Science into Schools

Thank you to pupils and staff who supported the Science into Schools initiative this year. 45 bags of clothes were collected - not as many as last year but still a significant contribution to our Science into Schools fund.

 

Science into Schools is a combined recycling, education and fundraising programme. It provides the highest net worth to schools looking to raise funds through textile recycling and 75% of the clothes that can be reused will go to Africa.

 

 

Go Green Day Assemblies underway

Since Monday, assemblies have been held to inform pupils about Go Green Day.

Monday started with the Year 7 assembly, Year 8 on Tuesday and below is a photograph of Year 9 presenting their assembly this morning. The Year 10 Go Green Day assembly will be held tomorrow (Thursday) and the Year 11 assembly will be held on Friday.

A Prezi presentation was shown to pupils in the assemblies. Click here to view the Prezi.

Thank you to all pupils who took part in the assemblies and to the Year 12 and 13 pupils who helped to prepare the pupils for the assemblies.

Street Food Club - Friday 10 October

On Friday 10th October it is the very first “Tasty Business” street food extravaganza! Tickets are selling fast! The Bar 44 street kitchen van will be arriving in school between 9.15-9.45. You are not allowed to visit the van until lunch time as it will be too busy preparing delicious food for you all to eat! The menu was devised by pupils with the aim of providing a healthy nutritious meal.

Tickets from the canteen are available for £2 for the meal deal. Also Barr 44 have agreed to do a small taster dessert for customers of the meal! For example Churros!

For this day only the diners will be allowed to eat outside, but only in allocated area shown in the picture above. There will be signs showing where to eat and extra bins will be provided. Please make sure you leave the area clean and tidy so that this fun event will be allowed to return and from another country! The paper that the taco wrap is served in, is biodegradable!

The Vale has also provided the 2 small gazebos for piñatas and drinks to be served and as a backup in case it rains!

Remember to buy your meal deal from Tuesday- Thursday! Tickets are selling fast and furious, don't miss out on a taste of Mexico!

Budding journalists showcase work at Royal Welsh Show

Talented youngsters from Welsh schools were rewarded for their work at the Royal Welsh Show in Builth Wells during the summer holiday. Congratulations to the Year 7, 8 and 9 pupils from Cowbridge Comprehensive School who won the national and international accolade of 'Young Reporters for the Environment' and received a new video camera for the school as a prize.

In a special ceremony hosted by Wales’ leading environmental charity, Keep Wales Tidy (KWT) and Natural Resources Wales on Tuesday 22 July 2014, pupils from Cowbridge School showcased their work at the world famous agricultural show.

Huw Edwards, BAFTA award winning journalist and member of YRE judging panel for 2014 said: “Young Reporters for the Environment is a great opportunity for young people in Wales to sample the world of journalism while exploring the issues that impact on Wales’ environment.”

"The winning entry from Cowbridge pupils was a good production, a well-written and delivered script, with good sound and vision, smooth editing, pertinent interviews, and a good strong environmental purpose to the video. Really excellent!"

To view the video, click here.

Young Reporters for the Environment is an international programme and competition, promoted by the Foundation of Environmental Education (FEE) and operating in 27 countries throughout the world. In Wales, the programme is managed by Keep Wales Tidy and funded by Natural Resources Wales.

YRE provides young people from the age of 11 years old, secondary school pupils, college students, youth organisations and individuals up to the age of 21 years-old with a vision of the professional world.

100 bags of textiles collected for reusing and recycling

 

Thank you to pupils, parents and staff at Cowbridge Comprehensive School for bringing in bags of textiles to be swapped for science equipment for the school today. A total of 100 bags were brought in - which filled the collection van. A great success!

The school has joined the Science into Schools initiative which will enable the school to collect and swap unwanted textiles for fantastic new science equipment. By joining the scheme the school not only has the opportunity to teach its students about the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling but also to inspire them to get interested in science and engineering with some fascinating new science equipment and resources.

The programme is delivered by EDF Energy’s education programme the Pod, Wastebuster and the British Science Association. The clothes, shoes and materials collected are either reused, with 75% of the reused clothes going to Africa, or they are recycled.

The Eco-Committee were delighted with the response and would like to run the scheme again in future. They will be looking at ways to make it easier for bags to be dropped off by parents because of the difficulty of bringing bags on the school buses. Any ideas are very welcome - please speak to members of the Eco-Committee or your form's Eco-Warrior.
You can find out more about the Science into Schools project at www.scienceintoschools.org

Christmas card recycling scheme

Staff and pupils brought in thousands of Christmas cards during January to contribute towards the Vale of Glamorgan's Christmas card collection.

Pupils from years 7 and 8 worked hard to count the cards - and the total number of Christmas cards collected by the school reached 3,600. This is excellent and exceeds the 2,000 cards collected last year.

The cards are being recycled by the Vale of Glamorgan council.

Thank you to all pupils and staff who supported the venture and a special thank you to the following pupils who counted the cards.
Lachlan Puresevic, 8.7, Ieuan Hawkes, 8.5, Jessica Lake, 8.8, Katie Mason, 8.8, Owen Edwards 7.7. and John Forster 7.7.

River Litter Pick

Saturday 8 March 9.30am-12.30pm

 

The Eco-committee is working in conjunction with Keep Wales Tidy to spring clean the river Thaw in Cowbridge and the surrounding area.

 

We are looking for pupils, staff and members of the community to join us for the river litter pick on Saturday 8th March 2014. We will meet in the school car park at 9.30am and return to school at about 12noon for hot drinks and finish at 12.30pm. (The Vale of Glamorgan Council's waste team has agreed to collect the litter we have collected from the car park near the town hall.)

 

Letters are available on the school website or can be collected from Mrs Ellis (B1C) or Miss White - please return the slip at the bottom of the letter to let us know if you'll be taking part.

 

Many hands make light work so we are looking forward to a great response from the pupils and the wider community.

 

Diolch,

 

The Eco-Committee

Video of Media4Schools Awards

Unfortunately, we were pipped at the post by Lewis School Pengam, but the pupils who created 'Don't be a Waster, be a Saver' beat off stiff competition to become finalists in the Media4Schools awards and enjoyed a ceremony to celebrate young media talent in the Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay.

The awards were presented by Cowbridge Comprehensive year 13 pupil Sophie Gallagher - she did an incredible job.

Click on the picture below to view a short video of the day.

http://youtu.be/rea0PIzPqUI

Media4Schools Awards

Pupils are eagerly awaiting the results of the Media4Schools awards. The awards ceremony is being held at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay.

The video 'Don't be a Waster, be a Saver', has been shortlisted for the best edited film. 

Also, Sophie Gallagher has been given the privilege of presenting the awards - pop lwc Sophie!

September Eco-Committee meeting minutes

In our first Eco-Committee meeting of the year, new committee members from year 7 were welcomed - Nia Evans and Luke Hinkin-Evans. The main topic for discussion was Go Green Day - the school will be marking Go Green Day on Thursday 17 October and a number of activities have been planned.

To read the minutes go to Eco-Committee Updates.

More than 3,500 views for Eco-Video

Unbelievably, the video for 'Don't be a Waster, be a Saver!' has attracted more than 3,500 views on YouTube in a little more than a week.

It has also attracted a lot of attention on Twitter with re-tweets from important environmental organisations such as Eco-Schools Wales, Cynnal Cymru, Climate Change Commission for Wales and Size of Wales. Also pupils and Cowbridge-based organisations such as the HubCowbridge and The Gem have been tweeting as well as Eco-Schools Netherlands which tweeted in Dutch about the video!

The aim is to reach 10,000 views - please support us by encouraging as many people as possible to watch the video on YouTube and give us the thumbs up! Just go to Don't be a Waster, be a Saver! And, you never know, if we all ask Al Gore to re-tweet about the video, he may just do it!

World-wide success for Eco-Video!

Cowbridge Comprehensive School's new Eco-Video is being watched across the world, and there are even comments on Twitter in Dutch about it!

 

The song, entitled 'Don't be a Waster, be a Saver!' was written by the school's Eco-Committee and the ideas for the video came from them too.

Everybody has played their part, from year 7 pupils to the senior leadership team, and from the canteen staff to the caretakers.

The video was released on Friday (14th of June) on YouTube and already more than 2,500 have viewed the video. Take a look by clicking on the image below...

 

 

 

Going for Green

Pupils at Cowbridge Comprehensive School are going for their third green flag today.

The Eco-Committee will be presenting information about their work over the past two years to Julie Giles from Eco-Schools Cymru. To view the Prezi presentation they will be giving just click on the image below.

They will also be showing the new Eco-Song, previewed yesterday on the blog! To view the Eco-Song 'Don't be a Waster, be a Saver!' click here.

Click on this image to view the Prezi presentation they will be giving

Pob lwc!

Preview our new Eco-Schools video

Be one of the first to see the new Eco-Schools video by clicking on the image!

Eco-Song Release

There's a frenzy of anticipation for the release of the new Eco-song and Video. The song, entitled 'Don't be a Waster, be a Saver!' was written by the school's Eco-Committee and the ideas for the video came from them too.

Everybody has played their part, from year 7 pupils to the senior leadership team, and from the canteen staff to the caretakers.

The video will be released on Friday, to be shown as part of our Eco-Schools inspection visit, in the hope that it will help us win our third green flag. It will also be available to see on YouTube.

 

World Environment Day

Cllr Rob Curtis with Michael Walsh and Kate Gwynn

To celebrate World Environment Day, two Eco-Committee representatives from year 12 took part in a Vale of Glamorgan Council event, hosted by Cllr Rob Curtis, Cabinet Member for The Environment.

The event's focus was food - one in seven people in the world don't have enough to eat yet 400 tonnes of food is wasted in Wales by households each year. If this waste food was recycled it could produce enough energy to power 19,000 homes a year.

Michael Walsh, year 12 pupil at Cowbridge Comprehensive School, said:

"The conference was very productive in my opinion as it brought together people from many different backgrounds, organisations and companies to discuss environmental issues, especially food issues, in the Vale of Glamorgan. There was a clear message - there has been good progress, but there is far more needed to be done to meet our targets, and it needs to be driven by young people, as it's our future.

"The panel of speakers each individually gave their own message to the four young people in the room. It was a very interesting day and I would recommend participation in environmental action to anyone, as it's so important. From this event, we can bring back new ideas to the school's Eco-Committee!"

A large number of organisations were represented at the event and speakers included Jasper Roberts from the Welsh Government, John Honfray from Cowbridge Compost and Elen Jones from FairTrade Wales.

 

Each of the speakers gave words of wisdom to the younger generation.

1. Use your influence to change your parents' behaviour, for example encourage them to recycle and to place wasted food in the food collection bin.

 

2. Don't follow the heard if you want to make a difference. 

3. Grow your own food and don't buy food that you won't need - plan your weekly food shop based on what you need.

4. Understand the difference between sell by, best before and use by dates on food.

5. Harness your enthusiasm. Don't be afraid to speak up and get involved.

6. Buy FairTrade cotton shirts and blouses for school.

7. Use your consumer power - if it's not FairTrade, don't buy it. Or if there's too much packaging, opt for a product with less packaging or recyclable packaging.

8. Go to the Energy Saving Trust's website and do the Water Energy Calculator. See how your house compares to your neighbours' houses and your family's homes.

9. Support the local economy, shop locally and buy local produce.
 

10. Join a campaign, any campaign, for example the Save the Bluefin Tuna campaign.

Cllr Curtis was delighted to host the Vale Council's inaugural World Environment Day Event. He was very impressed by the students' enthusiasm and encouraged by their eco-work at the school. Cllr Curtis' message to students is to find an environmental cause that they feel passionate about and join in - however small their contribution is, they can still make a difference.

Cross-curricular Eco-Schools project gets underway

Almost one hundred pupils stepped into the school's state of the art recording studio on Friday to take part in a cross-curricular project.

 

They put their vocal and instrumental talents to good use to record an original version of the current number one single, Daft Punk's 'Get Lucky'. Even the teachers got involved to produce a track which will be released to the school in June.

 

The words were re-written by the school's Eco-Committee and aim to highlight the need to recycle, to travel in a sustainable manner and to conserve energy and water.

 

 

Our impressions of the our Eco-Trip

From Pippa Jolles and Emily Matson-Thomas, year 8

On our Eco-Committee trip, we went to Aberthaw Power Station and Cog Moors Wastewater Treatment Centre.


Aberthaw Power Station and the view across the Bristol Channel

Our first visit was to Aberthaw, where on arrival we were shocked at the scale of it, and we saw how massive these power stations need to be to even supply a part of a small country like Wales! It was so big that before the station was built, the site was actually an entire golf course.



Firstly we were taken to their education building for a presentation on what goes on inside the station, and from what we could understand there was an immense amount of precision, technology and science that goes into supplying us with electricity in the most efficient way possible. Our tour guides explained that Aberthaw is in many ways more eco-friendly than other power stations because they have now scaled down to three turbines that produce more power, making it more efficient. Also, as of 2008, they have installed flue gas desulphurization equipment, which decreases the amount of sulphur dioxide emissions by 90%, so it won’t contribute as much to climate change. Also two thirds of their coal is from Wales, they use biomass supplied locally, and they are currently trialling a new Carbon Capture system, the first in Europe, which has only ever been tested in lab conditions.

We then went on a tour around the station seeing the control room, that looked like the inside of a spaceship, where all the energy is produced (we didn’t hear much about that because we had to wear ear plugs for safety!) and outside where they use seawater as cooling water. They asked us to spot the spelling mistake in the “Danger risk of drowning” sign, and it turns out there was a danger of “drowing”, whatever that is! Despite the windy weather and “attractive” safety gear, we found it really interesting and our tour guides were amazing.

Afterwards we drove to Cog Moors. First our guide showed us what was in wastewater, with a very hands-on approach! Two of our Year 7s volunteered to demonstrate, and before realising what they had gotten themselves into, ended up pouring shampoo, shower gel, nappies, tissues, conditioner and even actual pee and poo into the water to make a lovely waste water sludge!

Then we were shown around the centre, seeing the solid waste being pushed out of machines in long lines, the brown sludge being removed from the top of the water and the water being filtered out. It made us realise how disgusting our water would be without places like Cog Moors, how quickly disease could spread, and also how bad it would smell! Again, our guide was great and it was a very interesting visit.





 


A big thank you to the people at Aberthaw and Cog Moors, and Mrs Ellis and Miss White for giving us the opportunity to go on this trip. We definitely learnt a lot!

Pippa and Emily

Committee Meeting Minutes - May

In this meeting, the committee took part in a workshop to write lyrics for an eco-song. The committee also reported on their recent visit to Aberthaw Power Station and Cog Moors Wastewater Treatment Plant. See the 'From the Bathroom to the Bay' article to read more about the visit.

The full minutes from the Eco Committee meeting, held on the 9th of May, are available in the 'Eco-Committee Updates' tab at the top of the page.

From the bathroom to the bay

Eco-Committee members from years 7-10 went on a visit to Aberthaw Power Station and Cog Moors Wastewater Treatment Plant. The visit was to develop the pupils' understanding of energy, waste and water issues to inform the Eco-Committee's Action Plan.

The day started with an explanation of the mechanics of the power station which incidentally is the same size as 20 Millennium Stadiums.

Pupils then went on a tour around the plant and learnt of recent changes to the power station to ensure it meets stringent environmental regulations. Even though Aberthaw Power Station will always predominantly be a coal fired station, it uses a growing amount of biofuels such as sawdust. It is also developing innovative ways to clean the power station's emissions, such as the world's first sea-water basin used to take the sulphur dioxide out of the flue gas before it is released into the atmosphere.

 



The visit to Cog Moors Wastewater Treatment Plant was a lot of fun. Pupils followed the journey water takes from the bathroom into the bay - from the second it is clean water used in the bathroom in the morning. Year 7 volunteers were given a big tank of clean water and into it they tipped products that people put down the toilets and sinks - products such as nappies, cotton buds, detergents and fat. Afterwards, the pupils went on a walking tour around the site and saw how those products are filtered out of the water in different stages so that it is clean enough to be pumped into the channel. It is hard to believe that only 15 years ago the plant didn't exist and waste water was being pumped directly into the sea without any filtering at all.