ECO
FOREST SCHOOLS
This has been an exciting addition to our outdoor learning.
Year 6 have been learning all about the Vikings. They made catapults out of a mixture of natural and man-made materials.
Investigations included how far the catapult could send a plastic cube in metres and cm. We even had a catapult challenge to see who could reach the teacher and classroom assistants. It was great fun and a super learning opportunity.
CATAPULT CHALLENGE
Den building has been a big part of Forest Schools for Year 4 to Year 7.
Focus has been on our THINKING SKILLS and PROBLEM SOLVING.
How can we make it waterproof, camouflaged and as natural as possible? What materials work best?
Year 6 completed activities of their choice from spellings to art
They were inspired by British artist, Andy Goldsworthy to create art from nature.
The sensory aspect of spellings is seen as an invaluable part of our learning.
Wildlife Posters
Encouraging everyone in school to look out for wildlife in our school grounds.
Young Ornathologists
Bird Feeders
ARC21 - Recycling Workshops with Noel Lyons.
Daily Mile Santa Run
Sustrans - Be Bright Be Seen Competition Winners
Sustrans - Be Bright Be Seen Competition
Ditch the Dark/Bling Your Bike
New members of the Eco Council received their badges from Colin Tinsley in a whole school assembly. Congratulations to Benjamin, Ruby and Farrah.
Outdoor Learning - Nature Hunt
Eco Council - Reminding classes about their litter duties and distributing the new litter pickers.
Planting
On Tuesday 4th October Mr Michael Savage Chairperson from Newry Mourne and Down District Council visited our school with Rebecca McGreevy and Patrick McShane to deliver a new set of ten child-sized litter pickers. We were delighted to receive these for the school and they have been distributed to classes responsible for litter duties. We are working hard to keep our school litter free as we work towards our next green flag.
Visit from The Chairperson - Mr Michael Savage - Newry Mourne and Down District Council
Bike to School Week
Our Junior Active Travel Officers Sharing Information about Bike to School Week
Our existing Eco Council members did a great job of organising and running the Eco Council Elections. Nominees created their manifestos which they shared with their classes before voting took place. We look forward to hearing who has been nominated into the Eco Council from Y4 and Y7. Well done to all those who showed an interest and completed manifestos.
Eco Council Elections 2022
The Eco Council have had a busy start to the school year. Our existing Eco Council members were weeding and planting the raised beds at the front of the school. They were learning to identify which plants were weeds and which were plants that we wanted to keep. One of our Eco Council members has been doing a great job of watering the plants every morning until they are established. Good work Kyle!
Weeding and Planting the Raised Beds
Junior Active Travel Champions
Sustrans Travel Surveys
June 2022
Polli:Nation Surveys
Y1
Ditch the Stabilisers
The Big Spring Clean
Potting our apple tree seedlings.
Outdoor Learning
Eco Council Meeting
Outdoor Classroom
&
Sharing information with Mrs Moles
Outdoor Learning
Outdoor Learning
SCU2
Helmet Safety Posters
Outdoor Learning
SCU2
Nature Scavenger Hunt
Sustrans
Big Walk and Wheel 2022
SCU2 made posters to promote
The Big Walk and Wheel.
Well done SCU2!
👍🚴🏼🚴♀️👍
SCU1
Big Walk and Wheel Posters
Year 1
The eager beavers in Year 1 are so excited about The Big Walk and Wheel that they completed one of the Sustrans activities today!
We love your creativity and your enthusiasm!
🚴♀️🚴🏼🚴♀️
Sustrans
BIG WALK AND WHEEL
21 March - 1 April 2022
Children’s Mental Health Week
Well-being Wander
Forest Schools
Outdoor Learning
Our Tribute Tree and Memorial
In Memory of Rev Adger
The Eco Council with Mrs Adger, Mrs Moles and Mrs Brown placing the memorial stone in memory of Rev Adger.
A link sent by Iain Sneddon from Sustrans for parents interested in helping their child to ‘ditch their stabilisers.’
Our Story in the Making
NI BEYOND 100
Planting for a Positive Future
At the beginning of the school year The Eco Council had applied to Trees For Schools for a free tree to mark the Centenary Year for Northern Ireland. Pupils had a choice of trees to choose from and decided on the ornamental cherry as a nice addition to our school grounds. They decided to plant the tree at the entrance to the school where it will have room to grow. The children were following the theme of “Planting for a Positive Future” and were excited at the prospect of what their tree will look like in another 20 years. We dug the hole, prepared the ground and made sure that the tree was firmed in. The
Eco Council then thought it would be a good idea to use some membrane and bark to keep weeds and grass from growing around the trunk so they plan to do that next. Let’s hope it won’t be too long before it blossoms!
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Eco Council - Using Our Pupil Voice
With COP26 taking place in November pupils were encouraged to make a pledge to the environment (a small change they would be prepared to make). They were also encouraged to think of a pledge they would like their Council to make to improve the environment.
Pupils throughout the school recorded their pledges on leaves which were sent to Newry & Mourne and Down District Council Office. This has given our young people a voice, will hopefully help them see the potential positives with regards to Climate Change and realise that we can all play a small part.
Sustrans
Bike Skills Demo - Iain Sneddon
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Bicycle Safety Talk
Sustrans - Iain Sneddon
Sustrans - Dr Bike 4th November 2021
A big thank you to John Ross of Ross Cycles for assisting Iain Sneddon from Sustrans when carrying out the Dr Bike bicycle health checks.👏🚴🏻♂️👍
Ditch the Dark/Bling Your Bike Day
Well done to everybody for making Dich the Dark/Bling Your Bike Day such a success! 🚴🏻♂️👍🌟
We continue working with Sustrans this year and hope to gain our Gold Award. We will do this by sustaining and hopefully exceeding our level of active travel to school, by our pupils being actively involved in decision making and engaging with the whole school community to promote active travel. This can be through walking, scooting, cycling to school or even park and stride.
We hope you will help us gain our Gold Award by engaging with our programme of events this year.👍🚴🏻♂️
Sustrans
Bling Your Bike/Ditch The Dark Day
Our Eco Council 2021/2022
Congratulations to our newly elected Eco Council members👏👏👏
Sustrans
Bike to School Week 2021
Exciting News!
Green Flag Award
Bike to School Week Information
Ditch the Dark
In September the existing members of the Eco Council planted acorns from the oak trees which fell in the storms in Castlewellan. Members also planted chestnuts and walnuts and hope to plant the trees in our school grounds once they grown into saplings.
ECO
We are an ECO School and have achieved seven Green Flags.
To achieve our Green Flag classes had to nominate pupils who would make good ECO Council members. After pupils created their manifestos, pupils voted and the new ECO Council were elected.
Power Down Day
We took part in Operation Energy Power Down Day. The whole school were involved in taking an active role in reducing our energy consumption. Even the school kitchen got involved! Pupils were responsible for ensuring lights and electrical equipment were switched off when not in use. From this pupils decided that we should appoint energy monitors in each class in order to reduce our bills and our carbon footprint.
After Operation Energy some pupils created posters to encourage the whole school community to keep on reducing energy consumption.
In response to Operation Energy Power Down Day the Year 7 class decided to use the data and our school electricity bills to work out how much we saved. Last year their work and class display earned us the title of First Place in the International World Day of Action.
RSPB
We have been working closely with the RSPB to ensure we are doing our best to 'Give Nature a Home.' Karen Sheil form RSPB visited the school earlier in the year to carry out bird identification workshops and complete our Big Schools Bird Watch.
Eco Elections
Eco Council
School Grounds
As an Eco Council we decided that the bed in front of the school needed cleared. Mr Nelson, staff members and some pupils helped to clear the area before we sowed it in grass. The whole school was then given the opportunity to come up with designs for the area which we hope to implement in Term 3. We are sure you will agree it is already a great improvement.
Eco Rap
The Eco Council used their Green Hat Thinking to create an Eco Rap for the school. Every class has the Eco Rap on display in their classrooms as a reminder of the Eco Rules our school follows.
ECO Rap
Meeting with our Board of Governors
We met with the Board of Governors to share our Eco Rap. We also told them about the projects we have been carrying out and things we are still working on.
Harvesting Our Raised Beds
Our Big Spring Clean
The whole school was involved in a Big Spring Clean to tidy our school grounds and collect litter. We collected two bags of litter. We also collected three bags of garden waste which we placed on our compost heap. Well done everyone for your excellent efforts to make our school grounds look good!!
Spring Planting
Celebrating Getting Our Seventh Green Flag!!!
ECO BUS Visit - Noel from ARC21
All classes Y1-7 attended talks and workshops based on recycling with Noel from Arc 21. We learned what we need to put in each of our bins, what goes into the landfill, what we can do to reduce the amount of rubbish and how we can recycle more.
Night Watch At Cumran
By saving money from our electricity bill we were able to purchase a night vision camera which is allowing us to see what wildlife is visiting our school grounds. We hope you enjoy looking at the videos and we will continue to upload and add video footage weekly.
ECO 2016-2017
Best Kept School 2017!
Whole School Big Spring Clean - 2017.
Our Visit to The Eco Bus
Our Giant Bird Table is Thriving!
Our School Grounds Term 1
Year 4 Pupils Share Their Manifestos
Election of New Members to our Eco Council
ECO Club - Making Bird Feeders
Eco Club
Innocent Sow & Grow kit - SCU1 Sowing Runner Beans.
Look at our Runner Beans - SCU1.
Eco Club - Planting Spinach
Planting Our Runner Beans in the Raised Beds - SCU1
Pollination Project - Creating Our Outdoor Classroom
Identifying Pollinators and Plants in our School Grounds
Cumran Primary School - "Best of the Best."
Doreen Muskett, President of the NI Amenity Council said "As Best of the Best, Cumran Primary displayed a fantastic example of the whole school working as a community for the benefit of the pupils, teachers, parents and the environment around them. The entire school is involved in the care of the grounds and the pupils are enthusiastic about recycling, and all aspects of the environment. One element which stood out for the judges was that the pupils share their playground with wild bees."
