Discovery Club

Discovery Club

Pupils have now finished their telescopes and taken these home and a number of pupils have successfully used these for Astronomical observation. The telescopes used high quality lenses coated to minimise light pollution and were constructed using copper tubing to make them both hard wearing and very aesthetically pleasing. There is a step-by-step ‘photo diary’ of the construction on the school website.

Our latest project is a vegetable garden in the ‘English’ quad using raised beds made from recycled old wooden pallets where we have begun to grow a variety of herbs salads and vegetables including Peas, Beans, Pumpkin, Tomatoes, Cabbage, Lettuce, Sage, Rocket, Basil, Sweetcorn, Carrots and Onions. Pupils and staff have worked very hard on this project already and the plants are growing well. We hope to pass these on to teachers for use in Food Study lessons as well as in the canteen.

We are currently looking to encourage Year 7 pupils to join the Discovery club for next year and any interested pupils with a flair for Science, Technology, Engineering or Maths should see Mr Toogood or Mrs Quinn.

See our Vegetable garden phot gallery and video here

Eco-Challenge

A group of 30 pupils recently attended a ‘long’ weekend residential course at a field studies centre in Orielton, Pembrokeshire, South Wales. The pupils were from years 7,8 & 9 and were led by Miss Siddall, Mr Crossley and Mr Toogood. Accomodation was in a huge old Georgian mansion in a wooded area. Pupils completed a long cliff and seaside walk, a night walk to spot Bats and Badgers, built shelters from natural forest material as well as many other tasks. On the final day our 30 pupils made ‘environmental pledges’ on 5 aspects of the environment:

Energy – Encourage staff to turn off whiteboards when not in use.
Transport – Start a ‘walking bus’ to school.
Water – Use waste water to water the vegetable garden and eventually to flush toilets.
Waste – Campaign to Salford council to restart paper recycling.
Food – Increase the use of the vegetable garden to grow more of our own food.

These pledges are now on display in reception on wooden ‘plaques’. The trip was a great success and a great time was had by all. Staff at the centre were very complimentary about the behaviour and effort shown by our pupils as was the coach driver.

See our field trip photo gallery here