Every Wednesday, the Year 12 Work Skills group offer their services to collect all of the recycling from the college classrooms. The items which are currently able to be recycled are paper, cardboard, plastic and aluminum cans. Teachers were sent an email on the Wednesday morning to ask if they have anything to be collected and the students would then collate the list and collect the items from outside of the rooms. Some weeks were busier than others, and it was especially busy towards the end of term as staff were clearing their rooms ready for the next academic year!
Not only has this service been useful for our teachers, it also provided the students evidence of a volunteering activity for their BTEC Work Skills qualification. Furthermore, it offered a better understanding of how schools and colleges were playing their part in being more sustainable and environmentally friendly, thus meeting some of the aims of the Erasmus project. It also looked great on their CV and provided a perfect example of how they have taken part in Social Action in a job interview.
Beach Guardians
6th Form Pathways and Work Skills students teamed up with Beach Guardians to take part in a beach clean at Treyarnon Bay near Padstow one beautiful sunny day in June. During the activity, students learnt about all of the different types of plastics which wash up on our Cornish shores and quickly set to work to pick up more of the offending items. This included nurdles, pyro plastics, and ghost gear.
Once items were collected, we headed back to the Beach Guardian HQ to sort through the different types of plastics and items. During this process, Rob Stevenson, head of Beach Guardians explained about the work they were doing to help educate all Cornish school children about the dangers of plastic within our oceans and rivers. Beach Guardians are also developing a wildlife area and we at Bodmin College are very excited with the prospect of working more with Rob and his team next year.
Saving the Rainforest
Alongside the plastic raising awareness activity, other environmental projects have thrived at Bodmin College.
College students who have been fundraising to save rainforests have received a letter from Sir David Attenborough. Pupils in Year 8 Student Council have been fundraising to save rainforests in Argentina and Belize as part of the World Land Trust’s (WLT) Buy an Acre programme, which works to protect the rainforest and animals that live there. The students set out to raise enough money to purchase one acre of land through the scheme but actually ended up with enough funds for three. Mrs H. Wells, Assistant Head of Year, commented, “I am so incredibly proud of our Year 8 Student Council. They have huge hearts and so much drive to make a practical difference in our world. It is truly inspiring to witness.” After organising bake sales throughout March and April, and with a generous donation from DPD Bodmin and also from Calstock Social Club, the students were able to meet and exceed their initial target, raising a total amount of £300.
Pathways Garden
Another broader and very successful environmental project that was launched last year was the Pathways Garden. Our 6th Form Pathways students have been working hard planting and caring for their garden. At the beginning of the year they visited a local garden centre to find out about what they should plant and how they should care for them. From this visit, a variety of vegetables have been planted and doing well, including carrots, potatoes, sweetcorn and rhubarb.
Flowers such as sweet peas and germaniums are making the garden look and feel colorful and vibrant whilst the wild section is encouraging bees, butterflies and insects to help with pollination.
The students have learnt valuable skills such as eating healthy along with the importance of growing crops in an environmentally friendly way.