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- 03rd September 2010
Enterprise
Enterprise - not a subject, more a way of life!
Enterprise is a specialism of Paddington Academy. The emphasis of Enterprise is on developing its characteristics among our students in years 7 to 13 through as many different formal and informal contexts as possible.
| ECO Schools Project Special: Westminster Green School of the Year |
The Greenest School of the Year
At Paddington Academy we have been working hard and have made fantastic progress on many different aspects of sustainability as part of our Social Enterprise – EcoSchools Project. We have overcome many challenges this year and one of the most significant has been our success in positively changing the attitudes of 1400 staff and students to start working together towards reducing landfill waste produced by our school. A panel of judges including Veolia and Government Office for London (Education and Skills) assessed our progress compared with all other schools in Westminster and last week we were awarded the title of Westminster Green School of the Year. The prize consisted of £750, money which will be spent on further environmental initiatives. Some of our successes this year:
- We gained funding to start community food production and will start building a chicken shed at the end of July for rescue hens (their waste will be recycled and eggs used by school and local residents who will help look after the chickens).
- We have collaborated on the design with the Academy of Arts Architecture students.
- We have set up and maintained battery recycling points in school. Staff and sixth form canteens compost tea bags and coffee grounds.
- We have built raised beds and established an organic school garden which provides vegetables and herbs for the catering department and some to sell to staff and students.
- We have appointed two Green Governors □ Fairtrade cake-bake competition to highlight the importance of buying fair-trade to support our global community.
- Created and installed a new screen saver at school to remind staff to switch off projectors and computers at the end of the school day.
- Tutor group recycling competitions- Yr7 collected in excess of 842 cans and bottles in 4 days!
- Staff offices have can and bottle recycling bins
- We built loads of bird boxes for the local community, we put one up in our school and went to local primary schools to give assemblies and donate bird boxes and information.
- We have learnt how to build bee boxes and taught this skill to guests at the garden opening ceremony.
- We went out into the community to regenerate gardens in sheltered accommodation and a local park (Queens Park)
- We painted old plant pots to make gifts for people
- We participated in the BIG Tidy Up and collected 11 bags of rubbish from local streets.
Next year we would like to focus on increasing the size of the school garden so that we can grow enough produce to sell locally and use the profits to fund the maintenance of the garden so it becomes a self sufficient operation. We also will be extending our recycling programme school wide and looking at alternative waste to recycle 
and reuse – one idea is to recycle some of our lost property clothing to make new items of clothing for a fashion show. Another is to print and sell recycled plastic memory sticks to support our Ecoschool initiative to submit all assessed work electronically via our VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) This will significantly reduce our paper wastage!
| Enterprise |
BAFTA Young Game Designer competition launch
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is launching a competition that explores the creative possibilities and career opportunities within the video game industry. The UK gaming generates over £3 billion each year and is the UK’s fastest growing industry. The BAFTA Young Game Designers competition invites teams of three young people aged 11-16 to submit a design for a new video game. The main aims of the competition are to promote creativity, help young people understand the different roles within video game design and highlight the key subject areas for entry into the industry. The winning team will receive a prize package that includes a BAFTA Young Game Designers Award; work experience at Bright Light - an EA games studio, and a prototype of the winning game developed with Abertay University. On 14 July, our students attended an event at Walthamstow Academy to launch the competition with 120 school children from across England. They took part in workshops that focussed on gameplay, characterisation, storytelling and environments (how locations and settings impact on games). The speakers included Matthew Lewis (Harry Potter star, Neville Longbottom), and Harvey Elliott, Vice President EA and we watched a Q and A between them about their experiences of gaming and routes into working in the industry. Olivia Sesay-Murray, Ikra Ali and Jasmine Paul were chosen to present their ideas in the final session of the day to all students. They received a special commendation from the judging panel for their unique concept and game play.
Young Enterprise
On the 25th of March a group of year 10 students represented their Young Enterprise company named Gecko at the central London regional finals, held at the University of Westminster. They manned a display stand before giving a presentation to a packed auditorium on their product: a global recipe book and experience of setting up a business. Despite not reaching the next stage of the competition after being edged out by Westminster School, Paddington Academy students gave an outstanding per formance and were a real credit to the school. The first copies of the Gecko recipe book were on sale at Parents’ evening and Parents` morning the following day. Congratulations to the Gecko team: Andrew Cotelo, Shahan Miah, Naima Begum, Mohammed Rab, Patricia Akullo, Shaimar Yusuf, Alexandros Amadi.
Bake a Fair Trade Cake Competition
On Monday the 15th March 2010 we had a fair trade cake baking competition which took place in the catering room. The students who participated were from year 7, 8 and 11 but the contest was organised by the Year 10 Social Enterprise Eco-schools students. Fair trade is when we pay a fair price for products and this goes directly back to the farmer in less developed countries. They use this money to build schools and hospitals and to improve their lives. It was very successful because most of the ingredients were fair trade, this way the event raised people awareness of the fair trade concept, a concept which may lead in the future to more people buying fair-trade products. The students successfully finished their cakes and were judged on taste, presentation, smell and their knowledge about fair trade. The year 11 team won with a cake made by by Syeda Sultana, Rinora Jaha, Rron Berisha, Chelsea Phillips, Ehab Hamadallah. The fair trade ingredients used on this occasion were coco powder, butter, buttons, chocolate bars. Written by Rawan Muradi and Mushada Begum Yr10
| ECO Schools Project |
Organic Garden Opening
Paddington Academy was delighted to finally cut the ribbon at the Grand Opening of the Organic Garden the students have worked on with so much dedication. The event is part of the Go Green Campaign, which Paddington Academy students initiated last year as part of their Social Enterprise course. The Social Enterprise was awarded £500 by Westminster City Council towards creating an organic garden at the school. The students worked hard: they measured the area and carried out a whole school survey to find out what the community wanted in their garden. A dedicated team of Year 10 Social Enterprise students have been learning horticultural skills through community regeneration schemes, in addition to volunteering with the grounds people at Queens Park. The students passed a health and safety qualification and have an accredited 5 year registration with Land Based Operatives of the British Association of Landscape Industries. The enthusiastic Year 10 also worked with a commissioned graffiti artist to design and paint a beautiful sunset mural on the west wall of the garden. Produce from the garden has already been sampled by staff and students, and will be taken to the staff room and sold in order to generate a profit. It is hoped that in the future enough produce will be grown to generate further expansion of the project in a community orientated and sustainable way.
Battery recycling available at PA NOW!
Have you ever thought of recycling your batteries? Well, now you could bring yours and your friends’ and family’s old and run out batteries to school for safe disposal!
Did you know that batteries that are put into your ordinary rubbish bin leak toxic chemicals which poison animals as well as plants that we eat? Did you know that the UK has the poorest record at battery recycling?
We can change this if we work together as a team – so let’s make PA a greener and a better place to be. Recycling containers are in the reception and the staff room. Bring in as many batteries as you can!
Planting our Rowan tree from the BBC
This week the Ecoschools team planted a rowan tree on the Paddington Academy school grounds. It was a gift from the BBC as part of their Breathing Places project to encourage wildlife and nature in urban areas. We chose the green area at the end of the playground because it will be the centrepiece on our site for the organic garden and eco area.We hope the tree will grow to 10 metres tall and provide lots of berries for the birds to eat for at least the next 40 years.
A group of young people have worked hard over the last year to make Paddington Academy a greener place to be. Working on Eco-schools as part of their Social Enterprise GCSE they have implemented a number of projects and gained the Eco-schools silver award for their schools. These dedicated young people have run campaigns to reduce energy use and increase recycling by creating campaign videos. They also organised Global Warming Awareness workshops and raised 80 pounds for Tolerance UK by selling recycled pens on World Earth Day. Their future plans are to prepare and deliver assemblies to the whole school on sustainable issues, work with the global company PricewaterhouseCooper to design and make murals from recycled materials and begin a drive on cycling to school. Award winners for Westminsters young achiever: Paddington Academy Eco Team, nominated for their fundraising for World Earth Day and raising green awareness
To find out more please click here
| Malawi Partnership Update |
Paddington Academy's first letters to Malawi are going this week
School Partner:Malawi (click to download)
| International Links |
At Paddington Academy we are dedicated to the promotion of global awareness among our students, this is with a view to broadening their horizons, encouraging tolerance and preparing them for the social, economic and environmental challenges of the future. Staff and students alike have opportunities to become involved with international education projects. This is to enrich our educational experiences by sharing our knowledge and understanding at a global scale.
Bahrain & Paddington Enjoy international Literacy Learning
Year 9 students have again begun to work with a Year 9 class at St Christopher’s school in Bahrain. We have written postcards and poems as part of the National Poetry day celebrations.
We are sending our work, and sharing teaching resources this week. We are hoping to receive our envelope from Bahrain very soon. We look forward to continuing this project over this term.
| Useful Links |
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