Click on the link below the picture to go to the cbbc website where you can see what Ricky wrote and also watch the vide clip as well.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_8310000/newsid_8315600/8315696.stm

Newsround 20th October-cbbc

Award for school's 'green' roof
Sharrow School's green roof is proving to be a haven for wildlife in Sheffield
Pupils and teachers at a Sheffield school have been celebrating after their roof was given special protection as a nature reserve.

Attracting birds, bees and butterflies, Sharrow School's 'green roof' is the first in England to be given Local Nature Reserve status.

Parts of it have colonised naturally and trees have begun to appear.

Head teacher Lynne Ley said: "It's a great resource to get children out of the classroom to learn about wildlife."

The school's roof has become such an important wildlife haven in the city centre that conservation organisation Natural England, together with Sheffield City Council, decided it needed protection.

Special design

Ms Ley said children at the school got a lot out of the green roof.

She said: "They learn how important it is to look after the environment, not just on our doorstep but worldwide."

Designed to show the different sorts of habitats found around Sheffield, the roof is made from locally sourced and recycled material.

Peter Nottage, Natural England's regional director, said: "This is a superb example of how we can involve our future generations in looking after our environment."

There are several green roofs in England, with about 120 in Sheffield and Rotherham, but Sharrow School's is the first to be officially declared a Local Nature Reserve.

Sheffield City Council leader Paul Scriven said: "The Local Nature Reserve designation will protect the roof to ensure it remains a haven for birds and other kinds of wildlife."

LOCAL NATURE RESERVE

CELEBRATIONS
Lynne Crowe board member for the Yorkshire & Humberside region of Natural England (sponsors of the LNR designation) presents us with the commemorative plaque. We'll need to find some space on the 'awards wall' now.

Lynne talks to the interviewer from the local television news programme Calendar about how important green spaces like this are. She should know all about green things, Lynne is a Professor of Environmental Management at Sheffield Hallam University.

Lots of important people came to the media event with photographers, radio interviewers and television people Councillor Shaffaq Mohammed (Cabinet Member for Climate Change and the Local Environment) talks with children from the school before his television interview.

WE were able to go along to the media event and meet all the important people...we even had our photo taken with some of our friends from school and Cath our Architect.

Why Sharrow is more than just a school to pupils and community
Sharrow Primary School head Lynne Ley and assistant head Evelyn Abram on the nature reserve roof

Date: 31 July 2009
By David Bocking

Many of our children live in flats or with extended families, so space is at a premium for them."

Traditional classrooms are from a Victorian mindset, she suggests. Corridors were ruled out (unused spaces for much of the day where problems can happen when children are squeezed together, Lynne explains). So were grills and shutters.

"Shutters and grills say keep out, but we want to say come in, not keep out."

The design of the building helps with behaviour too. The open classrooms and lack of corridors and the way everyone has to get along together has cut down on the traditional primary school squabbling in out of the way places.

"We never realised it would have so much impact," says Evelyn. "But everyone noticed that behaviour has improved."

And finally, the governors instisted on making the building sustainable for the future, so it was well insulated, a ground source heat pump was installed to provide heat and cooling from the temperature of the earth, and rainwater harvesting provides virtually all the water for the toilets.

"To start with, when we flush our toilets the water is yellow because the rainwater comes through the organic material on the roof, so the kids say 'Urgh, nobody's flushed the toilet.' But eventually that will be clearer."

That's the idea, says Lynne, but in the meantime all the kids are learning about sustainability by taking part in it themselves.

The roof itself is likely to be designated as an official local nature reserve: it's a 'biodiverse' rather than 'green' roof, and is designed to recreate the plants and insect life on the Sharrow ground.

As such, as well as helping alleviate flooding and cooling the summer classrooms, the roof is a boon for nature study covering wildflowers and insects.

The school's "Construction Buddies' blog (narrated by two bears, 'Brix' and 'Morta' ) details the whole process from planning the school, to building, to turning up at award presentations.

'We're off to another awards ceremony and big dinner (we'll have to start watching our waistlines soon)," said the bears recently before picking up the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors' Design and Innovation award to add to the gongs and praises from the Sheffield Design Awards, the Society of Chief Architects of Local Authorities, the Royal Institute of British Architects and Architectural Ironmongery journal.

And the children have recognised the qualities of the building as much as RIBA.

"One nine year old came up to me and said it doesn't feel like a school," says Lynne, with some pride. "It feels like a college."