Another sucess for D&G schools!

Eight more schools from across the region have joined the Schools Project this year (August 2009- June 2010) after being successfully awarded further funding from the Scottish Government's Climate Challenge Fund.

This school year Crichton Carbon (CCC) specialists, Alice Campbell and Laura Packham are working with teachers and pupils from Castle Douglas High, Dalbeattie High, Elmvale, Gatehouse, Georgetown, Mouswald, Sanquhar and St Peters RC High Schools to reduce each schools' carbon footprint. They are creating and implementing Action Plans with the aim of reducing carbon emissions by 15% over the school year.

Pupils play a key role in the Project. After learning about Climate Change and the impact of human activities, pupils collect the data required to calculate their schools' carbon footprints. They have to investigate energy and water bills as well as waste, food and travel data. Laura Packham, CCC Project Officer says "The hands-on approach opens the pupils' eyes to the energy and resource consumption of their school and their homes, and they learn about the greenhouse gas emissions associated with our everyday activities. Pupils learn about the major role they can play in reducing the stresses we are putting on our planet."

An important element involves crossing the school- home boundary by encouraging pupils to use their 'Home Activity Pack' to make carbon reductions at home.

Simon Mein from Dalbeattie High says "The Carbon Busters Project is exactly what the school is looking for to take our energy awareness and environmental involvement to a new level."

Aileen Walker at Georgetown Primary says "We are keen to reduce our carbon footprint and, by doing this, hopefully feel we are doing our bit to contribute to tackling climate change." 

School Project Year 2 Launched by Terramundi Play

The second year of the Schools Project was launched by a specially commissioned play called Conquerors of the Flood, performed by local theatre group, Terramundi.   The Play taught children that all our actions have an impact on the Planet and these actions can cause damage to our environment, but if we all work together our individual actions add up and we can minimise our impacts on the Earth, in this case, preventing the floods, and on the larger scale the impacts of Climate Change.  The play was a mixture of storytelling, colourful shadow puppets and an atmospheric sound track.  The children were actively involved throughout, for example in creating sound effects.  Recycled or natural materials were used as far a possible in the making of the set.   Ms White at Sanquhar Primary School said “The puppets were very colourful and used to great effect.  The children were amazed when they were allowed to see what materials had been used to construct them.”

Future Schools Work

CCC is thrilled to be able to build on the learning and enthusiasm of the first year of the Schools Project and it is hoped that this can be rolled out to more schools, across the region, in future years.  The Resource Pack, developed by CCC enables the schools involved to continue the Project into the future. 

If your school is interested in participating in this project, or learning more about it, please contact Laura, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it