Hengrove Community Arts College, Bristol Juniper Hall, 13th to 16th May

29th May, 2008 to 29th Jun, 2008

Thirty Key Stage 3 students from Hengrove enjoyed a fantastic start to the Eco Challenge Project at Juniper Hall in May. The students,selected for showing extra effort and good behaviour, took part in a varied programme which included high ropes, habitat investigations, team building, mammal trapping and conservation tasks.

Working with the school, staff from Juniper planned a programme full of activities that helped the students learn more about themselves and the environment. The personal and social skills developed during the visit were tested in a team challenge. All teams worked together to devise a different solution to the egg drop challenge.

As part of the final review session students were asked to draw a timeline of events and write individual Eco Pledges. These Eco Pledges revealed how each student identified a small but significant change to their lifestyle to help the environment back home and at school in Bristol.

All the students, school staff and tutors commented on how much they had enjoyed the experience and how worthwhile it had been. But it doesn’t stop there for Hengrove! The group will also be using their new found skills as bench makers to construct furniture to invite more students to sit and enjoy the outdoor area as part of their Post Course activity.

This quote from one year 8 student sums up the whole experience

“We have done things here that we will never ever get the chance to do again, scrub clearance, bench making. I've had a great experience and I've loved every minute of it”.