WOW a film all about our school

The National College of School Leadership made a film about our school. A long time ago we gave you the links to the interviews that formed part of it but now YouTube can take the whole video we have uploaded it for all you folks who have been asking about it. Click on the arrow below to see it.



We hope you enjoy it, even though we're not in it!
Love Brix & Morta

GOODNESS...prime time exposure!!!

Our school green roof is on BBC 1 tonight @7.30pm September 20th 2010

Paul Hudson (The BBC weatherman) is presenting WILD WEATHER and visits the school it's roof and pupils.

http://www.radiotimes.com/ListingsServlet?event=10&channelId=92&programmeId=132135613&jspLocation=/jsp/prog_details_fullpage.jspdetails_fullpage.jsp

We're not sure if it's regional but it will be available on i-player later.

TOMORROW...
WORLD GREEN ROOF CONGRESS 2010

http://www.worldgreenroofcongress.com/

We're off the tomorrows conference...we've been asked to tell folks about our green roof and also how it has influenced (we think that's the right word) the new green roof we hope will be built on top of the new 'MY PLACE' building in Lowfield, also in Sharrow.

There are people coming from all over the world.

We were invited to London by Blanche Cameron to take part in a RESET debate...

RESET
Debate-The tension between ecology and architecture
BDP office-London

Cath http://www.shu.ac.uk/built/architecture/staff/basilio.html

shared the bill with

Gary Grant http://www.garygrant.me/

Dominic Coath http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/

Dusty Gedge http://www.livingroofs.org/

Blanche Cameron director of RESET setting up at the beginning of the event. See link for more information about RESET.

http://reset-development.org/

The link below will take you to some video clips of the debate.

http://reset-development.org/#/events-talks/4539274650

We managed to get a front row seat.

The talk was held of the office of BDP Architects in London in Brewhouse Yard in Clerkenwell. What a great place to work, an old brewery but with a new bar in the lobby!

But it soon filled up with folks from all over London and further afield.

There were also some great models of some of the projects that the office had done. This one is Hampden Guerney school just off Edgeware Road. it's a primary school and is a bit like our school with terraces from every classroom but they have more floors and a tent on the roof instead of plants.

The really cool thing was that we got to stay over with Dusty Gedge http://www.dustygedge.com/ and even saw his mini green roof and shared a room with Lisa Lee Benjamin see here for her exciting ecological projects http://www.evodesign.biz/ and the next day we Cath took us to the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) for our lunch.

It was a really lovely sunny day as well, thanks everybody :-) xxx

Guardian (news) website

The Green Roof Centre in Sheffield recently hosted a 'Green Roof Safari', it was a great oportunity to visit some of the green roofs within walking distance of the centre. Apparently there are now 14 roofs with vegetation on within just 400 m... WOW.

The introduction to the tour by Jeff Sorrill (Green Roof Centre Manager) referred to the roof of our school as 'the most important green roof in the country'. Last year Nigel Dunnett (Reader in Urban Horticulture) Sheffield University indicated that it was also probably the most researched roof in the country if not Europe.

'the most important green roof in the country''

Guardian news sent a reporter and photographer on the safari and the link below is to the site with a slideshow of stills and narration of the safari. They heard so many interesting things about the Sharrow roof that the photographer came back the next day to visit the school roof. The beginning of the film shows lots of pictures of the Sharrow roof and later there are ones of some of the features like the brick pile and it ends back at Sharrow.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/audioslideshow/2010/apr/08/sheffield-green-roof-safari

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."

SHEFFIELD LIVE...

Our interview got 'bumped' until next week, same time same place.

We've been recorded!

Cath & Lynne did most of the talking, we were a bit shy, but there were some photos taken of us, so hopefully when those are e-mailed through we'll get them on here so you can see the studio.

The interview will be edited and used in the programme going out 12-1pm on Thursday 30th July and again at tea time (5.00pm), you can also listen online.

Check out the link below to find out more about Sheffield Live 93.2fm , Sheffield Community Radio, the real voice of Sheffield people.
http://www.sheffieldlive.org/

SHEFFIELD LIVE...

We've been asked by Nicola at Sheffield Live (have you listened to them on your radio at home?) to go and talk to her about sustainability (green/eco things), sharrow school and education. It is a recorded interview so we're not sure when it will go out on 'air' (broadcast so you can hear it), but we'll let you all know.

It is for their Communities Live programme that goes out 12-1pm.

GREEN APPLE AWARDS
We were at Hampton Court Palace today to receive our Green Apple Award.
From the right: Kath our fabulous interior designer, Kate O'Mara (giving out the awards, she was in a TV programme called Howard's Way) Cath our architect.

We had some lovely strawberries and ice cream. Oh, and our trophy was an engraved plasterers trowel.

Hampton Court Palace was built in 1514, that's a long time ago. It has been used by kings and queens as well as Cardinal Wolsley who started the development of the site next to the river Thames. Read more about the history of the palace or even go and see it by following the links below,
http://www.hrp.org.uk/hamptoncourtpalace/ for the offical visitor information site
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampton_Court_Palace for information about the history of the palace

GREEN APPLE AWARDS

Another outing! We go to London (Hampton Court Palace-home of Henry the Eigth) on June 29th to collect a 'GREEN APPLE AWARD' we wonder if it will be edible?

LOCAL NATURE RESERVE

Work is underway to designate our roof as a 'Local Nature Reserve'. special visitors came last week to look at everything and we're keeping out fingers crossed that it will be the first reserve on a building!

Gardeners World

...Britain has such a city (a city in a garden) leading the way in green roofs technology so I'm visiting one of its newest and most exciting projects aimed at educating the next generation.

Just click on the arrow/picture to play

The above is an extract taken from the BBC Gardeners World programme earlier this year. Wow...fancy that, Singapore, London and Paris...and then Sheffield.

"It's heartening that one enlightened Local Authority has had the vision to create this wonderful environment. If only more civic authorities would follow their lead." Joe Swift-BBC gardeners World

Watch us...

video coming soon hopefully when we figure out how to convert quick time to somethign we can upload!

At a star studded ceremony in Leeds (sparkly curtains that is!) Harry Gration TV presenter for BBC yorkshire presented the 8 RICS awards (we were shortlisted in 4 categories if you remember). Brix had to get his posh bow tie out again as it was a 'black tie' event.

WE had some funny little fruits for dessert (pudding) they are called Physalis and they are the CApe Gooseberry fruit. They tasted very nice and sweet.

Oh yes, we also picked up the Award for Design and Innovation!

Follow the link to the RICS article...

RICS Pro Yorkshire Awards Winners Announced

Region's top schemes rewarded at Pro-Yorkshire awards
18th May 2009
By Ian Briggs - Deputy Editor (The business desk.com)

http://www.thebusinessdesk.com/yorkshire/news/11485-region-s-top-schemes-rewarded.html

AN EDWARDIAN theatre refurbishment, a school design and a retirement development have all been recognised as top building projects at the 2009 RICS Pro-Yorkshire Awards.

The awards recognise and celebrate inspirational initiatives and developments in land, property, construction and the environment.

Sharrow School in Sheffield picked up the award for design and innovation: (l-r) Evelyn Abram, Jo Tingle, Lynne Ley and Cath Basilio with RICS Yorkshire chairman Colin Harrop.

Harrogate's Royal Hall won the highly-acclaimed project of the year accolade after the theatre complex underwent a £10.7m refurbishment.
A total of seven projects from across the region were given top prizes at the awards, which were held at the Saviles Hall, Royal Armouries in Leeds.

Several of the winners have now been automatically entered into the national RICS awards later this year, where they will compete against building projects from across the UK.

Colin Harrop, RICS Yorkshire and Humber chairman, said: “Our independent judges had an extremely tough task choosing the winners as the awards attracted an initial entry of 76 projects this year. This is more than any other region in England, and the vast majority of entrants were of an exceptionally high standard.

“The winners really do put Yorkshire and Humberside on the map as a region that offers world-class, innovative buildings - they are truly inspirational projects that demonstrate the skills and creativity of our property professionals and their commitment to sustaining and improving the property landscape.”

Jennifer Welch, operations director of RICS North, added: “We had a great turnout on the night, which we really appreciate, as these awards symbolise excellence in the Yorkshire and Humberside property and construction sector and provide an invaluable opportunity for the region to celebrate and showcase its exceptional projects.”

Category winners at the RICS Pro-Yorkshire Awards were:
Building conservationWinner: Royal Hall, Harrogate Highly commended: St James Church, Baildon
CommercialWinner: Stanhope Buildings, Horsforth
Community BenefitWinner: Castleford River Crossing and Fish Pass, Castleford Highly commended: The Art house, Wakefield Highly commended: The Green Lane Neighbourhood Centre, Whitby
Design and innovationWinner: Sharrow School, Sheffield Highly commended: Brompton Lakes, Richmond
RegenerationWinner: Bridlington Spa, Bridlington
ResidentialWinner: pad55, Pickering
SustainabilityWinner: pad55, Pickering
Tourism and leisureWinner: Leeds City Museum
Project of the year Royal Hall, Harrogate

RICS awards tonight

We're off to another awards ceremony and big dinner (we'll have to start watching our waistlines soon). Keep your fingers crossed for us and your school!

Shortlisted in four categories:

Design and Innovation
Brompton Lakes, Richmond
Creative Arts Building, Huddersfield
Innovation Hub, Leeds
Pad 55, Pickering
Sharrow NIL School, Sheffield
University of Information Commons

Community Benefit
Castleford River Crossing & Fish Pass, Castleford
Hillside School, Beeston, Leeds
Sharrow NIJ School, Sheffield
Shibden Park, Interpretation Centre, Halifax
The Arthouse, Wakefield
The Green Lane Neighbourhood, Whitby

Regeneration
Brewery Wharf, Leeds
Bridlington Spa, Bridlington
Castleford River Crossing & Fish Pass, Casteford
Eastbrook Hall, Bradford
Sharrow NIL School, Sheffield
The Bay, Filey

Sustainability
Creative Arts Building, Huddersfield
Henley Rise, Rotherham
Pad 55, Pickering
Sharrow NIJ School, Sheffield
Shibden Park Interpretation Centre, Halifax
St Margarets Parish Centre, Horsforth

NATURAL ENGLAND

Sharrow School roof has been proposed as a Local Nature Reserve (LNR)

If successfully accepted then it will join 16 other LNR's in Sheffield, but it will be the first ever on a building!!!

How are Local Nature Reserves declared?
Local Nature Reserve (or LNR) is a statutory designation made under Section 21 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, and amended by Schedule 11 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006, by principal local authorities.

For further information go to the website...
http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/designatedareas/lnr/declaration.aspx