The normal timetable was suspended and the whole year group rotated round a range of activities exploring the theme of the day from different points of view. For the last two months, the whole staff have been bringing in their old clothes, empty plastic milk bottles, cereal boxes and loo roll holders – indeed, everything which they would normally throw away but which could, with a little imagination, be put to good use.
The pupils made fashion accessories from the piles of rubbish collected for them. At the end of the day, there was a fashion-show in Warwick Hall in which the best outfits, made from discarded fabric and basic household rubbish, were displayed in style on the catwalk. Drama Teacher, Mrs Downie, was transformed into an eco-model with her hat built around a polystyrene pizza tray and her fitted, studded dress made from bin-liners, chains of silver foil and a host of other impressive details. The dress, designed and made by Sixth Form student, Stephen Hollywood, won the prize for the best outfit of the day. Stephen has once again demonstrated his real flair for design and his great creative vision; he designed the staging our last show, the School Musical. Stephen hopes to go on to university next year and is currently trying for a place on the country’s foremost Theatre Design course at Nottingham Trent University. We wish him all the best!
In another set of activities, pupils looked at how, in some parts of the world, people live on and from rubbish tips. They used the piles of refuse to build model shanties and reflected on what it must be like to return to a home built of junk, with no electricity, gas, running water or sanitation. One pupil said, “I feel so much more grateful for what I have now. It makes me sad that people really have to live that way. It’s made me realise how hard life must be for people in Haiti right now.”
Mrs Hill, our Technology Advanced Skills Teacher (AST), said, “One of the main aims of the day is to heighten pupils’ global awareness and their understanding of the responsibility they carry for the future of our planet.”
“The children developed their team working skills as the tasks we set them demanded that they worked co-operatively as well as creatively,” said Mr Morland, AST in Humanities. “They really enjoyed the outfit making and the fashion show was a great way to end the day. I was amazed by the creativity and inventiveness of some of the pupils.”
“The pupils were thoroughly engaged throughout the day and I think they really deepened their knowledge of this vital topic, ‘Sustainability’,” said Mr Akbar, a Science Teacher and the School’s Sustainability Co-ordinator. “It will be a day to remember!”
We were delighted once again to be able to extend the benefits of the day to a group of pupils from the Priestley Smith Special School. Mrs Davies, the Community Co-ordinator who organised their visit, said, “It’s always a delight to see them and once again it was clear how both they and our pupils benefit enormously from working with each other.”
These days take a huge amount of organisation, a single year group being around 420 pupils at Great Barr School, so a big thanks has to go to the whole team for doing such a great job once again!
