Nelson Mandela dies today

Latest Committee meeting minutes

At the last meeting, Richard Weaver from Keep Wales Tidy spoke to us about litter on the path to town between the school and the town hall. We plan to organise a litter pick soon. Also, dieticians came to speak to us about healthly eating and the food in the canteen. We decided that we wanted to establish a pupil SNAG (School Nutrition Action Group).

To view the minutes of the meeting, click here.

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!

Go Green Day success

Thank you to all staff and pupils for their enthusiasm for Go Green Day. The school raised £1,140 - congratulations! The money will be split between the Size of Wales charity (which aims to protect an area of rainforest the size of Wales, as part of a national response to climate change) and Eco-Schools projects in our school.

Hundreds of spring bulbs were planted, pupils cycled and helped to generate enough power to light the mini school, over a hundred pounds was raised in the FairTrade cake sale and the winner of the 'Guess the Number of Chocolate Sprouts in a jar' competition was Joshua Lloyd-Doyle who guessed 150 chocolate sprouts - the closest to the actual 167!

 

A special thank you to members of the school's Eco-Committee, the Eco-Warriors and the Eco/Community prefects who made Go Green Day happen.

 

 

 

 

 

Go Green Day assemblies



 

Assemblies are being held across the school in which Eco-Committee members and form Eco-Warriors are speaking to their year group about what has been achieved by the Eco-Committee and what the plans are for Go Green Day.

 

If you would like to talk to your form class about Go Green Day, click on the picture above which will take you to an online Prezi presentation.

 

Go Green on Thursday 17 October

- Wear green and bring in 50p for charity (£1 if you fail to wear green);

- Travel to school in the most Eco-friendly way possible;

- FairTrade cake sale during break;

- Help to plant spring bulbs during lunch;

- Cycle on a pedal-a-watt bike.

More information about Go Green Day can be found here: www.sizeofwales.org.uk/gogreen



 

 

Go Green Day

Join in our Go Green Day celebrations on Thursday 17 October!

Firstly, it will be a non-uniform day, but with a slight twist. If pupils and staff wear an item of green clothing they will pay 50p - but if they fail to wear green, they’ll have to pay £1 instead. The greener the better! The money will go towards ‘The Size of Wales’ charity and developing Eco-initiatives in the school.
 
Secondly, pupils and staff are being encouraged to leave their cars at home. It would be great if everybody could travel in the most eco-friendly way possible, by catching the bus, walking, cycling or car-sharing on Go Green Day. The Eco-Committee will be collecting information on how pupils and staff travelled to school during registration and we hope to improve on last year’s results.
 
Furthermore, a FairTrade cake sale will be held during key stage three and key stage four breaks. Also, the Eco-Action Club will be planting spring bulbs around the school grounds during lunch. Any support from parents, pupils and staff for Go Green Day by baking cakes or donating spring bulbs will be greatly appreciated.
 
Lastly, the science and technology departments are working hard to enable us to use pedal power to light up a miniature school. Sixth formers and teachers are encouraged to give up some of their time (during free periods) to help to keep the school alight all day.
 
And to reward pupils for their hard work, a new Eco-Reward card is being launched. Just like a coffee shop reward card, pupils can collect stickers for taking part in eco-activities around the school and win prizes. Collect an Eco-Reward card from Mrs Ellis in B1C or Dr Stacey in A2G.

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.

Eco-Schools Workshop Days

During the last week of the summer term, year 10 pupils took part in a series of workshops on an Eco-Schools theme.

Pupils make an impact in South Africa

Cowbridge pupils had the experience of a lifetime during the summer holiday when they travelled to South Africa to work with a charity called the Goedgedacht Trust.

They have brought home lasting impressions of how difficult life is for some children and young people there and with a greater realisation of lucky they are.


Asha

To see more pictures go to https://www.facebook.com/CCSGoedgedacht2013.

Cowbridge pupils' success highlighted at Eco-Schools conference

A Wales-wide conference for secondary schools was held today in Cardiff Bay to bring Eco-Committee members together to investigate ways of safeguarding our planet for the future.

Pupils from years 8, 9 and 11 took part in workshops to come up with ideas for 'actions' to suggest to their school's Eco-Committee in the areas of water, energy, transport, school grounds and global citizenship. They also had the opportunity to meet with pupils from schools across Wales and share ideas. Cowbridge Comprehensive School pupils were praised for achieving their third Green Flag and for producing the 'Don't be a Waster, be a Saver!' video which was shown during the conference as an example of a project that has brought the school together under one common goal in a fun way.

Many speakers and organisations took part in the conference including Peter Davies, the Commissioner for Sustainable Futures, who spoke about the importance of making sure young people's voices are heard and the important role Eco-Schools Wales plays in facilitating this.



Peter Davies, Commissioner for Sustainable Futures

Lukas Wallis and Cameron Marlor taking part in a Welsh Water workshop



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...

 

 

 

Switch Off Friday Success



Thank you to everybody who took part in Switch Off Friday.

Before half term 56% of classrooms had their lights on but on Switch Off Friday the percentage of classrooms with their lights on had decreased to 32% - a great result!

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.