School celebrates green award but pupils ‘mist’ the boat
LOCHDONHEAD Primary School pupils on Mull are celebrating after they were named one of the top three schools in Scotland for their environmental sustainability project in the recent Education Scotland awards.
And the fact they could not pick up their award in person due to the ferry being cancelled because of fog has done nothing to dampen their delight.
For the past two years, the youngsters have been working hard to clear and develop an area of school grounds to create a conservation garden. Ewan from P7 and Alex from P6 pick up the story: ‘ It was just another ordinary day in school when we got a phone call to say that we were one of three schools nominated for an Education Scotland award, specifically in the category Learning for Sustainability.
‘ Before the award we got visited by Education Scotland to see the evidence of our learning and to decide if we were worthy of first place.
‘ When they came, Alex took them on a tour around our school while different pupils showed the walls with aspects of our learning. They were especially interested in our conservation garden because we are developing our scientific skills and learning about sustaining life.
‘On Wednesday June 8, three of the pupils and our teacher Ms Bidwell were supposed to go to Glasgow for the awards ceremony but unfortunately we couldn’t get there as the ferry did not sail because of the fog.
‘ We were disappointed but that is one of the realities of living on an island. To make up for it, we are going to have our own award ceremony in school. Even though we came runner-up, being nominated felt like winning.’
Teacher Claire Bidwell added: ‘ We’ve had a great deal of success and personal achievement in the past year, winning first prize in the SEPA Our Environment Award and now coming in the top three of the Education Scotland awards.’