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 success

Almost £1,400 was raised by pupils today!

Thank you to everybody for their support in making Go Green Day such a success. 

 

Year 11 pupils take part in community litter pick

Pupils from Year 11 took part in a community litter pick at lunch time today. They filled 7 bags with litter from the path between the school and the town hall car park in Cowbridge.

The time they spent litter picking will count towards their Welsh Baccalaureate Community Participation hours and also towards their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award volunteering hours.

Well done to everybody who took part. The next community litter pick will take place in November.

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.

Go Green Day plans - Friday 17 October / Diwrnod Gwyrdd - Dydd Gwener 17 Hydref

Pupils and staff at Cowbridge Comprehensive School will be celebrating Go Green Day – making it bigger and better than last year! Firstly, it will be a non-uniform day, but with a slight twist. If pupils wear an item of green clothing they will pay 50p - but if they fail to wear green, they’ll pay £1 instead. The greener the better! The money will go towards ‘The Size of Wales’ charity and Eco-initiatives in 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/five 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, during period 5, every pupil in KS3 - from Years 7 to 9 - will take part in a 3km Green Fun Run. Pupils need to wear appropriate green clothes to school and bring trainers with them. Sponsorship forms will be distributed next week for pupils to raise as much money as possible. Pupils can even challenge themselves to run the 3km in a personal best time. Prizes will be awarded for the fastest runners in each year group, including tickets to Taskforce. Let’s Go Green!

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!

Green fingers at the ready

The Eco-Action Club is back and KS3 pupils planted winter vegetable seeds into trays with the support of Year 11 pupils Callum Marlor and Lukas Wallis.

The trays have now been placed on the window sills in the Biology lab to germinate in the hope that they can be planted out in The Veg Plot in a fortnight.

Thank you to Miss Taylor for supporting the Eco-Action Club.

The Veg Plot

With thanks to Mr Jenkins the caretaker the Eco-Action Club has a new home, The Veg Plot!

With money the pupils raised through Go Green Day activities, the Eco-Committee bought the materials needed to build a fence and gateway into The Veg Plot.

This year, the Eco-Action Club will benefit from the support of members of the local community through the inter-generational project and hope to harvest a healthy crop soon!

Diolch yn fawr Mr Jenkins!

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.

Young Reporters for the Environment Winners!

Congratulations to the Year 7, 8 and 9 pupils who have won the international accolade of 'Young Reporters for the Environment'.

The pupils produced a video news report on the Eco-Committee's litter pick in the local river and the surrounding area.

The year 7, 8 and 9 pupils involved were:
Connor Stratton - Presenter
Daniel Dimblebee - Editor
Nia Evans - Research and interviewing
Robert Lewis - Research and contributor
Sophie Williams - Research and interviewing
William Davies - Presenter

Click here to see the story on the Keep Wales Tidy website.

And click here to see all the other international winners on the Young Reporters for the Environment website.

The pupils will be receiving an invite to the celebration event at the Royal Welsh Show in Builth Wells, which will be taking place on Tuesday 22nd July, where they will introduce the video news report and be presented with their prizes.

The judges were all very impressed with the video, the way it was presented, the messages, the enthusiasm of everyone involved and the quality of the video itself. They said it was an obvious winner right from the start! And way ahead of all the others!

Huw Edwards, the BBC News reader, said about the video: "Good production, well-written and delivered script, 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.

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

Special CCTV news bulletin on litter

Click on the image to watch the news bulletin.

50 bags of litter collected in Cowbridge

Pupils and staff from Cowbridge Comprehensive School joined members of the community to collect 50 bags full of litter along a section of the river Thaw on Saturday (8 March 2014).

The Eco-Committee at Cowbridge School worked with Keep Wales Tidy to organise the litter pick following letters of concern by members of the public about the state of the footpath between Cowbridge School and the Town Hall car park.

Michael Walsh, a sixth former at Cowbridge Comprehensive School and chair of the School's Eco-Committee, said: "All of us on the school's Eco-Committee have been worried about the litter in the area surrounding the school and felt it was important that we organised a litter pick. We were also concerned about the effect the litter was having on the river Thaw and the wildlife in the river."


Nia Evans, a Year 7 pupil and a member of the Eco-Committee, added: "We did some research and found that litter in waterways can damage and kill wildlife. For example it can choke birds and fish, it can restrict animals’ growth and can harm their digestive systems.



"Now that the area is cleaner we hope that people will think twice before dropping litter and help to preserve the beautiful habitat around the river for wildlife to enjoy."

Richard Weaver, from Keep Wales Tidy, said: "The pupils worked extremely hard and collected 50 bags of rubbish in two hours. They also found a lorry tyre, suitcase, pram, traffic cone, guttering, football and even an iPhone in and around the river."

The Vale of Glamorgan Council's waste team collected the bags of litter from the car park near the town hall and disposed of them.

The Eco-Committee is a part of the international Eco-Schools programme which encourages pupils to take key roles in decision making and participation in order to reduce the environmental impact of their school. In this way, Eco-Schools extends learning beyond the classroom and develops responsible citizenship attitudes both at home and in the wider community.

River Litter Pick - this 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.)

 

Pupils can collect a letter from Mrs Ellis in B1C or Miss White in E block or download the letter from the school website and return the slip to school by Thursday 6 March.

 

The Eco-Committee has researched a number of reasons why we should clean the river and the area.

• Litter in waterways can damage and kill wildlife. For example it can choke birds and fish, it can restrict animals’ growth and can harm their digestive systems.  
• The litter can’t get out of the river so it gets washed up onto the banks and beaches or taken with the tides into the sea. This, in turn, has a detrimental effect on sea life. You can see photographs on the internet of a whale which was cut open and 100 carrier bags were found inside its stomach and a turtle’s shell had grown in the shape of a figure of 8 because when it was smaller it had been caught in can packaging.

As a thank you for coming along and helping out, pupils will be given a pass to skip the lunch queue for a week! It's also an opportunity to volunteer and support the community which will be an excellent addition to pupils’ CVs.
 

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

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