy Bee

Filco

Tesco

Elephant and Bun

Little Shop of Calm

Goose Island

Quarter Penny Cafe

Living Coffee Cafe

Waitrose

The six lucky winners are:

Cai Alin

Dylan Lloyd Doyle

Issy Lynn

Joel Hill

Eleanor Acey

Laura Annettes

Many thanks to all involved and to Mr Gareth Evans for Co-ordinating the event.

Year 11 Eco-Schools Assembly

Pupils from year 11 presented an assembly this morning to their year group updating them on what the Eco-Committee has been doing and letting them know what they can do to play their part.

Both Eco-Committee members and form Eco-Warriors explained that this year we are aiming for the platinum award, the highest accolade possible. But in order for the school to gain the platinum award everybody needs to follow the school's Eco-Code - 'Don't be a Waster, be a Saver!'. We need to conserve energy, not waste water and travel using less carbon-intensive methods.

To view the Prezi presentation used at the assembly click here.

Tree-mendous!

This evening, pupils and staff from the Eco-Action Club made a tree-mendous effort to plant 37 trees donated to the school by the Woodland Trust.



The Woodland Trust protects and promotes native British trees. All kinds of trees were planted including birch, dogwood, cherry, holly and oak.

Despite the rain, the pupils worked hard to dig T-shaped holes, plant the saplings, place the spirals over them and slide a cane down through the spirals to support the new trees as they grow.

Selina Radcliffe, from year 8, said "We went on through the rain. It took us less than an hour, to plant all 37. We all real enjoyed the experience. We all got stuck in and got really muddy. We planted a variety of trees from dogwood to hazel. We would like to have people from outside the committee help next time. We would like to thank everyone who put their time in to make this happen. We would also like to thank the teachers that took their time to plant some trees with us." 

Tree planting has a positive impact on the removal of carbon from the atmosphere - woodlands provide vital new places to help the UK deal with climate change.

 

 

There are more trees to be planted and plenty to do in the school grounds - from after Easter join the Eco-Action Club.

 

KS3 - Week 1 Tuesday lunchtime

KS4 - Week 2 Thursday lunchtime

 

Year 10 Eco-Schools Assembly

Pupils from year 10 presented an assembly this morning to their year group updating them on what the Eco-Committee has been doing and letting them know what they can do to play their part.

Both Eco-Committee members and form Eco-Warriors explained that this year we are aiming for the platinum award, the highest accolade possible. But in order for the school to gain the platinum award everybody needs to follow the school's Eco-Code - 'Don't be a Waster, be a Saver!'.

To view the Prezi presentation used at the assembly click here.

Minutes from March Meeting

Committee members gave positive feedback on the climate change talk as well as the ‘ChangeMakers’ conference, which were both held this month. For more detail on these events, see the ‘What can we do about climate change?’ and ‘Pupils become ChangeMakers’ stories on the Eco-Schools blog. The Cowbridge Comprehensive School Eco-Schools Blog was recently displayed on the Eco-Schools Wales website as ‘best practise’ - a great achievement for the committee.

The full minutes from the Eco Committee meeting, held on the 12th of March, are available in the ‘Eco-Committee Updates’ tab at the top of the page.

Eco-Action Club - Tree Planting

What can we do about climate change?

By Sophie Thomas 11.2, Eco-Committee Member

Recently Cardiff University's Earth and Ocean Science Team came in and talked about climate change and its effects. They showed us how our planet has got significantly warmer over the past 100 years and how this is having a negative impact on LEDC's such Bangladesh and Africa.

Also they gave us an insight into what our planet will be like in the next 20 years if we continue to burn fossil fuels and use up great deals of energy. To end the presentation they got everyone to vote on whether they would prefer to adapt to climate change (continue living with the effects) or try to do something about it by reducing our carbon emmissions: reduce the amount of electricity we use and coal we burn. Interestingly 'to adapt' was the most popular answer and people thought it was too late to prevent climate change now.

Try completing the Carbon Calculator with your family! For more advice on energy saving: www.energysavingtrust.org.uk

The '2020 Energy game' - help your cnaracter make sustainable choices at the individual, local and global scale (holidays, transport etc.). This hame has lots of short documentaries on successful sustainability case studies. For example, how garbage becomes energy in Italy, or enjoying Eco-karting in in Belgium. www.2020energy.eu/en

'My 2050' - explore different energy futures to reduce carbon emissions - how should we prodice and use energy in the UK in 2050? This online tool also has more information about different energy technologies and energy uses. www.my2050.decc.gov.uk

Pupils become ChangeMakers

How can we make a difference to a global issue such as food poverty?

This was one topic that was discussed at a special conference organised by the British Council Wales to encourage and empower year 12 pupils to become ChangeMakers within their schools. The pupils left the conference with plenty of ideas of how they could share the knowledge and experiences they gained at the conference with their friends, families and pupils at the school.



FairTrade banana farmer, Sandra Joseph, with the year 12 pupils

Six year 12 pupils represented the school at the conference and had the pleasure of meeting a FairTrade banana farmer from St Lucia called Sandra Joseph. She talked about the benefits of her FairTrade status and the financial support the FairTrade Association gives her, especially during times of crisis. An example of this was when a hurricane hit her farm and it took her and her colleagues six months to get it back up and running again. Without her FairTrade status this may not have been possible.

Pupils from across South Wales took part in the conference




















The pupils made personal pledges such as:
- to not waste food by only buying and cooking the food that they need;
- to purchase FairTrade food;
- to record how much food their family wastes and encourage them to waste less.



Pupils worked together to discuss ideas and to put a plan together for school-wide pledges