The Sunflower Challenge!

Each family will now have taken home a pot with a sunflower seed and some instructions! We would love you to try and grow your sunflower and share with us  your success (or failure!) during the Summer term. These have been kindly provided by Dobbies Garden Centre. We are grateful to them for supporting activities like this which connect our pupils with nature.

Autumnal Tidy-up of the Wild River Itchen

 Saturday 5th November 2022 10am-2pm

Chessel Bay should be an excellent habitat for nature, but is also strewn with rubbish - much of which is plastic, brought by the tides - which is not only unsightly but dangerous for wildlife. There are big things happening with projects to help reduce ‘nurdle’and other local pollution here - but litter-picks are still an important part of the overall efforts - especially as we have been unable to run large events for a couple of years now!

If you would like to come and help with our ‘Autumn-Clean’ at Chessel Bay, it would greatly improve the habitat for the wildlife which depends on the Nature Reserve. So, we hope to see you there.

Help to ‘turn the tide’ on plastic pollution at Chessel Bay!

Chessel Bay is situated at the end of Quayside Rd, S018 1DP, near Bitterne Manor School. Please wear old clothes. Under 16s need to be accompanied by a responsible adult. N.B. Parking is very restricted and there are no toilets on site. 

For more information contact Hawthorns Urban Wildlife Centre - 023 8067 1921 or email hawthorns@southampton.gov.uk

www.chesselbay.org.uk

Southampton National Park City would like to hear from you!

The Southampton National Park City group is a community movement celebrating and supporting actions by the people of Southampton who want to create a city that is rich with nature and where everyone benefits from exploring, playing and learning outdoors.

 

We would like Southampton to be a National Park City. This is not the same as a rural National Park, but similarly a National Park City consists of a vision, partnership and a community of people working together to look after and improve the habitats, landscapes, communities and culture of urban life.

The answers you provide will be used to develop projects across the city and will form the basis of our application to become a National Park City.

Please see www.southampton-national-park.com for more information.

Take our survey
We want to hear from you to shape the priorities of the National Park city project and to bring people and nature closer together in your area – please share with your neighbours!

English  https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/PS3RDHB

Arabic   https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/DLQWP7X

Polish    https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/YZX77SN

Hindi     https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/YGC3LG8

Urdu      https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Y5SYR9S

Are you ‘Itchen’ to get back out and help tidy the river?

Saturday 30th October 2021 10am-2pm 

Chessel Bay should be an excellent habitat for nature, but is also strewn with rubbish - much of which is plastic, brought by the tides - which is not only unsightly but dangerous for wildlife. There are big things happening with projects to help reduce ‘nurdle’ and other local pollution here - but litter-picks are still an important part of the overall efforts - especially as we have been unable to run large events for a couple of years now! 

If you would like to come and help with our ‘Autumn-Clean’ at Chessel Bay, it would greatly improve the habitat for the wildlife which depends on the Nature Reserve. So, we hope to see you there. 

Help to ‘turn the tide’ on plastic pollution at Chessel Bay! 

Chessel Bay is situated at the end of Quayside Rd, S018 1DP, near Bitterne Manor School. Please wear old clothes. Under 16s need to be accompanied by a responsible adult. 

N.B. Parking is very restricted and there are no toilets on site. 

For more information contact Hawthorns Urban Wildlife Centre - 023 8067 1921 or email hawthorns@southampton.gov.uk 

www.chesselbay.org.uk 

Gardening is good for you!

For those of you who have been collecting your children from school, you will have noticed the ongoing transformation of the outside areas of our classrooms. A small group of staff have been working hard with the children over the last few weeks to tidy up and plant these mini gardens. They have done a brilliant job so far! This is a great opportunity for pupils to be outside, be active, take pride in their surroundings and gardening is also a very nurturing activity. We would like to thank the PTA for their contribution to the plants and materials and donations we have recieved from the Coop fund and Elliotts Builder Merchants that have supported this project.

Fund Raising & Helping the Environment

This is an amazing news story about one of our pupils who has been raising money for the school by helping clean up our local area. I was totally overwhelmed to hear that Zach had raised over £400 for his school by collecting litter, in his own words, to help reduce plastic and helping all the animals. All of this in his own time and on his initiative. What an inspiration to be able to do something that helps the environment and raises money for others. He should be very proud, as we all are, of his efforts. I'd like to thank him for his contribution to the school and for showing what a big difference can be made when you put your mind to it, no matter how big or small you are.

Tree Planting

We are very pleased to support the tree planting initiative below. Hopefully, this little area by the side of our playground will prove a good home for these trees in the future.

100 Free Trees for Southampton
CitizEn Energy, an energy provider set up by Southampton City Council, has kicked started their campaign to plant 100 trees in Southampton by donating free trees to local schools and community groups.

With growing concerns about climate change, as an energy provider they feel they have both a greater responsibility and opportunity to have a positive impact on the amount of CO2 this country produces. They only offer 100% green electricity to their customers, but they want to do more so they’re starting with local communities here in Southampton.

Councillor Steve Leggett, Cabinet Member for Green City and Environment at Southampton City Council, said:  “As a city we want to take a stand against climate change. We’re delighted that by signing up to CitizEn Energy’s green electricity our customers have already saved over 1,500 tonnes from entering the atmosphere, but we want to do more. This is why we’re pleased to be offering 100 free trees to local schools and community groups. This campaign not only supports the council’s commitment to making Southampton a cleaner, greener, healthier city through its Green City Charter, we also hope it will help our children to understand the importance of trees.”

No idling outside school please!

If you’ve not seen our banner outside the school gates yet, the message is simple:

“Engines off so we don’t cough!”

This campaign is about respecting our children’s right to breath cleaner air. This applies to anywhere you have to wait and not just schools. On a public road, it indeed is illegal to sit in your car whilst keeping the engine running within the UK. The Highway Code states: 'You MUST NOT leave a parked vehicle unattended with the engine running or leave a vehicle engine running unnecessarily while that vehicle is stationary on a public road'.

Southampton City Council are currently consulting on a strategy for cleaner air in the City. You can find out more here: https://www.southampton.gov.uk/environmental-issues/pollution/air-quality/

The map below highlights the situation in our area:

This is also a national issue and here is a link to an article on air pollution on the BBC yesterday: 'Our children are suffocating'

  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-47138228

So please reflect on your own car use and let's not add to the air pollution that NHS reports say cause up to 40,000 premature deaths per year in the UK.

Reducing single use plastic

We are pleased to announce that every child in school has been given a reusable water bottle; these were kindly donated by Southern Water.  This means that every child will have a water bottle available to them in the classroom, which can also be used during PE sessions etc.  Having reusable bottles also means that, as a school, we can do our bit for the environment by reducing our use of single use plastics.  Mrs Egerton introduced this concept during assembly yesterday and the bottles were distributed to classes today.  Your child will therefore be bringing home any personal bottles they currently have in school in the next few days.

Science Week: 12th – 16th March 2018

Science Week is fast approaching and will provide our pupils with a great opportunity to get stuck into some investigations, with opportunities to apply their literacy and maths skills in a scientific context. You may also be interested to know that you can also get involved, by taking part in the Citizen Science Project. The Plastic Tide are working hard to keep our beaches and oceans clean and are asking people at home to help train their algorithm to automatically detect plastics and marine litter on beaches by tagging plastics and litter on their online drone imagery.

To find out more and to get involved, please visit their websites:
https://www.britishscienceweek.org/plan-your-activities/citizen-science/
https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/theplastictide/the-plastic-tide

Currently, 60% of our oceans are heavily contaminated with plastics, which take over 450 years to degrade. This is having a huge impact on our marine life, as many of our precious sea creatures are ingesting and being trapped in plastics. In turn, this can contaminate the food chain, including our own food. Therefore, in order to our bit to help reduce plastic waste, we would like to introduce Waste Free Lunchboxes for the week (and hopefully beyond). This means that if your child brings a lunch, drink or snack from home, they are being asked to bring it in reusable, washable containers rather than single use packaging. The goal is to have little to no packaging waste.

Tips for creating a waste free lunch:

• Use a reusable container for sandwiches or wrap in kitchen roll / greaseproof paper (which can be
• composted) instead of foil or clingfilm.
• Bring drinks in a reusable bottle rather than cartons or foil pouches
• Instead of buying separate individual servings of snacks (yoghurt, raisins, biscuits, crisps etc), buy one large pack and then put a serving each day in a smaller reusable container - also a money-saver!
• Use cutlery that can be washed and used again
• Choose fruit as your snack of choice, not only is this a healthy option, but the leftovers can be composted - win-win!
• Only pack what they can eat. This will save your pocket, as well as the environment!
• Check what they like and don’t like - don’t waste time and money putting something in that’ll just end up in the bin
• Waste not, want not - pack up last night’s leftovers in reusable containers for a lunch time treat
• If you don't do so already, try packing lunches the night before and keeping them in the fridge overnight

Small changes really can make a difference and by making minor adjustments, we can all help reduce the negative impact we have on the environment; therefore, please join us in our attempts to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Tadpoles have arrived

Today year R had  little surprise, the fish tank that had appeared in thr classroom suddenly came to life.  We have froglets and tadpoles in different stages.  We have enjoyed looking at them today and have asked lots of questions.  We are eager to know more about them. 

It IS Rocket Science...!

We are very excited! Pupils at Bitterne Manor will become space biologists and embark on a voyage of discovery by growing seeds that have been into space.

In September, 2kg of rocket seeds were flown to the International Space Station (ISS) on Soyuz 44S where they will spend several months in microgravity before returning to Earth in March 2016. The seeds have been sent as part of Rocket Science, an educational project launched by the RHS Campaign for School Gardening and the UK Space Agency.

Our school will be one of up to 10,000 schools to receive a packet of 100 seeds from space, which we will grow alongside seeds that haven’t been to space and measure the differences over seven weeks. We won’t know which seed packet contains which seeds until all results have been collected by the RHS Campaign for School Gardening and analysed by professional biostatisticians.

The out-of-this-world, nationwide science experiment will enable pupils to think more about how we could preserve human life on another planet in the future, what astronauts need to survive long-term missions in space and the difficulties surrounding growing fresh food in challenging climates.

Rocket Science is just one educational project from a programme developed by the UK Space Agency to celebrate British ESA astronaut Tim Peake’s Principia mission to the ISS and inspire young people to look into careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects, including horticulture.

Follow the project on Twitter: @RHSSchools #RocketScience

Chocolate Raffle!

We apologise in advance to those who may have begun their 'New Year Resolutions' but this is for a good cause...! Mrs Carter who leads the school Eco Team has won a Cadbury's chocolate hamper for completing a survey online during Energy Month! Unfortunately the hamper arrived late afternoon on the last day of term, so we couldn't distribute the chocolate. So we then thought that it would be a good idea to run a 'Chocolate Raffle!'

Every child will be entered into the raffle. We are just asking for a small voluntary contribution of 50p to go towards our Eco Team. Please send this in by the end of this week. The Eco Team will then hold the raffle with Mrs Carter one day next week. The lucky winners will come home with some chocolate!

All contributions will be spent on badges for the Eco Team and food waste (fruit peelings) bins for each class, which can then be composted. Please support this good cause!

Zany Zebras at Marwell

Most of us will remember all the amazing Rhinos appearing around the town in 2013 and what a great idea that was. Marwell  Zoo have announced that some 'Zany Zebras' will now be appearing in the Summer of 2016. Bitterne Manor will be supporting the project and we are very excited! For more details head over to the Marwell Zoo website here.

Eclipse Preparations

Our preparations are in place to allow pupils to experience part of the solar eclipse event this morning - weather permitting, of course. We take health and safety seriously and, as a consequence, we have been busily preparing our colanders and pinhole viewers plus we have access to 50 solar eclipse glasses. This will allow small groups of children to see this rare event for themselves.

WARNING: NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN WITH THE NAKED EYE, OR WITH CAMERAS, TELESCOPES, GLASSES OR DEVICES OF ANY KIND UNLESS SPECIFICALLY STATED THAT IT IS SAFE TO DO SO. LOOKING AT THE SUN WITHOUT PROPER PRECAUTIONS CAN CAUSE SERIOUS EYE DAMAGE.

Playground Improvements Completed!

We're all very pleased to see our new playground feature finally completed. It's taken a little longer than we expected but now it's finished it is a massive improvement and the children are already enjoying it!

Nature Trails

Year 4 have been working on writing nature trails all week and Year 1 were invited to follow them. The trails included questions and activities, like making bark rubbings or turning over logs to hunt for woodlouse. Each Year 4 pupil paired up with a Year 1. The Year 1s obviously loved doing the trails because they kept swapping partners to follow another trail! At the end Year 1 thanked us and even drew us a picture. We enjoyed the morning as much as they did. Thanks for coming.
(written by a Year 4 pupil)

 

On Display...

The displays around school are an excellent way of celebrating our children's super work. Here are just a few taken today we thought we'd like to share with you...

Natural Phenomenon...

We took both of these pictures in our school grounds. The first is an impressive spider's web caught in the morning dew. The second is truly remarkable...we called it the 'leaf tiger'! This formation of leaves was discovered by pupils on the playground and was created entirely by the wind. We felt it looked just like an animal - what do you think?

Year 4 round off their 'Save our Rivers' topic

This week Year 4 will be visiting Cheriton, close to the source of the River Itchen. Our visit will give the children first hand experience of geography fieldwork and a chance to study elements of river formation.

                          The river source springs from underground, forming a pool of water

Year 4 parents are invited to an assembly at 9am on Friday morning, 8th February, to learn more about our topic work this term. We hope to see many of you there!

After school, also on Friday 8th February, the class are holding a cake sale to raise funds for the charity WaterAid, which we have been supporting. Their aim is to use practical solutions to provide clean water, safe sanitation and hygiene education to the world's poorest people. Please support us by visiting our cake sale. Thank you.