In an effort to reduce the amount of waste we produce at school, today the children started to recycle their fruit scraps at playtime. The scraps will be placed in the garden compost bins and hopefully in the near future we will be using our very own compost on the school garden!
We had a very successful ‘Harvest and Bake Sale’ last Friday after school. Thanks to some persuasive sales people we managed to sell out of all the goodies from the garden. Thank you also to all those that brought in yummy cakes to sell! We managed to raise £76.50 to go towards buying bulbs and tools for the garden.
After this spell of fabulous weather all the work in the garden is starting to pay off! We had a very successful sale in the playground this afternoon thanks to two very enthusiastic salespeople from Year 5. Great job Saskia and Madeleine.
They sold all of our freshly picked lettuce, kale, and herbs. We also used fresh strawberries and mint from the garden to make our very own ‘Non-Alcoholic Pimms’ which went down a treat (balsamic vinegar is the secret ingredient!).
Thank you to all those that contributed. We raised £50 that will go towards new garden tools.
Tomatoes, spring onions, beetroot, potatoes, carrots, broad beans and runner beans coming soon!
Last Thursday Charles Dickens Primary School had a visit from Chris Collins, the Blue Peter Gardener. Chris came to give advice to our gardening club in order that we grow the best possible produce for the Borough Market harvest sale in the autumn.
In the photos you can see Chris showing Gardening club how to thin out our beetroots and also showing us how to prune our fruit trees. It was a great learning experience and we are expecting know to have the biggest and tastiest fruit and veg for everyone to share.
The team from Veolia Environmental Services is coming to visit our school every Wednesday over the next four weeks with their Mobile Recycling Centre.
The Mobile Recycling Centre is able to collect a range of materials that cannot be collected as part of standard household collections. This is a great opportunity for a clear out!
Please bring along the following items to be recycled:
The Centre will be in the playground at home time on the following days:
We look forward to seeing you there and Happy Recycling!
A big well done and congratulations to all the children and staff in both the Early Years and Key Stage One. Today’s show was a suitably Charles Dickens mix of ambitious creativity and an environmental message. All the children were involved in singing, dancing and acting to spread the message of how to save our planet through small steps such as walking more, driving less, recycling, switching off lights and generally using less energy. Thank you to all the parents who came – we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Thank you also to the wonderful staff who worked with the children to learn songs, write a story, paint scenery and make costumes – their Christmas holiday is extremely well earned!
Here are a few photos to give you a flavour of this super show!
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This Thursday between 2-3pm everyone at school will be doing their bit to save energy by ‘Switching Off’ anything electrical.
What can you do at home to save energy?
Enter the Energy Saving pledge (http://www.jointhepod.org/
John Laing Charitable Trust scheme helps Charles Dickens Primary School enhance its outdoor space
Children at Charles Dickens Primary in Southwark celebrated today with news that their school has been chosen to receive £2000 to improve its grounds.
The school was selected as a part of the John Laing School Ground Awards, a programme which aims to improve the outdoor spaces of schools across Greater London.
We plan to use the award to improve our Early Years playground by adding a soft sand area and a greater selection of movable climbing and obstacle equipment, to promote greater physical development among our youngest children.
The project, funded by the John Laing Charitable Trust, has been developed by Learning through Landscapes, the charity that helps children to connect with nature, become more active, learn outdoors, develop social skills and have fun.
The charity has worked with the school over the last year and has supported the development of the project by providing advisory visits, training and expert advice.
As Ms Henderson, Head of Early Years explains,
“We are delighted to be announced as a winner of the John Laing School Grounds Awards. These funds will enable us to develop our Early Years Playground, which will enhance our children’s experience of outdoor play and learning, on a daily basis. ”
Schools and early years settings in Southwark and all other areas in Greater London, can now apply for the 2012 John Laing School Grounds Awards, where they can receive training, resources and expert support in the development of their outdoor spaces.
Visit the Learning through Landscapes website www.ltl.org.uk for more information or contact 01962 826258 or email laing@ltl.org.uk
We can’t wait to see all the great entries!
Tomorrow, Thursday 11th October, pupils from Charles Dickens Primary will be selling a range of goodies from the school garden at Pumpkin Pitch at Borough Market. The money raised by the sale of the vegetables (eggs, tomatoes and herbs in our case) will go to FareShare, a charity which seeks to relieve food poverty by taking food which would otherwise be discarded by the food and drink industry and redistributing it to ensure as many people as possible receive regular nutritious, healthy meals.
You can show your support for these keen young vegetable growers and stallholders by visiting us on Thursday 11th October from 11am until 1pm and buying some of their freshly-picked products. You’ll be helping to raise funds for a fantastic cause!