Apple Day

Thursday 21^st October was National Apple Day. Here at the ELC we celebrated the diversity of apples with the Notre Dame Science Club. The Year 7 and 8 pupils enjoyed tasting many different varieties of apples that were all grown in the UK and not normally found in the supermarket.

We also had apple carving, with the pupils creating a wide range of apple sculptures – from ducks to Jack-O-Lantern style scary faces, we even had a Dalek!

Here at the ELC we have recently planted three’ Red Devil’ apple trees. The Red Devil apples are famed for their bright red flesh, which when pressed produces a pink apple juice. The Red Devil is a British variety of apple that was created by crossing between the ‘Discovery’ and ‘Kent’ varieties. It is relatively new being first raised in 1975 by H.F. Ermen in Faversham, Kent.

This area of Yorkshire has many endemic types of apples – many now are very rare. In the future we plan to plant a selection of local heritage varieties of apple trees in the grounds. 

Top Fact

Did you know that there are enough UK varieties of apples that you could eat a different type every day for a year and still have some left to try?

Eco-Club 

Notre Dame Eco-Club meets every Monday lunchtime 12.45-13.15 and is normally held in the ELC. Mr Norton currently runs the club and the group meets to discuss green issues and plays an important role in ensuring Notre Dame is as eco-friendly as possible. At the end of the summer term 2010 Eco-Club were were responsible for updating Notre Dame's Eco-Action Plan, producing an impressive and thorough report. The group is also involved in our Fruitful Schools partnership - designating suitable sites for our apple orchard and taking part in apple-focus activities. For more information about the Eco-Club have a look at the Moodle group (you'll have to enter your Notre Dame username and password to access this information):

https://ndvle.notredame-high.org.uk/course/view.php?id=382 

The club is open to all students so why not come along one lunchtime and join in? Bring a friend...bring four!

The Big Draw 2010

This October we will plan to hold Big Draw activities in the ELC. The aim is to hold environmentally-focused art projects that encourage students to be more aware of their surrounding environment and the impact they have on it. Although not actively competing in the competition we hope to create impressive, large-scale pieces that will be on display in the ELC throughout the autumn.

Potential activities include:

• Creating large murals  - autumnal landscape, ecosystems;
• Reduce, reuse, recycle - explore the impact of waste on our environment and use recycled materials to create a collage;
• Design your very own eco-friendly home and create an eco-village with your friends;
• Create your own personal green pledges and attach them to the promise tree;
• The web of life – create a web to knot, tie and weave with natural elements found in the woodland;
• Natural art – draw from life in the natural environment, create collages from natural materials, paint with mud and create rubbings from natural objects;
• Environmental sculpture – create sculptures in the outdoor environmental using artists, such as, Andy Goldsworthy and David Nash as inspiration.