Alex honoured in London
A MULL primary school pupil last week attended the Palace of Westminster after making it through to the final of a national art competition.
Alex Geddes of Lochdonhead Primary fought off stiff competition to win the regional stages of a competition, run by Gas Distribution Network (GDN), to raise awareness of the dangers of carbon monoxide.
The primary seven pupil produced and performed a lyrical poem which saw her win £ 300 for the school and £150 for herself.
As a result, Alex was invited to attend the UK final in London on Friday June 23, when she met representatives from SGN and GDN, before being given a tour of the House of Commons.
Talking about her success, Alex said: ‘I felt shocked when I found out that I had won and would be travelling all the way to London to receive my prize.’
Her mum Lynn added: ‘I’m super proud of Alex. She has achieved so much at Lochdonhead Primary School and it’s a lovely way to end her time there as she heads off to high school.’
Claire Bidwell, principal teacher at Lochdonhead, said: ‘ Alex is such a hard -working pupil and her literacy and art achievements this year have been outstanding. Developing engagement and critical curiosity in our pupils is essential to ensuring they have the learning skills to succeed.
‘We researched the devastating effects of carbon monoxide poisoning in the classroom and the ways to recognise it and prevent it.
‘Alex wrote her lyrical poem in class and then extended her learning beyond the classroom using technology to film her performance at home. She has been an inspiration to other pupils and a credit to Lochdonhead Primary school and this reward is so well deserved. Congratulations to Alex.’
You can’t touch it By Alex Geddes You can’t touch it. You can’t taste it. You can’t smell it.
Carbon Monoxide makes your oxygen decrease, so hard, makes me say ‘Oh, my word!’ Dizziness, blurry vision, an irregular heartbeat, That’s not good, get an alarm! Comes from cigarettes and chimneys. CO, known as such, This is a gas, you can’t touch! I told you homeboy! You can’t touch it! You can’t taste it! Look in my eyes man! Incorrectly installed cookers, in un-ventilated places, will give you CO poisoning, it’s simple.
DO NOT PANIC! Just evacuate! Let ‘em know you’ve breathed too much. ‘Cos this is a gas you can’t touch. You can’t touch it. You can’t taste it. You can’t smell it.
Gives you brain damage and hallucinations, Makes you sweat and shake, You know I’m talking about CO, You’re gonna pass out, you’re gonna die. Your brain is ‘gonna work hard, CO’s in your blood, it’s ‘gonna quit.
You can’t touch it. You can’t taste it. You can’t smell it.
ACCESS Mull and Iona THE Assisting Communities to Connect to Electric Sustainable Sources (ACCESS) project on Mull and Iona uses smart technology to balance local renewable generation and local electrical energy demand from homes and businesses on the islands.
While there is an abundance of renewable energy opportunities in locations such as Mull and Iona, the electrical grid in these areas is often in need of upgrades or lacking in capacity to absorb new, clean generation. ACCESS seeks to enable more locally- owned renewable generation from generators, such as the 400kw community- owned Garmony hydro scheme used by the project, to connect to the grid at their full capacity.
The ACCESS solution essentially creates a ‘ virtual district heating’ system for customers who are unable to connect to gas or conventional district heating networks, enabling them to also benefit from sustainable energy.
It is hoped that the ACCESS Project will prove a new model that can help make better use of Scotland’s variable renewable energy generation. The ACCESS solution is hoped to enable other renewable energy projects to connect to the grid with a ‘non-firm’ offer across the Highlands and islands.
The local network operator, SSE Networks, has now approved the ACCESS connection solution as one of its non-firm connection offers. This allows other generators to request connection to the network.