News and views from the schools taking part in Roots & Shoots: Mission Possible

Forel School in Devin, Slovakia joined Roots & Shoots: Mission Possible today.

You can see where Forel School is on a map and read about their local environment here.

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 …

Read all of Green truly Is Global

Maltby Crags Infant School in Rotherham, South Yorkshire joined Roots & Shoots: Mission Possible today.

You can see where Maltby Crags Infant School is on a map and read about their local environment here.

King’s Road Primary School in Fife joined Roots & Shoots: Mission Possible today.

You can see where King’s Road Primary School is on a map and read about their local environment here.

Portway Junior School in Derby, Derbyshire joined Roots & Shoots: Mission Possible today.

You can see where Portway Junior School is on a map and read about their local environment here.

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 …

Read all of Our new farm editions!

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 …

Read all of Our own Penryn Cakes

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 …

Read all of Our new Sustainability BTEC

Orwell Park School in Ipswich, Suffolk joined Roots & Shoots: Mission Possible today.

You can see where Orwell Park School is on a map and read about their local environment here.