Tree Planting is Go!

On a drizzly morning in late February, students, staff and expert volunteers headed onto soggy terrain for day one of the BBEC Orchard big dig.  Keen volunteers wielding spades, stakes and wheelbarrows, not to mention a variety of fruit trees, commenced the mammoth job of creating an orchard in the school grounds.  Despite the weather, significant progress was made as you can see from the photos below.

The BBEC Orchard Preparations

After months of planning, preparations for the planting of the BBEC Orchard are in place.

Just before half term an arch arrived in kit form and a group of pupils got it ready to be put into position. We also moved  two clumps of  Iris into temporary positions for safekeeping. 

The plan is that  over half term Barton Grange Landscapes will  commence landscaping the area of the orchard known as the CORE. (This area is small but when fully planted will host,30 – 40 apple and pear trees - most of which will be trained as cordons or espaliers.

Working to a design submitted as part of a Fruit-full Schools competition and redrawn by a landscape architect working on the Guild Wheel, the Barton Grange staff will create five shaped beds (to represent the centre of an apple sliced horizontally), position a pergola and put in supports for the cordon and espalier trees.

We are very grateful for the help given by Barton Grange as part of their donation towards the Guild Wheel and look forward to working with them.

Once the groundwork is complete pupils will be able to plant trees when ground conditions permit and then the process of looking after them will commence.

We hope that each tutor group will adopt and become responsible for a small group of trees to ensure they thrive and become productive for years to come.

Lancashire Green Awards Evening

Green Team New Life!!

New Life

As You can See in The report BBEC report It is time To start growing In the Greenhouse!

Mmmm - I can't wait for those lettuces!!

BIG Litter Survey

Thank you to those pupils who gave up their lunchtimes to take part in this national survey aimed at finding out where the litter near the school comes from. Instead of litter picking within in the school grounds a total of 4 litter picks took place outside but adjacent to the school with notice taken of the types of litter found and where it comes from. The results of this survey have been sent to the Keep Britain Tidy group.

As a result of our Big Tidy Up and survey it was nice to find that although not litter free there were no real hotspots to cause concern. The main types of litter were discarded drinks bottles and cans with Lucozade and Coke the most frequent, an assortment of crisp packets were found to be the main offenders in the  food wrapper section. Our Big Tidy Up resulted in just 4 sacks of litter being added to the national total recorded so far of  934, 835 and a better looking Broughton thanks to Tom Down, Umar Sakha   James Rosendale, Andrew Connell,  Ben Horton,  Jake Livsey-Gosling, Andrew Kennedy, and Cameron Noble. Is it a coincidence that these are all in Year 8?

If you would like to help with an occasional litter pick either at school or in your local area please let us know. Future events will include “Green Day” on May 18^th and the “Love the Area You Live In” campaign in September, although we do not need to wait for a special event to be able to pick up litter.

                                 BE A STAR.

DON’T DROP IT - BIN IT!

Greenhouse

It’s not perfect but the weather is definitely improving and the greenhouse is undergoing a spring clean. Once minor repairs have been made we hope to start planting – probably  after half term when we can keep an eye on the developing seedlings. Meanwhile, the equipment ordered as a result of the Morrison vouchers collection has arrived. This year we will be benefiting from two wooden cold frames together with a series of smaller cloches to help get our outdoor plantings off to a better start. Fruit trees were also on offer this year and we gained an apple tree (variety – Elstar) for our orchard.  A massive THANK YOU to all who brought in Morrisons vouchers; we look forward to your help again next year!

A glimpse of the future at BBEC?

If we receive the Eco schools award then BBEC will be the proud owners of  solar panels! Someone will be coming in on Monday to see if we could have solar panels and some pupils are going to interview them.