Eco Schools
Aspire Channel Swim 2009
14 September - 6 December
It's not too late to collect your registration card from Mrs Garbett in the office and join the school team. Mrs Thorley and family, Mrs Paul, Mrs Haig, Mrs Childs and family, Mrs Bridgeman and Mrs Clawson are all enjoying the challenge of swimming the equivalent distance of the Channel in their local pool.
Aspire is a national charity providing practical support, funding and advice to people with spinal cord injuries in the
You can find more information on line at http://www.aspire.org.uk/channelswim/ Happy swimming! Children are welcome to join in too, please leave your name and class details with Mrs Garbett. Shoe Aid For Africa Please use our collection bin in school if you have any old childrens or adult shoes you no longer use. A small gesture from you could make a big difference to African children who can't afford shoes. The collection bin will be in school until 9th October. Thank you to all who have made donations so far.
Thank you very much to Mr Tom Sheperd, an advisor for the NFU, who has very kindly donated several colourful posters and a KS2 Education Pack to teach us more about crops, non-food crops, their uses and environmental benefits. These resources will really help us learn more about the vital work that farmers do and the important role they play in building a sustainable future.
Third Green Flag Award
Thank you to everyone involved in our third Eco-Schools assessment which took place on Tuesday 14th July 2009.
We are delighted to report that following a rigorous assessment by an external assessor, on the last week of term, the school has secured several Eco-Schools awards; bronze, silver and a third Eco-Schools flag, a green honour accomplished by only another 194 schools in
Sincere thanks to all the parents, children and staff involved in our long term Eco-Schools projects and for helping us to maintain this prestigious standard. More details of this international programme can be found on www.eco-schools.org If you have some spare time or expertise in this field please do not hesitate to contact us for more information. Malawi Appeal
Summer Fete Stall
It's exciting to discover that Brambleside feature in an article on the classroom box project on the International Rotary Club website. http://www.rotary1070.org/international/classroombox.html A huge thank you to the PTA for organising a fantastic Summer Fete today and to all those donating items and for taking an interest in our Eco-Schools stall. It was really encouraging to see so many people interested in supporting this school project. We are very pleased to report that we raised enough money to buy 2 stationary boxes for Malawi (£100) which doubled our target! Thank you very much to Tayla Thorley, Oliver Freeland and Keah Grant who were especially dedicated to the stall and spent all day working hard. Thanks also to Mr & Mrs Thorley, Mr Freeland, Laura Keenan, Ellie Walker, Rebecca Head for baking delicious dolphin biscuits, Harvey Milburn and Jack Johnston for selling the tomato plants grown by the Foundation Stage children. A huge thank you to Kettering Cycling Club and Stagecoach for their generous donations of £10. The order for two classroom boxes is already in the post and we look forawrd to hearing from the school communities in Malawi. “Difficult to imagine but try. A class of 50 children sitting on the floor, the teacher has just handed each one a single sheet on note paper torn from an exercise book so that they can write their end of term examination. The questions have been written on the black board. Well they call it a black board; it is the plastered front wall on the room which has been painted black. The children write very small so as to get all the answers on the single sheet. If you don’t have a pen or pencil you will have to share. In developing countries, children are killed by illnesses that become deadly, in combination with poor sanitation and malnutrition. In addition, families stricken by extreme poverty are trapped in a cycle that only leads to more unnecessary deaths. It’s a cycle that is not interrupted, because there is no access to education.
In some small way Northampton Becket Rotary club wish to help in interrupting this cycle, by assisting in educating those in the third world, whilst giving local children the opportunity to experience the benefits of helping those less fortunate and at the same time, studying about a developing country.
Boxes contain pens, pencils, writing pads, coloured pencils, rulers for 25 children. Also included are 5 geometry sets, two staplers, staples, glue sticks, chalk, a tin of blackboard paint and a paint brush. The new boxes will include a few additional items such as an inflatable globe”.
Ian Hill
Northampton Becket Rotary Club
At their last meeting the School Council and Eco-Action Team voted to support a classroom stationary box appeal for schools in Malawi. The idea is to raise enough money to pay for a ready prepared box which would be delivered to a school in Malawi. Children at Brambleside would be able to send a letter and photos to an allocated school to form a long lasting link. Each box costs £50 and the children are responsible for thinking of their own ideas to raise the funds on the Eco-Stall at the Summer Fete.