Pupils at our school took part in a ‘Leaf Pledge’ activity. A pledge stating specifically how one would help the environment was written on a paper leaf. The leaves were then used to make a ‘Pledge Tree’. Lessons on sustainability and climate change were also taught throughout the day.

A groups of dedicated members of staff have set up a Sustainability Working Party which meets regularly to discuss ideas for new initiatives around school.  The party believes that sustainability cannot be ‘top-down’ initiative. Rather it it must involve a joint effort from all stake-holders; pupils, parents, and teachers alike.

Swapping Books for Sustainability!

At Great Barr we encourage sustainability in all aspects . . . Being the largest school in the UK with over 300 staff, it became apparent that we can make much use of old items, particularly books and magazines! To maximise the sharing of these, we set up a ‘book-swap-meet’.

At the side of our main staff room, is a box to put old books/magazines in. Staff who desire old books or magazines simply help themselves to the books, and make a donation, or just place their own books in the box instead. This means that books are never thrown away, (thereby saving paper), and all donations go to charity!

Students from Great Barr School worked alongside students from North Birmingham Academy, selected as they had shown a great deal of community spirit and keen interest in the work of social media.  Students took part in the project in conjunction with Aston Villa FC and Connecting Communities Team, via the website ’socialbreakfast‘.  This governmental website was created to give young people ‘a voice’ on issues that concern them at a local level, which filters through to government at a national level. 

The students received excellent training and were given the tools to attack the areas of local concern, generated through discourse which they could then use to begin their own campaigns.   Students were supported by Ashram Housing Association, who linked pupils to their school’s own community cohesion strategies, with each pupil represented their local community through the Connecting Communities Team, of Ian, Emily, Victoria and Zoe.  Each of whom are nationally recognized for the work they do around the community cohesion objectives.

Students received in-depth training on the use of social media technologies to influence decision making and learnt skills in interview techniques, before finally having the opportunity to interview local decision makers in their area.  The students had by this stage become ‘expert’ at getting the best out of the interview and a great deal of confidence was built by such experiences.  The students – ALL thoroughly enjoyed taking part in this project and have established links to governmental bodies and highly influencial decision makers.

The success of the project, will be evaluted on the success of the campaign generating sufficient media attention as to make changes in the locality.  Students will remain in contact with the Connecting Communities Team and in the short term conduct local based studies, on what is necessary to improve the quality of services for local residents, particularly in the Erdington and Great Barr areas of the city.

One crucial aspect of sustainability is water conservation. Why?

Did you know:

• Water is not as abundant in England and Wales as you would think. We only have 1,334 cubic metres (m³) per person a year – much less than France (3,065 m³) or even the hotter Mediterranean countries of Italy (2,785 m³) and Spain (2,775 m³).
• Water shortages don’t just affect us: they can also seriously harm our environment. Our water comes from rivers and groundwater so every drop we use has a direct effect on the environment.
• Fish, wetland birds and other wildlife that rely on ponds, rivers and streams struggle to survive when these dry up or run low. Sources of food and breeding sites for wildlife can be lost and fish can die through lack of oxygen.
• The average person in England and Wales uses 150 litres of water every day. Most of it is used for washing and toilet flushing, but it also includes drinking, cooking, car washing and watering the garden. We use almost 50% more water than 25 years ago, partly because of the use of power showers and other water using household appliances.

Water must be conserved!

Our dedicated site staff have set up water drums which lead to the roof of the green house; rainwater falling from these will then fill up the drums! This water can then be used to water the plants in the greenhouse!

This is the icon on our badges.

We met with two cyber mentors trainers Matt and Joel they taught us all about mentoring and how to help someone being bullied. We did a 2 day course including role play, talking about child protection and discussed how to be safe online, in school and outside of school. We now know how to be a mentor correctly. We are all in KS3 and KS4 and as mentors we have special cards if we see someone bullied we will give one to that person so they can go on the mentoring site: cybermentors.org.uk

On Wednesday 3rd March, pupils went to meet Sir Alec Jeffreys, a British geneticist who developed techniques for DNA fingerprinting and profiling.   These techniques are now used worldwide in forensic science to assist police detective work and to resolve paternity and immigration disputes.  During the lecture Sir Alec explained when he had his ‘Eureka moment’ in the laboratory and how it took a while to appreciate the full extent of his DNA discovery.  Sir Alec told pupils to consider taking Biology or Chemistry at degree level as those who wanted to be future SOCOs stood a much better chance, than if they chose to study forensic science. 

Following extended time for questions and answers, Sir Alec was pushed to give even more of his time to debate with some very keen students who found the lecture and information fascinating!  It was apparent that meeting someone of Sir Alec Jeffrey’s expertise, truly made for one of the best opportunities for knowledge.  Mrs Davies told pupils that, ”it is very rare to meet someone with the same scientific stature as Sir Alec Jeffreys and yet who remains so humble in his knowledge, having created something that can be used for good across the world, now and for future generations to come.”

Great Barr Secondary and Priestley Smith Schools have been making the most of the wonderful opportunities for sharing knowledge and experiences.  Pupils from KS3 and KS4 have been to Great Barr Secondary School to experience, themed Science days and the most recent Community Science Day, whereby both GB and PS pupils as buddies, supported five local primary schools in the development and understanding in Science. 

For both schools involved in this partnership, the pupils have gained on many levels.  Including making many new friends and gaining an insight into different ways of learning.  GB School pupils have most recently been to carry out Visual Impairment Training at Priestley Smith School and were made very welcome again, by all the staff and pupils there.  GB pupils, were guided in how people with partial or no sight carry out their day-to-day tasks and were given expert support during the course.  A big thank you to Joe for all the Braille certificates, and to everyone who took part, as all the pupils had a fantastic time together sharing in the new found appreciation of each others skills. 

On Friday 12th March we went to ThinkTank, Millenium Point to the ‘How Science Works’ Event.  We heard from experts in Science who came to take part in the activities, to support National Science and Engineering Week.   The Y8 and Y9 students and teacher Mrs Davies, joined many other local secondary schools and the wider scientific community.  The pupils were provided with practical, relevant and engaging science workshops run by “real scientists” and shown the purpose of KS3 science and how it can open career pathways in science.    Students took part in 4 of the workshops during the day, with many hands-on experiments and discussion time as pupils became engaged in the topics being introduced.

Workshops for 2010 included the BBC, NHS diagnostics, wind turbine design, N-power, zoo captive breeding programmes, Severn-Trent water treatment, WM Police Forensics, Rollercoaster design, hydrogen fuel research, park rangers, sensors and data capture and many others.  Each workshop was designed to illustrate how the principles and concepts from Key Stage 3 Science relate to real life science.