Ecogroup minutes

Minutes of Ecogroup Feb 6:
We discussed how we could get the school to take some practical measures to make it more environmentally friendly.
One suggestion was that we should ask teachers, administration staff, students and parents to follow more environmentally friendly policies such as:

Teachers and admin staff should:
• Encourage students to use both sides of the paper when doing exams or tests.
• Encourage students not to start a new page for each piece of work, but to underline last piece of work and continue on the same page.
• Photocopy on both sides of the paper when doing worksheets that are more than a page long
• Encourage students to do work in their exercise books rather than on fill-in worksheets.
• Re-use photocopies that are not required revision purposes.
• Put waste paper in the recycle trays in each class.
• Log-off and put the computers on stand-by whenever they leave the class and to turn the screen on to hide rather than turn it off altogether if another teacher is going to use it.
• Ensure lights are turned off at break, lunch and after school in every classroom.

Senior management should:
• Avoid sending too many short letters home as it wastes paper, but instead combine communications on one page or better still send e mails home or post notices on the school webpage instead of sending letters home, especially bulky information like parents guides.
• Order shorter exercise books as the present ones are often not filled by the end of the year and a lot of paper goes to waste.
• Ensure the bins in the patio are labelled with the material that should be thrown into them eg plastic, paper, organic.
• Ensure the bathrooms by the auditorium have time-limiter taps installed as on the first floor.
• Install dual flushes and water regulators for the taps in the bathrooms to save water.

Students should:
• Take more care about where they throw their rubbish and take greater pride in the school environment.
• Ensure recycle trays are emptied into the special paper bins on the corridor and then empty them in the main paper bin by the entrance.
• Separate waste in the playground bins.
• Not waste paper in exercise books
• Encourage parents to follow more environmentally friendly policies at home.
• Turn off lights in class rooms.

Have you got any more ideas? Let us know if you have.

Ecogroup ID card and meeting minutes

Here are some of the entries for the Ecogroup ID card. Why not try your hand at designing a logo for the group. A prize will be given for the best entry.





Minutes from the last meeting:
1. SBA showed website recyclezone Delegates still need to look at this.

2. We need help for the display board. Computer designs. We will print out and you can have some times at break to put up the display. Some students began to design posters for this and the display board needs to be a priority for this week.

3. Badges. Students did designs for cards in class. TBE and SBA took designs to choose the best ones and scan them. They need to produce a design.

Key Stage 3 Family Day

As you know on Thursday we've got another Key Stage 3 Family Day, focusing on adolescence and peer pressure. We will also be following up on some of the issues we dealt with in the recent anti-bullying assemblies and looking at the problems associated with smoking and drinking.

In addition we will be raising money for aid projects in the Congo through our non-uniform payments. So enjoy the day, but also make sure you contribute positively to the activities and learn something from your experiences.

Study skills

If you want to brush up on your study skills try out the exercises on the following website run by Learning and teaching Scotland. There are some handy sections on exam preparation, learning from lessons, note taking, memory tips and understanding.