Conservation Area - The Pond

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Fair Trade Fortnight 2011
Events Schedule
At final meeting on Friday 11th March Abigail Petit, a visiting speaker, will speak to the whole school on 'Fair Trade Cotton in the Fashion Industry'.

Eco Schools Documents:

Representatives - a list of the current Sibford school representatives.

Meeting Minutes:
26th March 2010
12th March 2010 (representatives)
5th February 2010 (representatives)5th February 2010
27th November 2009

Eco Schools Events - events log outlining 'Green' events which took place during the autumn term 2010.

Eco Schools Events - events log outlining 'Green' events which took place during the spring term 2010.

Action Plan - Eco Schools Action, Green Flag 2009 - 2010

Eco Schools Events - events log outlining all the 'Green' events which took place during the autumn term.

Going Green - Eco News :

Hedgeplanting with Year 7

In Countryside Management we have to do an investigative project and we thought that hedge planting would be an interesting project to carry out as it involves younger years and a lot of planning. We ordered the hedging plants from Nicholson’s Nursery and the maintenance team collected them.  The hedge planting which took place on Friday 28th January was a huge success and everyone enjoyed themselves even though it was a tad cold.  We planted the hedge to create a buffer zone for the pond and conservation area.   We hope as this grows it will reduce the amount of agricultural spray drifting on to this area.  Everyone really enjoyed themselves and we have learned a huge deal from carrying out this work.

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Eco Representatives 2010/2011:

Switch off Fortnight:

Students have been working towards reducing their carbon footprint by taking part in the Eco Schools Switching on to switching off and Say no to standby campaigns. The schools newly elected Environmental Representatives read the schools electricity meters and monitored the use of electricity over the first week of the fortnight, they acted as Eco Spies and carried out an audit of the electrical appliances in the classrooms which had been left on standby; and lights which had been left on around the school.

They then took a full school meeting to share this information with the students and teachers, showing them photographic evidence of where electricity is being wasted around the school. They students then gave tips on how to save energy.

This week the pupils are all making an effort to save electricity and it is hope that they will have made big savings when they read the meters on Friday which marks the end of Switch off Fortnight.

The Energy bus funded by Oxfordshire County Council and EDF visited the school; pupils participated in an energy quiz and an Energy debate and spent time on the bus learning about important issues such as alternative energy and climate change. Many of the pupils had the opportunity to try out the hands on equipment on the bus such as a bike powered stereo system and windmill power.

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Sibford waves the Green Flag:

After four years of working towards achieving sustainable schools status, we have been awarded the prestigious International Eco Schools Award and Green Flag in recognition of demonstrating excellence in the field of environmental activity. Our students have been working very hard to ensure that the school is committed to a greener way of living. This is a highly sought after award and we are delighted to become one of only 30 Oxfordshire schools entitled to fly the flag. Environmental representatives from all tutor groups celebrated the raising of the flag above the Hill building and tucked into Fair trade brownies as a treat for all their hard work.

Environmental Campaigns across the school have included the recycling of paper, ink jet cartridges and old computer equipment, swapping to low energy light bulbs, launching a switch off campaign for lights and electrical goods around the school to save energy and encouraging car sharing. The 6th form Fair Trade group ran a Fair Trade fortnight campaign in February to encourage staff and pupils to swap to Fair trade products.
The school also has a conservation area where biodiversity studies have been carried out on a pond and grassland environment and Year 7s all planted their own tree last autumn. We also grow our own organic vegetables and fruit in the schools gardens.

Next year we will continue with our environmental work, moving on to tackle water setting up conservation and harvesting around the school as well as continuing with the work which has been put in place over the past four years.

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Human Letter 'R'

Fair Trade Group and Friends form a Human 'R' in the photograph below and will be part of a Europe wide film made to celebrate World Fair Trade Day. This will be shown across Europe by student groups campaigning on Fair Trade issues to inspire more young people to get involved. It has been organised by representatives from Poland, Romania, Austria and People and Planet in the Uk.

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Wild Waste Show!

The Environmental Representatives and Fair Trade group spent an inspiring day joining in the Wild Waste workshop run by the North moor Trust. There were three workshops on offer where the students joined in fun activities to learn about recycling and sustainable living. They measured their environmental footprint and were shocked to find that their life style demanded the resources of four of our planet Earth to support their standard of living and demands on the Earth’s resources. Two teams of Sixth form students debated the pros and cons of Landfill versus Incinerators for disposing of our waste and argued their cases in an informed and confident manner. Pupils from Years 7-9 worked out the Food Miles involved in producing a simple meal of Lamb, potatoes and carrots and a banana for their evening meal, they now know the importance of buying locally produced food. It was a fun day and we all left feeling that we had learned a lot of important lessons in sustainable living.

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Fairtrade Fortnight - 22nd February to 5th March 2010

Sixth Form People and Planet Environmental Campaign group organised a full programme of events for the whole school to join in during Fair Trade fortnight. The theme this year was 'Swap your Cuppa'.
The fortnight started with the group presenting a Full school assembly to inform the pupils of the work of the Fair Trade Foundation and the range of events on offer to them over the fortnight.

The group held two big tea parties, preparing in advance by making cakes which contained at least one Fair trade ingredient and served these up to our eager pupils with a Fair Trade cuppa. The pupils on the receiving end thoroughly enjoyed their treats and spent time reading Fair Trade information from The Little book of Swap; hopefully they will now go home and encourage their parents to swap to Fair Trade products.
The Sixth form spent a PSHE session signing petitions provided by Traidcraft to challenge big tea brands like Typhoo and PG Tips to Make it Fair and support Fair Trade tea producers.
The school canteen joined in and provided delicious banoffee pie and banana cake as part of the lunch menu to help promote Fair Trade bananas. Fair Trade chocolate was on sale every day at break, sold by the People and Planet group.

Students had the opportunity to watch the Film My big Fair Trade Adventure which showed pupils at a school in Oxford sourcing Fair Trade cotton from India for their school uniform. We have plans to purchase Fair Trade cotton hoodies for the leavers this year and to provide Fair trade cotton House T Shirts for sports day.
People and Planets intern Fiona Ranford inspired our Sixth Form by presenting a lively Wear Fair workshop resulting in them producing posters to encourage Asda to provide Fair Trade cotton clothing. The fortnight was wrapped up with a casuals day where the pupils wore green and blue as in the Fair Trade symbol and raised money for People and Planet. The final assembly of Fair Trade Fortnight was taken by Mark Rekitt of Cadburys who gave a very interesting talk about their involvement in Ghana in supporting the cocoa farmers to ensure that they receive a fair deal.

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Eco Representatives:

Above are our 2009/2010 Eco Representatives - a very committed bunch of 'Green' thinking pupils.

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Switching on to Switching off

Sibford School pupils are currently working towards the coveted Eco Schools Green Flag Award. Pupils campaigned during Eco Schools 'Switch Off Fortnight', which ran from 2nd-16th November, to reduce the use of electricity in school; by taking part in the 'Switching on to Switching off' and the 'Say no to Standby' campaigns.

The school's newly elected Environmental Representatives read the schools electricity meters and monitored the use of electricity over the first week of the fortnight, they acted as Eco Spies and carried out an audit of the electrical appliances in the classrooms which had been left on standby and lights which had been left on around the school. They then took a full school assembly to share this information with the pupils and teachers, showing them photographic evidence of who had been wasteful of electricity sharing information and tips on how to save energy.

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The Energy Bus visits Sibford

The Energy bus funded by Oxfordshire County Council and npower visited the school and pupils attended workshops on sustainable housing and spent time on the bus learning about important issues such as alternative energy and climate change. Many of the pupils had the opportunity to try out the hands on equipment on the bus such as a bike powered stereo system and windmill power.

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Green Flag Status - aiming for April 2010

Angy Bovill, Eco Schools Coordinator, hopes that the school will achieve Green Flag Status in April 2010. 'We are currently running energy campaigns alongside other topics such as improving the biodiversity of the schools grounds and global perspectives work with our Ugandan partner school, we have been over to Uganda for the past two years to provide a weather station and water harvesting system for our partner school and next July a group of Sixth formers will be going over to work with children in the school.'

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The BIG tidy up

On 6th November Environmental Representatives carried out a 60 minute make over collecting litter from around the school grounds as part of the Eco Schools 'National Big Tidy Up Campaign'. They collected five sacks of litter and will be reporting results, along with other schools, to see how many bags of litter Eco Schools collected in total during the 60 minutes.

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Native Hedge Planting

On 2nd December all Year 7 planted a native hedge around the iron age roundhouse near the Junior School. It was a cold and wet day but excellent conditions for the young hedge plants.

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