Congratulations to P4a, P6a and P7a, the joint class winners our ‘Switch Off Fortnight’ campaign. Remember to keep saving energy and switch things off when they are not being used!
Eco Schools
Switch Off Fortnight
It is time for our annual ‘Switch Off’ fortnight and the Green Rockers would like your help to save energy around the school! Saving energy is important as it helps protect our planet. There are simple ways you can save energy, like turning the lights off when it is bright outside.
Every lunch time for the next 2 weeks, a green rocker will be visiting your classroom to make sure you have switched off the lights and smart board. If you remember to do this, your class will be given a sticker. The class with the most stickers will be awarded a special Eco certificate and prize.
See if you can think of ways to save energy at home as well and switch on to switching off!
Green Rockers Eco Group Update
The Green Rockers are taking part in the ‘What’s Under Your Feet?’ campaign. We are exploring the impact climate change is having on wildlife. Across Britain the populations of many bird species are declining and scientists want to find out if this might be caused by food availability. Soil invertebrates are a very important part of birds’ diets. We will be carrying out soil sample surveys throughout the year and recording how many soil invertebrates we find in our school grounds. We will also be recording the birds we can see in our school grounds. Here are some pictures from our October Survey. A big thank you to the JRSOs who helped out!
Update from the Green Rockers Eco Group
Our Green Rockers have been working with Edinburgh Council’s ‘Living Landscape’ team to plan wild flower and long grass meadows in our school grounds. We hope to encourage more biodiversity and look forward to finding out what wildlife these new habitats will attract. Watch this space!
Update on our allotment from Mrs Smith
Two years ago we decided to revamp the school allotment area. Libby Leaders was also launched at the same time and the gardening club was formed with 33 children and Miss Calvert and I.
We were very fortunate to be approached by a generous benefactor who donated the 3 raised beds, compost to fill them, bark to create paths and crushed shells to mulch the fruit beds. The Liberton After school Club (LASC) have an area of the allotment in which they created their own beds and a bug hotel.
In our first year we did lots of weeding, clearing and cutting back. We then planted strawberry plants, potatoes and onions in the new raised beds. The allotment already had fruit trees, raspberry canes and rhubarb and we had a good harvest throughout Summer and Autumn.
This year the garden club disbanded and P4B took over the continued renovation of the allotment. LASC have also drafted in volunteers from Bridgend Allotments to cut down the willow to a more manageable size, fix the cold frame and improve their beds.
Mr Braban (a P4B parent) chopped up the willow, spread the bark to create paths and dug over the fruit beds to help with weeding. P4B have just planted potatoes and onions, with leeks to be added later. We have also had a donation of perennials from Pentland Plants garden centre which we will be planting soon.
Our recent plant sale raised money which will be used to buy bulbs and seeds for the coming year as well as equipment needed for the upkeep of the allotment.
Our plan is to have the allotment fully redeveloped by the end of June and we would welcome any volunteers who can spare any amount of time – even just an hour – to achieve that goal.
P4B have found working in the allotment great fun as well as being educational and we look forward to many more classes experiencing the joys of the allotment very soon.
Mrs Smith
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
Susan from Changeworks visited our school recently to present assemblies with Nursery-P3 and then P4-7 on the topic of ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’.
The children really enjoyed the assemblies and Susan was impressed with their knowledge and awareness of the topic. Susan encouraged all children to think about reducing waste as a first choice, reusing if possible after that and then recycling as the third option.
You can read more about how we do this at school, by visiting the Green Rockers page.
Eco Celebration Day
On Wednesday this week, we had our annual eco celebration. Many thanks to Mrs Buchan and our pupil group the Green Rockers, who organised a number of events including an art competition, an assembly and a tea party for our special guests for the afternoon before the whole school went outside to see the green flag raised!
Eco Event – Wednesday 11th February
We are having our annual Eco Event on Wednesday 11th February. We are asking the children to wear green to school that day to celebrate this (a small donation to the Eco Fund would be welcome).
On the day we will have a special assembly when each year group will share what they have been doing in relation to their Eco responsibilities. We have invited a few VIP guests to this assembly! The Green Rockers will host a tea party with these guests after the assembly. The Eco Event will include celebrating being awarded our Green Flag and, weather permitting, we hope to go outside and raise the flag for the first time!
Eco Art Competition
Our Green Rockers group are organising an Eco Art Competition. They would like you to think about the wildlife you see around our school. Make an A4 picture of whatever you choose. It could be a bird, squirrel or even an insect. You can draw, paint, use felt pens or black pens or a pencil. It is up to you!
Give your pictures to your teacher along with a donation to our eco fund – 10p will do!
Hand in your picture by Friday January 30th. Please write you name and class on the back of the picture.
The winners will be announced at our Eco Event on the 11th February.
Vehicle request!
We have a bit of an unusual request! As you may be aware, we recently achieved our Green Flag Award and were given a flag to display in the school grounds. We are delighted to have sourced a flagpole in order to do this, however, we now need to get it to the school and it is 9.2m long! If you have a vehicle that is big enough to transport this, we would really appreciate it if you could help. Please contact the school office using the details at the top of this page. Thank you!
Liberton Primary School 