Penryn College

Over the year our environmental leaders have been working on a significant project around water with our partner schools; Backwell school in Bristol and Angoreb School in Ethiopia.  Over last year they looked at the water they used and shared their results with one another.  This included such things as how much water they used in bathing, showering, washing up and washing clothes.

The results were startling with a huge differences between the two schools in England and our Ethiopian partner which reflected the very different cultures and the precious nature of clean water in Africa.

This recently culminated in the first Green is Global International student and Head teachers conference …

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One of the many things at Penryn College that the environmental leaders find difficult is the number of plastic bottles and plastic things that get thrown away each day.  Even though a lot of this gets recycled the students thought they might do something a bit more interesting with the waste we produce so they decided to team up with the art department and create a piece of recyled art.

The first step was to ask the school to collect as much waste plastic as they could, from bottles to lids, bags to toys.  No-one expected the school to respond the way they did with over thirty bags of plastic waste collected in a single week.

With the art team the students …

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Something that our Green Team has been waiting for a long time for are our new editions to the school farm.  Three weeks ago two chickens, Victoria and Betty, and two rabbits, Rhubarb and Custard, came to stay.

The two light Sussex chickens have already started laying eggs, which are now being sold to the staff and the rabbits are creating a real buzz around the farm.  The idea of having the animals is to develop an empathy in students for all our living creatures and help students gain a sense of responsibility and commitment in their lives at school.

Each week two members of the Green team are chosen to look after the animals, visiting them everyday to feed and check on them during lunchtimes and the animals are more than …

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At the start of the summer our Green team took part in a nationwide project to grow wheat on our farm.  Called ‘Bake your Lawn’ it called for everyone to grow some wheat on their school plots and when the time was right turn it into flour.

In planting the wheat the green team tried three different methods, firstly scattering it randomly in the plot, or planting in rows and lastly putting it in clumps.  Over the summer the wheat grew, the planting in rows proving best, until in the autumn the wheat started to mature and turn brown.

One afternoon the team then cut down the wheat and tied it into bundles to go a golden brown before threshing and winnowing to gain the wheat …

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For all the excellent work the environmental leaders do over the year it is important that they gain recognition for the work inside school and as they move further in their lives.  That’s why Penryn College has decided to launch the new Sustainability BTEC for all our environmental leaders from this year.

However, as we only meet formally once a week its almost impossible to deliver which is why we have decided to make it an online,  independent learning course where students can access the information, upload all they are doing, keep notes of meetings and talk to each other through one website.

The environmental leaders have chosen to break themselves down into small groups, each looking at one of the eight …

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After a really successful summer of growing on the College Farm, our Green team took their produce to the Helston Farmers Market to join the other small holders and growers in the area. Our shop sold the best of our fruit and veg as well as our very own Penryn chilly pickle and Elderflower champagne.  Not only were people selling but the students got the opportunity to watch a range of cooking exhibitions, take part in a variety of growing activities and discuss all things sustainable with local community action groups.

We all had a great day and thanks to Helston School for holding a brilliant event.

A national campaign by NHS Forests encourages all parts of the community to go outside and enjoy their local environment as part of their healthy lifestyle.  The project pledges to plant a tree for every employee of the NHS, the largest employer in Europe.

As part of this campaign our Green Team has linked up with our local hospital in Falmouth and have helped them create a new garden area for the staff and patients of the hospital.  Over the last few weeks we have been back to see how the garden has progressed and helped the patients maintain its shape and keep the weeds down.

The best part of the whole experience has been watching our young students working alongside the …

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As part of a school wide project this term on water some of our students were invited to attend a whole day of workshops run by Surfers against Sewage at the National Maritime Museum.  There they looked at the damage being done to our ocean ecosystems by the waste and plastics that are dumped at Sea and how they could help in their everyday actions.

This inspired the students to arrange their own beach clean and to join the ‘Return to Offender’ campaign run by Surfers against Sewage.

At the weekend the students joined forces on a beach clean walking along three of our local beaches and collecting over three big binliners of plastic waste.  They then met up in the week at …

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The environmental leaders at Penryn College were recently lucky enough to be invited to take part in a South Cornwall project called ‘Everyday Futures’ run by graduates from the University College Falmouth and University of Exeter.  The project aims to raise the awareness of how we as individuals create a carbon footprint in the actions that we take and how we can all make a difference through the decisions that we make.

The leaders attended two workshops run by the Everyday Futures team looking at Food miles, transport to school, energy and waste.  Acitivities ranged from the use of possible renewable energy sources to the food miles involved in a basket full of shopping, from the carbon footprint of their journey …

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During the start of the term some of our students at Penryn College were lucky enough to work with a local writer Becky Tebbutt and a local illustrater to help here illustrate her new children’s book telling the story of the humble tomato, how to grow a tomato plant and  simple recipes for all those tomatoes you collect.

Students in our Green team helped with the instructions on the best way to grow a tomato plant, our Year 8 food technology classes trialled some of the possible recipes for the book and recommended which ones should be included and our very own student illustrators had two workshops with the local artist to develop the style, layout and characters for the book.

The …

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