News

'Phil' the Bag

We are having a 'Phil' the Bag fundraising collection on 13th March 2012. 

The 'Phil' the Bag Scheme is a unique opportunity which helps to demonstrate the significance of textile recycling and re-using on both a local and global scale and provides valuable clothing for people in developing countries.

Caring for the environment is a strong theme in Queen Mary's High School and learning about the impact or ecological footprint of our communities encourages our students to 'think locally and act globally'.

Everyone is welcome to take part.  Please take home a 'Phil' the Bag bag and fill it with your unwanted clothes, shoes, bedding, curtains, belts and handbags and return it to school on the 13th March. We will happily take items in any type of bag. The collected bags will then be weighed and for each tonne collected we will receive £500 (50p per kilo).

 Click on Icon to download A4 poster to print out

Eco-committee 2011/12

Since the start of this academic year, we've been working very hard in an attempt to get everyone in the school to be more eco-friendly. The first real problem we encountered was attempting to encourage hundreds of teenage girls to start caring about their recycling with the introduction of the notorious eco-bin.

Read more: Eco-committee 2011/12

FAIRTRADE

We would like to start off by thanking everyone who helped out and participated in our Fairtrade events that took place the previous academic year. Thanks to you all we have achieved the Fairtrade School Status again.
Fairtrade has helped many workers in developing countries by improving their working conditions and maintaining a decent wage for them and their families. Their aims are to help producers create better trading conditions and promote sustainability through a system based on justice and fairness. It guarantees a fair amount of money goes to each person involved in developing a product from the farmers to the retailers. Buying products with the Fairtrade logo, ensures everyone receives a fair price, plus a little bit extra so they can invest in more projects of their choice. People across the world are part of the fast growing Fairtrade movement and it is now being introduced in more countries. They believe that small actions add up to big changes that make the world fairer for everyone. Fairtrade exists in the hope that the world can become a better place for everyone and provides a fairer life. It's important that every person no matter how far away they live or what they do for a living gets a fair chance at life. 

Read more: FAIRTRADE

Year 13 Geographers & Economists Unite for Debate

In early November, year 13 geographers and economists came together to debate the ethical dilemmas of trade at Birmingham University’s Business School.  Run in the style of a junior question time debate, similar to that on the BBC, there was a panel of representatives from a large retail chain, Fairtrade foundation, a local strawberry producer and a local government official. The debate was run as part of the Economic and Social Research Council’s festival of social science and was attended by university undergraduates and A level students. The debate proved not only to be educational, supporting key themes covered in both geography and the economics curriculum but also thought provoking, ending on an interesting discussion on “Should you buy local or Fairtrade products?”
Katie Miller

Transport for London: Aston University

On the 12th October 5 girls from year ten attended a workshop at Aston University. There were five other local schools there (including QM boys’!) and we took part in all sorts of transport planning related activities. Practical activities included making a 1m tall, free-standing tower out of newspaper, that could support an aero chocolate bar for 10 seconds. We also had challenges such as making up a transport joke (not our strongest point!) and transport bingo which we won. BINGO! During the day we improved our teamwork and presentational skills, but we then had 6 weeks to prepare a transport plan for the national competition which took place in London on 28th November. Go Team Movers and Shakers!
Lucy Evans

Read more: Transport for London: Aston University