Year 7 Spotlight!
The Year 7 team are so proud of how our Year 7’s have adapted to this new way of working, and want to share some of their amazing contributions.
This week we would like to share Kyle Williams' wonderful poem on Deforestation, originally shared as part of our Everyday Heroes competition, but drawing upon the Rainforest study Kyle has been completing with Mr Mirza in Geography.
Well done Kyle!
Deforestation
Everyday Heroes
We should stop the forest from being destroyed,
For the future of our generation.
And for others that follow, let’s put an end
To deforestation.
Let’s make the right decisions in our world,
To keep loggers and poachers at bay,
By not buying any of their products.
So you can be a hero in your own special way.
Deforestation and poaching,
Both of them are linked.
From cutting down trees to killing animals
And many are already extinct.
The land is cleared and the grain that is grown,
Is fed to the animals that we eat.
So next time you have burgers or nuggets,
Just question the food chain of that meat!
We need our trees; they are a part of our life,
Absorbing nasty CO2.
But if they are all killed and never seen again,
There’s nothing else we can do.
Tons of CO2 are strangling the planet,
Heating up our world faster,
Melting our cold, precious ice caps
And causing multitudinous disasters.
Think about the choices that you make,
Now is the time to be reflective.
Imagine the CO2 choking our Earth
And see the world from a different perspective.
Palm oil is dominating most of our foods,
But it comes from where there were once rainforest trees.
This serious problem is all around the world,
From Indonesia to Belize.
So next time you buy a product,
Just check on the label in case
That any palm oil is hiding somewhere
On the bottom or on the face.
There are some humans who live in the rainforest
And stay in groups called tribes.
But some loggers, who want the land around them,
May force them to leave with their threats and bribes.
Always buy recycled paper,
Take pride in yourself and be clever.
If you don’t, you’re only helping loggers
And soon the forests will be gone forever.
Buy products from sustainable forests,
Where they plant double the trees that they use.
So when you buy chocolate or bananas from eco-friendly suppliers,
There are no trees that you lose!
Do you feel passionate about saving rainforests?
We need more pioneers.
A strong leader is relentless
And brings forward new ideas.
Whether you are a leader or a follower,
Everyone must play their part,
As an everyday hero, we will save this planet
So we can follow our dreams and continue Earth’s beating heart.
Bharku, Nepal. We helped to set up a small library and also taught lessons at the local primary school. Life was hard for the majority of people living in the village – many earned a subsistence living from small plots of terraced land.
Only two or three houses in the village had toilets, there was no piped water and at the time of our visit, few people had phones and there was no internet. A few of the younger men, like our friend Nima (second from left, bottom picture) picked up occasional work as guides or porters for tourists who were trekking in the Himalayas.
Thulo Bharku were badly damaged or destroyed. We managed to raise some money at the John of Gaunt school to help out but it took many years for some of the residents’ lives to get back to normal. Most people were not insured like they would be in the UK. In recent years, internet has arrived at the village so we have managed to get in touch with people we knew from 2005.
Our friend Nima has found life difficult staying in the village. There are minimal job opportunities to support his wife and 2 children. In 2015, following the earthquake, the number of tourists visiting Nepal dropped, and now COVID has shut the country down for the best part of a year. We have tried to help Nima out on a few occasions but last Saturday we received a distressed facebook message saying his wife (left of photo) had been rushed to hospital. Unfortunately there is no NHS in Nepal and the majority of people cannot afford health insurance. Consequently, Nima was faced with what was for him, a massive medical bill. We decided to set up a fundraising page and did a family 5k run. By the end of the day we had raised nearly £500 and Nima was able to pay back most of the money he had borrowed from villagers. Lets wish her a speedy recovery and if you ever fancy trekking in Nepal I will point you in Nima’s direction.
?