Residential Activity Course - Update

Lost Up North!!

Just back at base after two days in the wilds.

Yesterday started with time with Ray Mears which all of us found amazing. From words of wisdom about living with nature to everyone learning to light a fire from a bandage, it was a privilege to learn from the master.

We then packed up and walked up the valley reaching the barn where we would spend the night. It was dark and everyone suddenly missed electricity and home comforts. The dried meals were incredibly tasty and set everyone up for the night.

Not sure how much sleep we had as the wind howled all night. After breakfast from a packet, we headed back down in strong winds and driving rain. All girls in great spirits as they yomped back and the sight of public loos were greeted with cheers. A hot shower and lunch later and we are ready for the next task.

Residential Activity Course - Day 1

After a wet and windy journey, we arrived at Lakeside Centre.  After a brief introduction, we all warmed up with a jog to the lake and …. jumped in!

Yes, it was freezing, but everyone did it before racing back for a hot shower.  Ray Mears arrives on Wednesday and then we will ‘wild camp’ that night.

Sheffield High Pupils Work With Celebrity TV Presenter Ray Mears

Ten Year 7 pupils at Sheffield High School are working with celebrity woodsman, instructor and author, Ray Mears as they embark on a 5-day residential activity course in the Lake District with the Outward Bound Trust.

The course is a competition prize for the pupils who, along with biologist and teacher in charge of eco projects Mrs Jen Dean, made an eco-video about bees. All the girls are also receiving a John Muir Discovery Award, recognising their commitment to the environment.

The team at Sheffield High School was inspired to choose honey bee conservation as the focus of their project when they heard about the plight of these vital insect pollinators on the news. Honey bee numbers have fallen dramatically in recent years as a result of climate, loss of habitat and disease.

It is estimated that one in three of our food crops are dependent on honey bees pollinating them successfully. Pupils at Sheffield High School wanted to help and created a school nature garden and are now running a competition in school to encourage pupils to help even further at home.

The High School has been very active in raising awareness of green issues in recent years. There is a team of enthusiastic and dedicated sixth form students who lead eco-representatives from each of the form groups in the senior school on initiatives to reduce our environmental impact and improve our surroundings.

Their successful endeavours on recycling, reducing water and energy wastage and supporting green causes in our community have secured Sheffield High the prestigious Eco-School’s Green Flag award for the last three years. Recent projects have included installing bee hives on school grounds and creating an eco-garden to support endangered wildlife such as honey bees.

Bee Happy in Your Garden!

Sheffield High has been inundated with around half a million new arrivals – no not new pupils, but honey bees!

We're keeping hives of honey bees on some land the school owns, just off Manchester Road. We hope that this will help to keep up numbers of honey bees in the area as they are vital to pollinate both crop and garden plants.

Honey bee numbers have fallen dramatically in recent years due to human activity, the weather and disease, so having as many kinds of flowers in your garden as possible for as much of the year can really help – check out the website our environmental impact for details about our new competition – bee happy in your garden!

Eco-Warriors succeed again with another Eco-Schools Award!

We are currently celebrating a second award of the Eco-Schools Green Flag Status. Our re-assessment took place at the end of March 2012 and an Eco-Schools assessor spent more than two hours talking to pupils about the eco-projects that take place in the school.

We are now one of only a small number of schools in the country to have been awarded this level of achievement for a second time. The eco-schools assessor commented on the new eco-projects at the junior school which he described as a “great success, with enthusiastic students leading the way with visions of what they want to achieve.

Our ideas to re-develop some land on the site into an eco-garden were particularly praise. The plans for this were described in our assessment as looking “fantastic”. For more details about this, please see the area on our website dedicated to our environmental impact and watch this space for updates on our progress. Until then – keep GreenJ