Eco Club

The Eco Club master class have been clearing and weeding the school’s garden and front entrance. They have been painting the iron sculptures and are also going to be planting spring bulbs. The Eco Club have also carried out an environmental review. The results of this will be used in this year’s action plan. The school took part in a “hands up” survey to see how pupils and staff travelled to school each day. The results from the survey will help us to improve our carbon footprint.

Recycling Project

The pupils in the Supported Learning Centre are organising a recycling project for drinks containers. East Ayrshire Council has provided bins for the cans and bottles and these will be placed around the school. The pupils held an assembly to promote the use of the bins. Well done to them all for such an enterprising idea.

Diamond Wood

Doon Academy will soon be involved in an exciting project to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Craigengillan Estate in Dalmellington has been chosen as one of sixty sites in the U.K where a ‘Diamond Wood’ will be planted. The project will be led by the Woodland Trust and will involve the planting of 60 acres of woodland. Pupils will be involved in the planting of the trees and the woodland will provide an outdoor learning environment for the school for many years to come.

Rag Bag collection

   The Eco Group have organised a Rag Bag Recycling collection. Pupils and staff are asked to fill the bags with any unwanted clothes, textiles, shoes and books. The bags are then weighed by the ragbag company and a donation is made to the school.

Switch-Off Fortnight

Doon Academy pupils and staff are participating in Switch Off Fortnight and the Eco Group are organising a number of events. The aim is to improve the school's energy use and to get the whole school interested in cutting carbon. Senior pupils will be conducting an audit at the start of the fortnight to see how many lights are left on at intervals and lunchtimes. We will then run a campaign over the fortnight to encourage people to save energy. This will be done mainly through the mentoring period. Lesson plans and materials will be distributed over the next week. At the end of the fortnight a second audit will be completed to see if the campaign has been successful. Hopefully, we can help to reduce the school's energy bills and carbon dioxide emissions. Further details may be obtained by visiting the website www.jointhepod.org/switchoff

Climate Week Challenge

Doon Academy selected 2 teams of 4 pupils from S1, S2, and S3 to take part in the first national Climate Challenge for schools. The challenge takes place during Climate Week which is designed to spotlight what workplaces and communities are already doing to combat climate change, and to raise awareness of the issues involved. The pupils were asked to develop a green idea to save money or make money. Within the time limit the teams had to come up with an idea, show how it would achieve their objective and also how they would carry it out. Their final product was to be on no more than 2 sides of A4 paper. The challenge proved to be quite a tough task, but after a great deal of discussion and debate within the teams, they were ready to present their ideas to the school judges Mrs Ritchie and Mrs Bax. Well done to the winning team which consisted of Kieran Madden, Robyn McCluskey, Elleis Peters and Gareth Kerr from S1. Their idea was for a school garden with vegetables and flowers.

Gardening tools

The Eco Group are delighted that the school’s collection of Morrisons Lets Grow vouchers bought the school 2 spades, 2 hand forks, 2 trowels and a watering can. These will be very useful for maintaining the garden areas. Thank you to everyone who donated their vouchers.

Recycling collections

The Supported Learning Centre’s chosen charity for this year is ‘Hearing Dogs for the Deaf’. Pupils and staff are collecting used stamps and used ink cartridges to raise money for the charity. In addition, they are collecting unwanted spectacles to send to developing countries. SLC pupils are also responsible for collecting paper and used cardboard from all classrooms and sending it for recycling.

Rag Bag

The school recently undertook its second Rag Bag collection. Staff and pupils were encouraged to donate old clothes, shoes and other textiles. The Eco Group is pleased to announce that we raised £40.50 for future Eco projects.

Morrison's Let's Grow

Mrs. Elder’s S2 elective class are currently collecting Morrisons ‘Let’s Grow’ vouchers. These vouchers are available between now and 1st November, The group would like to collect as many vouchers as possible in order to obtain essential gardening supplies required to make improvements to the school gardens. Vouchers can be handed in at to the school’s social subjects department.

Morrisons Vouchers

The Eco Group will be collecting Morrisons 'Let's Grow' vouchers between 7th September and 15th November. Vouchers can be handed in to Eco Chair Mrs Elder, or the school office. The vouchers will enable us to purchase gardening equipment to continue our improvement of the school grounds. Also, the school has received 25 free water hippos from Scottish Water, which will be installed in the toilets next session. Hippos can save up to 3 litres of water in every toilet flush! Anyone can claim a free hippo from Scottish water at www.business-stream.co.uk/free-hippo.

Eco Group

The Eco Group members are delighted that the weather has improved as it means they may begin their outside activities in the garden area. There are seeds to be sown and cuttings to be planted.

Earth Day celebrations

As part of our Earth Day celebrations we were pleased to welcome Eco Drama Scotland to the school. S1 pupils participated in 'Professor Green's Eco Gadget Workshop' where they acted as Special Green Agents to explore ways in which they could lead greener lives. Pupils had the chance to see a boat running on candle wax and a remote control hydrogen powered car. Pupils then used drama and role-play to design an advert for each gadget. Everyone enjoyed the experience and proved to be excellent ambassadors for the environment. For more information go to Earth Day

Earth Day

The 22nd April is Earth Day and the eco team have many earthy activities planned for the day. Watch this space for more news!

RagBag Collection

The Eco Group, chaired by Mrs. Elder, would like to thank all pupils and staff who participated in the recent Rag Bag collection. We have received a cheque for £52.80 for collecting 176 kilograms of textiles. This money will be invested in future eco projects within the school. The next Rag Bag collection will take place in six months time.

Rag Bag Collection

The school’s eco group, chaired by Mrs Elder, will be holding a Rag Bag collection to raise funds by recycling old or unwanted clothing and shoes. Any items of clean dry clothing or other textiles may be brought to the social subjects department.

BP Carbon Challenge Roadshow

Pupils in Doon Academy were delighted to receive a visit from the BP Carbon Challenge Roadshow. The pupils worked in teams to examine a school's carbon footprint and learn about carbon reduction though a variety of activities. The S1s had a very interesting and informative morning and will be implementing what they learned in conjunction with the school’s Eco-code.

Eco Day

Doon Academy’s Eco Day to promote the launch of the Eco Code will be on Friday 21st November. Groups of pupils from each year group will be involved in a variety of activities throughout the day from S1 Litter Picking to S5/6 Constructing a greenhouse. The Supported Learning Centre will be planting spring bulbs. The Eco Code will be launched during the whole school mentoring period.

Carbon Challenge Roadshow

In the Science department BP will be visiting the school to deliver the ‘Carbon Challenge Roadshow’. The Carbon Challenge is a high-impact Science, Maths and Enterprise Roadshow where students work together to examine the school’s carbon footprint and learn about carbon reduction through a variety of activities. This will be a highly enjoyable and informative day for students and teachers.

Eco-Group

The Eco-committee, chaired by Mrs Elder, is aiming to achieve a bronze eco-award this year. The greenhouse made from reused plastic bottles is being moved to a sunnier site and 2 compost bins are being delivered. 5 pupils, so far, have volunteered for the eco-committee- Stephanie Smith, David MacLean, Lindsay McCracken, Darren McLelland and Ryan McKnight, who will draw up an eco-code for the school. Recycling by Recycool and collections of old clothing by RagBags are to be set up. 30 native trees, donated by the Woodland Trust will be planted in and around the school grounds in November. Offers of help to clear the science garden are appreciated. Mrs Elder is collecting ‘Let’s Grow’ vouchers from Morrisons for free seeds and garden equipment. We hope that parents will send in the vouchers with their children.