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Eastbourne College
C-Type Print

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Elizabeth Doak / All students
6X4C-type Prints on dowelling

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Seaford Head
6x4 C-Type Prints

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Ratton School
C-Type Prints

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Willingdon Community School
C-Type Prints

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Seaford Head School

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Eastbourne Academy
Inkjet prints, jars, seawater

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Eastbourne College
Stop Frame Animation

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Cyanotypes from beach clean

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Eastbourne college pupils by their microscopic imagery of seaweed

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Benny Walker Yr13 Plastic bag landscapes

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DULWICH PREP BEACH CLEAN

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GREEN TEAM- assist in beach clean with Dulwich Prep school 22MAY

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I just joined this project this term, and I’ve made a stop motion video and took some photos at beach with Elena. It was quite surprising for me to see some toys in the stuffs that were collected by others last term. I would like to make another stop motion video as my final presentation.I think Steam Project is a  great opportunity for me to develop photography ideas, as well as learn more things about marine ecology. I hope my video can more or less inspire the people who will watch it, to let them know the importance of protecting marine ecology.
CristinaYR10

In this project I have learned how much rubbish we throw away and how to stop this.
2. I enjoyed a lot the beach cleaning.
3. I would like to do a time-lapse to show the pollution that the shells have.
4. For me it is a mixture of science and art, which I think it's a great idea.
5. Basically i've been thinking about what I throw to the floor when I am at the beach, so i'm going to try to stop doing that.
Elena Yr10

I have learned about how most things we use every day do end up floating in the sea, which have huge impact to the sea life and humans.

2.       I enjoyed the beach picking day the most because I feel the most helpful the most on the day when we went out to pick up trash from the beach.

3.       I would like to make a video showing how much pollution there are in the sea and showing how it affects the sea life.

4.       STEAM project means a lot to me because it really make me able to help the environment where I don’t really have the opportunity to do before.

5.        To help I would like to put and separate trash in to different type so it won’t end up in the sea and end up being recycled.

Sea Yr10

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Cristina and Elena stop motion

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National geographic planet or plastic pledge

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National geographic planet or plastic pledge

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PLANET OR PLASTIC? PLEDGE: Starting today, National Geographic will ask audiences around the world to take the Planet or Plastic? pledge, a commitment to reduce their use of single-use plastic. By taking the pledge, individuals will become part of a global community working together to stem the tide of single-use plastic polluting the ocean and will continue to receive information and tips to help them in their efforts. The pledge marks the beginning of a comprehensive consumer awareness and engagement campaign that National Geographic will execute across its multiple platforms in the months and years to come. Elements of this campaign will range from inspiring and informative content, ongoing consumer engagement activities, events and more.

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION: The nonprofit National Geographic Society will embark on a journey to better document how plastic travels from source to sea and to fill critical knowledge gaps. Starting with an initial expedition in 2019 to study the type and flow of plastic in a river system, National Geographic will provide science-based, actionable information to help local and national governments, NGOs, businesses and the public more effectively invest in and implement innovative solutions. The Society is also sourcing solutions to the challenge of plastic waste through an existing Reducing Marine Plastic Pollution Request for Proposal (RFP).

THREE-DAY SOCIAL TAKEOVER: National Geographic will use the power and reach of its platforms to educate people about the impact of single-use plastic and to encourage them to take the pledge. For the next three days, National Geographic will "pollute" its Instagram feed, @natgeo, with photos of the plastics crisis as well as animated Instagram stories to highlight the true impact of humanity's pollution of the natural world. Today, @natgeo will feature photos taken by photographer Randy Olson, who traveled around the world to document the plastics crisis and is featured in the June issue of the magazine. On Thursday, May 17, actress and singer Zooey Deschanel ("New Girl," She & Him), co-founder of The Farm Project, which recently commissioned the series, Your Food's Roots, will curate National Geographic's Instagram account, posting photos of the plastic crisis. On Friday, May 18, National Geographic's photographers will be posting their own photos of the crisis. Also on Friday, Kathryn Kellogg, a writer and public speaker who lives a "zero-waste" lifestyle and focuses on the dangers of plastic pollution, will host a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) about small, actionable eco-friendly steps that people can take in their everyday lives. Kellogg, who is featured in the June issue of National Geographic, has fit all of the trash that she has generated at home in the last two years into a 16-ounce jar.

INTERNAL COMMITMENT: Finally, National Geographic will be taking steps to reduce its own reliance on single-use plastics. Starting with the June issue and moving forward, those who subscribe to the U.S., U.K. and India editions of National Geographic magazine will receive their issues wrapped in paper instead of plastic. This change will save more than 2.5 million single-use plastic bags every month. By the end of 2019, all global editions will be wrapped in paper instead of plastic. This is just one of many steps National Geographic is taking to reduce its own single-use plastic consumption. Over the next month, National Geographic will initiate a third-party audit of its single-use plastic use and will develop a timeline and action plan to further minimize single-use plastics in the workplace.

"For 130 years, National Geographic has documented the stories of our planet, providing audiences around the world with a window into the earth's breathtaking beauty as well as to the threats it faces," said Gary E. Knell, CEO of National Geographic Partners. "Each and every day, our explorers, researchers and photographers in the field witness firsthand the devastating impact of single-use plastic on our oceans, and the situation is becoming increasingly dire. Through the Planet or Plastic? initiative, we will share the stories of this growing crisis, work to address it through the latest science and research, and educate audiences around the world about how to eliminate single-use plastics and prevent them from making their way into our oceans."

Added Jonathan Baillie, the National Geographic Society's chief scientist and senior vice president, science and exploration: "By harnessing National Geographic's scientific expertise, we intend to pinpoint activities on land, particularly near rivers, that contribute to the flow of plastics polluting our oceans - and then use what we learn to inspire change at home and around the world. A crisis of this enormity requires solutions at scale, and National Geographic is uniquely qualified to amass the best in research, technology, education and storytelling to effect meaningful change."
See also: The Story Behind that Viral Seahorse Photo Take the pledge to refuse single-use plastic. Join our global Coalition. Follow Plastic Pollution Coalition on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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NEW: National Geographic Launches Planet or Plastic?, a Multiyear Initiative to Reduce Single-Use Plastics

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PLANET OR PLASTIC? PLEDGE: Starting today, National Geographic will ask audiences around the world to take the Planet or Plastic? pledge, a commitment to reduce their use of single-use plastic. By taking the pledge, individuals will become part of a global community working together to stem the tide of single-use plastic polluting the ocean and will continue to receive information and tips to help them in their efforts.

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We all know, in theory, that we ought to use less plastic. We've all been distressed by the sight of Blue Planet II's hawksbill turtle entangled in a plastic sack, and felt chastened as we've totted up our weekly tally of disposable coffee cups. But still, UK annual plastic waste is now close to 5m tonnes, including enough single-use plastic to fill 1,000 Royal Albert Halls; the government's planned elimination of "avoidable" plastic waste by 2042 seems a quite dazzling task. It was reported this week that scientists at the University of Portsmouth have accidentally developed a plastic-eating mutant enzyme, and while we wait to see if that will save us all, for one individual the realisation of just how much plastic we use has become an intensely personal matter.

One early evening in mid-2016, Daniel Webb, 36, took a run along the coast near his home in Margate. "It was one of those evenings where the current had brought in lots of debris," he recalls, because as Webb looked down at the beach from his route along the promenade he noticed a mass of seaweed, tangled with many pieces of plastic. "Old toys, probably 20 years old, bottles that must have been from overseas because they had all kinds of different languages on them, bread tags, which I don't think had been used for years ..." he says. "It was very nostalgic, almost archaeological. And it made me think, as a mid-30s guy, is any of my plastic out there? Had I once dropped a toy in a stream near Wolverhampton, where I'm from, and now it was out in the sea?"

Webb decided that he would start a project to keep all the plastic he used in the course of an entire year. He would not modify his plastic consumption in that time (although he had already given up buying bottled water), and each item would be carefully washed and stored in his spare room.

Webb is a fan of a project - prior to this he ran six half-marathons in six days - but he had little notion of what he would do with his personal plastic mountain until last summer, when he had the idea to make it into an exhibition. Earlier this month, Webb's 12-month haul became part of the Mural-by-the-Sea project, displayed on a billboard at Margate's Dreamland funfair, rechristened Everyday Plastic and documented by the photographer Ollie Harrop.

"Three days before the billboard went up, we started weighing and sorting and counting it all," Webb says. "There were 4,490 pieces in the collection. If you take me as an average person and multiply it by the UK population it means we throw away 293bn plastic items a year." But he is cautious about speaking in such terms. "As soon as you talk billions, it all becomes quite abstract," he explains. "It's like people talk about climate change, and you can't get your head around it. But plastic is tangible, and if you take it back to individual items it starts to resonate."

Of those 4,490 individual items, 60% was food packaging - largely salad and vegetable wrappers and bread bags. Ninety-three per cent was single-use plastic, and just eight items - mostly coffee lids - were made out of biodegradable material.

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'People say: wow, you really like Hula Hoops.' Photograph: Ollie Harrop 2018/Everyday Plastic

"I suppose it is a snapshot of a year in my life," Webb says. "People look at the billboard and say, 'Wow, you really like Hula Hoops, don't you?' Or they say how beautiful it looks, with all the different colours." But it was looking at all the different-coloured items as he sifted through the plastic pile that proved the greatest revelation for Webb. "My reaction when I sorted it all into categories was quite visceral," he says. "You get a really clear picture of what you're consuming and you figure out that all of this stuff was just designed for you to buy it. That black plastic of meat packaging is to hide the colour of the blood, or the brown plastic of mushroom packaging makes the mushrooms look earthy." He laughs. "I work in marketing, and I never thought I'd say this, but we really are being sold stuff we do not need. There is an epidemic of overproduction and overconsumption."

Webb has been a Margate resident for two years, and as he made his regular visit to his local Aldi, he became increasingly aware that it was "practically impossible to go to a supermarket and come away without any plastic packaging ... an aubergine comes in a plastic bag, onions come in a plastic net. And many of these things are made to be obsolete - something like a plastic bag is designed to be used for maybe just 15 minutes. People carry their shopping home in it and then they chuck it away. And it outlives all of them."

Kerbside recycling is limited in Thanet, so prior to his Everyday Plastic project Webb diligently saved up all his bottles and paper and plastic and tins to take to the local recycling centre himself. "But when I took it to the tip, I said: 'Excuse me, where's the plastic recycling?'" he remembers. "And they said: 'Mate, just stick it in the household waste.'"

Recycling, he says, is not the answer - after all, in Webb's collection, just 56 items were made from recycled material. "And that highlights the limits of it," he says. "Recycling is absolutely vital, and we need to invest more in recycling facilities and infrastructure. But really, we need to find ways of using less."

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'Just changing one thing is really important.' Photograph: Ollie Harrop 2018/Everyday Plastic

"Supermarkets are lobbied hard by the packaging industry," Webb says, talking of how he recently visited a shop in Brighton that prides itself on being plastic-free - an achievement that is, of course, laudable. But he also noted that 100g of bran flakes in the shop cost 55p - meaning an average-sized box would add up to more than £4. "We need subsidies for people doing this kind of thing," he says.

The billboard is one element of what Webb hopes will become a bigger project. "I want to take it into schools, and I want to do an exhibition, and I'm working with Friends of the Earth and Surfers Against Sewage to take it to festivals this summer," he says. He will also be publishing a report into the findings of his project at the end of May.

"I'm just one of millions of everyday people who have woken up to what they're consuming," he says. "And the aim is to speak to the awareness-laggers, making people realise that changing your whole lifestyle is difficult, but just changing one thing is still really important. I didn't buy a water bottle last year and I might have used 300 - if everyone did that it would be saving a lot of plastic from going into the sea."
Topics

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I kept all my plastic for a year - the 4,490 items forced me to rethink

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Daniel Webb accrued a mountain of plastic - including many packets of Hula Hoops - and made it into a mural, now on display at Dreamland in Margate. We are overproducing and overconsuming, he says, and recycling is not the answer

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Researchers in the UK and the U.S. have inadvertently engineered an enzyme that eats up plastic.

The enzyme is able to digest PET (polyethylene terephthalate)-the same material used in the ubiquitous plastic bottle that's clogging up landfills, coastlines and oceans around the world.

Amazingly, this discovery only happened by chance. Scientists from the University of Portsmouth in the UK and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) were examining the structure of a natural enzyme, Ideonella sakaiensis, found in 2016 at a Japanese waste recycling center. This enzyme could already break down PET plastic-it just doesn't do it very quickly.

To understand how Ideonella sakaiensis evolved, the research team " tweaked" the structure of the enzyme by adding some amino acids, according to John McGeehan, a Portsmouth professor who co-led the work. They ended up creating an enzyme that worked even faster than the natural one.

"Surprisingly, we found that the PETase mutant outperforms the wild-type PETase in degrading PET," said NREL materials scientist Nic Rorrer.

McGeehan added, "Serendipity often plays a significant role in fundamental scientific research and our discovery here is no exception."

The modified enzyme, called PETase, can break down PET in just a few days-a stunning discovery that could help fight the world's escalating plastic crisis.

Dennis Schroeder / NREL

"After just 96 hours you can see clearly via electron microscopy that the PETase is degrading PET," said NREL structural biologist Bryon Donohoe.

"And this test is using real examples of what is found in the oceans and landfills."

As BBC News explained, PETase works by reversing the manufacturing process by reducing polyesters back to their building blocks so it can be used again.

When you drink soda, water or juice from a plastic bottle, those bottles are almost never made from recycled plastic. Additionally, as the Guardian noted, the plastic bottles that do get recycled can only be turned into polyester fibers for carpet or fabric.

But this new finding suggests a way to turn plastic bottles back into plastic bottles.

"They could be used to make more plastic and that would avoid using any more oil ... Then basically we'd close the loop. We'd actually have proper recycling," McGeehan told BBC News.

The team's finding was published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers are now working to improve PETase to see if it can work on an industrial scale. About one million plastic bottles are purchased around the world every minute, with that number predicted to increase another 20 percent by 2021.

"This unanticipated discovery suggests that there is room to further improve these enzymes, moving us closer to a recycling solution for the ever-growing mountain of discarded plastics," McGeehan said.

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Scientists Accidentally Develop 'Mutant' Enzyme That Eats Plastic

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Researchers in the UK and the U.S. have inadvertently engineered an enzyme that eats up plastic. The enzyme is able to digest PET (polyethylene terephthalate)-the same material used in the ubiquitous plastic bottle that's clogging up landfills, coastlines and oceans around the world.

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Dr Neil Crooks talks to Steam group and 6th form pupils on marine ecology and the issue of plastic waste and the detrimental effect this has on marine communities.

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Dr Neil Crooks talks to Steam group and 6th form pupils on marine ecology and the issue of plastic waste and the detrimental effect this has on marine communities.

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Dr. Neil Crooks a Senior Lecturer in Marine Ecology from the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences at the University of Brighton visiting us on Thursday afternoon (15 March) 4:30

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Dr Neil Crooks is an aquatic ecologist with an interest in human impacts on marine and freshwater systems. With a specialism in fish, and in particular sharks, he examines the effects of certain pollutants on the physiology and behaviour of a range of fish species.

Neil is particularly interested in diadromous species, or those which spend part of their lives in freshwater and part in seawater. The exposure to certain pollutants can hinder this transition between fresh and salt water and it is this survivability that is examined. Neil is also involved in freshwater fisheries management and works with local fisheries to develop and enhance freshwater environments. This takes the form of fish population and invertebrate surveys and also river and lake restoration projects.

I teach across the ecology and environmental pathways and am based primarily at the Hastings Campus. I am the module leader for Ecological Systems and Processes, Issues in Environmental Biology, the Project module and Approaches to Learning. I also contribute to the teaching of Introduction of Marine Habitats, Biogeography, Introduction to Marine Biology and Ecology and Ecology Field Skills.

Having worked outside of academia for some time and having a vast range of practical experience it is important that the students are exposed to the real life scenarios that I can bring to my teaching. The fact that I use a lot of anecdotal evidence during my lectures is remarked upon often and this, combined with numerous practical visits that I run, seems to be one of the strengths to my lecture delivery.

Whether in the field, lab or lecture room I encourage students to be engaged committed and open to learning new ideas and concepts. I also integrate students, as far as possible, into my research activities. I encourage students to become involved, whether they volunteer to help with field work, assist PhD students or undertake projects focused on the research that am involved with.

My research interests focus primarily around fish and the effects that pollutants have on their physiology, morphology and behaviour. I am interested in outputs from any kind of human activity, including sewage treatment plants, aquaculture facilities, agricultural and road run-off. I focus mainly on larval fish as the early life stages are the most vulnerable and this is where many of the effects occur. I am interested in the sub-lethal effects of exposure to contaminants, those which do not kill the fish, but may make them unfit for survival in the wild, for example through reduced swimming capability, which can hinder foraging and can make them more vulnerable to predation. More recently I have started research projects examining the effects of microplastics and nano particles on fish and larvae and marine invertebrates. The focus of this is the use of microbeads and nanoparticles found in cosmetics and skincare products, especially sunscreens, and the impacts they have on developmental processes of fishes.

I am also interested in the behaviour of captive fish in response to visitors in public aquaria. This has focused around elasmobranch species and will extend to examine other organisms. In addition to the behaviour I am also interested in the sexual dimorphism of sharks, specifically the skin. I work in collaboration with the Kwazulu Natal Sharks Boards, examining the sexual dimorphisms of the dermal denticles (scales) on the skin of sharks. This leads to insights into the mating behaviours of shark species, acts that have rarely been witnessed. My research interests provide exciting opportunities for final year projects for undergraduate students.

Current research projects

Previous research projects

The impacts of sewage treatment effluents on the river shrimp Gammarus pulex.

The effects of titanium dioxide and zinc oxide on fish development and behaviour.

The influence of aquarium visitors on captive elasmobranchs.

Sexual dimorphism of shark skin

Research centres and groups

Contact me

Dr Neil Crooks
Senior Lecturer

Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences
Moulsecoomb
Brighton
BN2 4GJ

Email: N.Crooks@brighton.ac.uk

Biography

For as many years as I can remember aquatic environments have held a fascination for me. This interest led me to undertake a BSc in Marine Biology at the University of Portsmouth. During that time I was able to focus on my interests in fish and follow up on my passion for sharks. I completed a final year project on the sexual dimorphism of olfactory organs in sharks. Upon graduation I was invited to travel to South Africa and assist in the research into the effects of cage diving on great white sharks. I then returned to Portsmouth and undertook a part-time PhD examining the sexual dimorphism of sharks in more detail, focusing on the responses to reproductive activities of shark species.

I was employed as a research assistant at the University of Portsmouth. The project examined the impacts of aquacultural effluents on the survival of juvenile salmon and the migration of adult salmon. For this project I spent many hours tagging and tracking adult fish and caging juvenile salmon downstream of fish farms in order to determine if the effluent from aquaculture was hindering migration for juvenile and adult salmon.

I was then employed as an environmental trainer running a canal boat for people carrying out community service orders. The projects undertaken involved river and canal restoration projects in conjunction with the canal and parks authorities in Surrey. This ranged from bank repair, removal of invasive non-native species of plant and lock maintenance and repair. One big project was the reinstatement of a water meadow and the installation of boardwalks for public access.

I was then employed as a lecturer for almost seven years at Sparsholt College in Hampshire, where I taught on the Fisheries Management and Aquaculture degrees, delivering topics in ecology, fish biology, fishery management, aquaculture and marine ecology. Whilst at Sparsholt I ran the majority of practical visits for the undergraduate students and for most weeks of the year I was out electro-fishing, seine netting or invertebrate and plant sampling. In January 2015 I joined Brighton University and have since developed my research and hope to continue to do so.

Research output

Number of items: 8.

Crooks, Neil, Marriott, Claire, Clifforth, Hannah R., Ahmed, Zain A., Xhikola, Arnold, Penny, Samuel G. and Pernetta, Angelo (2017) Rudolph the red nosed reindeer had a very bioluminescent nose. A reply to van der Hoven et al. 2012 Deinsea, 17. pp. 39-42. ISSN 2468-8983

Rees, E.M.A., Britton, John R., Godard, M.J., Crooks, Neil, Miller, J.I., Wesley, K.J. and Copp, G.H. (2014) Efficacy of tagging European catfish Silurus glanis (L., 1758) released into ponds Journal of Applied Ichthyology, 30 (1). pp. 127-129. ISSN 0175-8659

Crooks, Neil, Babey, Lucy, Haddon, William J., Love, Adrian C. and Waring, C.P. (2013) Sexual Dimorphisms in the Dermal Denticles of the Lesser-Spotted Catshark, Scyliorhinus canicula (Linnaeus, 1758) PLoS ONE, 8 (10). ISSN 1932-6203

Crooks, Neil and Waring, C.P. (2013) Sexual dimorphisms in the dermal structure of the lesser-spotted catshark, Scyliorhinus canicula (Linnaeus, 1758) Acta Zoologica, 94 (3). ISSN 0001-7272

Crooks, Neil and Waring, C.P. (2013) A study into the sexual dimorphisms of the Ampullae of Lorenzini in the lesser-spotted catshark, Scyliorhinus canicula (Linnaeus, 1758) Environmental Biology of Fishes, 96 (5). ISSN 0378-1909

Crooks, Neil, Rees, Wayne, Black, Alan, Hide, David, Britton, John R. and Henshaw, Alan (2013) Influence of live and dry diets on growth and survival of chub (Leuciscus cephalus) larvae Fisheries and Aquaculture Journal, 2013. ISSN 2150-3508

Moore, A., Bendall, B., Barry, J., Waring, C.P., Crooks, Neil and Crooks, L.E. (2012) River temperature and adult anadromous Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, and brown trout, Salmo trutta Fisheries Management and Ecology, 19 (6). ISSN 0969-997X

Waring, C.P., Moore, A., Best, J.H., Crooks, Neil and Crooks, L.E. (2012) Do trout farm effluents affect Atlantic salmon smolts? Preliminary studies using caged salmon smolts Aquaculture, 362. pp. 209-215. ISSN 0044-8486

This list was generated on Wed Mar 21 14:38:31 2018 GMT.

Consultancy

I run training courses on introductory electro-fishing.

I offer consultancy advice for freshwater fishery managers.

PhD students

Name

Thesis

Adrian Love (2016-2018)

The impacts of sewage treatment effluents of the river shrimp Gammarus pulex

Asa White (2011-2017)

The impacts of watercress farming on fish communities

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Dr Neil Crooks is an aquatic ecologist with an interest in human impacts on marine and freshwater systems. With a specialism in fish, and in particular sharks, he examines the effects of certain pollutants on the physiology and behaviour of a range of fish species.

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Partner: The Cavendish School, Eastbourne
Partner type: Maintained School

Each year the ESP develops and manages a programme of collaborative projects and shares opportunities for engagement across the Partnership. We evaluate our practice and use this reflection to seek opportunities for the continual enrichment of our young people. Here are some examples from 2017-18:

St Wilfrid's summer fundraising lunch (annually every May)

70 ESP pupils from ESP schools acted as waiters in May 2017.

Outcome/measurement: They all received professional training and were awarded certificates, and by having 'free' waiters it means the hospice can raise lots more.

ESP has close link with St Wilfrid's. Our first joint music busking event raised £1000 for the hospice.

Outcome/measurement:

'I really enjoyed the day. The people were so friendly. I learned about team-work, and the best exercise was rolling the balls down the gutters. It was good to work with other people because when you're older and you have a job you have to work with different people too.' Connor, Eastbourne Academy

'I think it was a really good way of meeting people and becoming more confident in yourself to talk with different people in a safe environment. The things we did pushed me to work with everyone'. Sidney, Willingdon Community School

2 nd Gala Concert, September 2017

1. Over 100 pupils from all ESP schools performed at the Winter Gardens.

Outcome/measurement:

This was the first time many had performed on a professional stage.

They also sang together in a combined ESP choir.

The profits from the evening went to Chestnut Tree House children's hospice

2. Creative and Digital Industries Workshop, October 2017

10 business leaders ran workshops for 81 ESP pupils from 7 schools in years 8-10.

This was a new way of giving pupils the chance to work with professionals from different sectors during an afternoon workshop. The 10 professionals all volunteered their time. The session began with a number of short Q&A session with 4 or 5 of the professionals, and then the pupils spent two half hour slots doing a more practical challenge with two professionals of their choosing. These ranged from storyboarding a commercial ad, to devising a social media campaign, devising colour ways for a textile piece for the Birley auditorium, to developing and costing a pantomime at the largest Eastbourne theatre.

Professionals came from theatre, photography, writing, art gallery, textile art, film, digital media, music production, social media/marketing.

Outcome/measurement:

85% of students rated the event as good or very good with 38% giving it top marks. Further workshops are planned for 2018.

Outcome/measurement: Pupils from 7 ESP schools worked together over two and a half days and put on combined dance performance. Teachers from schools also received CPD.

Homework club, ongoing

"I am delighted to be part of this pilot project for the Eastbourne Schools Partnership. Peer to peer support has definite merit in helping students progress and reach their potential. I am very grateful to the students of Eastbourne College who have committed to working with Willingdon students to not only support their learning journey but to raise their aspirations. This opportunity also allows misconceptions about state and private education to be overcome. Students realise that they are like minded individuals who often have a tremendous amount in common." Emily Beer, Willingdon Headteacher

"It really helps me, the mentors can get learning across to me in a different way to my teachers and I am really enjoying it." Grace

"The mentoring programme at Eastbourne College has helped me, as it has allowed me to work with students closer to my age. They have been able to relate to me and empathise with me." Mervin

"My new mentor has helped me to understand things I struggle with in class, boosting my confidence." Hannah

"I really like going to Eastbourne College, I find it really helpful getting help from other students and revision tips." Freya

Adam Howard, Eastbourne College pupil: "Knowing that we are helping is richly rewarding and also gives us an opportunity to learn different techniques to certain subjects together and apply them to our own work." Adam

Song writing club, ongoing

Aegon tennis, June 2018

Aims of the project

ESP's mission statement is: 'by linking our resources, expertise, enthusiasm and commitment, we aim to develop projects and ideas that inspire, excite and offer creative opportunities for children and young people. In so doing we hope to enable our pupils to work together for mutual benefit and the benefit of others across our town.'

Background and goals

Background

The ESP was founded in 2014, and currently comprises the following 11 schools and colleges who together account for 14,000 children living in Eastbourne and the surrounding area:

Causeway School, Cavendish School, Eastbourne Academy, Eastbourne College, Hailsham Community College, Moira House, Ratton School, Seaford Head School, St Catherine's School, Sussex Downs College, Willingdon Community School.
'The Eastbourne Schools Partnership is a shining example of schools working together for the benefit of the pupils and the wider community'. David Hoare, former Chair of Ofsted.
Each participating school provides one or two 'champions' (member of staff who acts as the go between within their common room), who meet as an Operational Steering Group once or twice a term. The OSG chair and secretary meet with the Heads at the Executive Steering Group meeting twice a year. The chair of the ESG rotates between the Heads.

Resources

Each school pays £750 per annum towards costs of events.

Frequency and duration

On going

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Eastbourne Schools Partnership 2017 Projects

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Partner: The Cavendish School, Eastbourne Partner type: Maintained School Each year the ESP develops and manages a programme of collaborative projects and shares opportunities for engagement across the Partnership. We evaluate our practice and use this reflection to seek opportunities for the continual enrichment of our young people.

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arts award scheme adviser arts diary arts event arts activity young people arts challenge bronze award silver award gold award arts project arts folder young people’s arts award arts council trinity guildhall creative artistic art gallery art galleries

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Arts Award inspires young people to grow their arts and leadership talents

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Part of a nationwide programme, the Big Bang celebrates and raises the profile of young people's achievements in science and engineering. In 2018, The Big Bang Fair South East will be held on Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th June at the South of England Showground near Ardingly, West Sussex.

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Our extensive learning & engagement programme offers different entry points that meet the needs of our diverse audiences of children, young people, teachers, families and communities.

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t's enough to make you cry over your moules frites. Scientists at Ghent University in Belgium recently calculated that shellfish lovers are eating up to 11,000 plastic fragments in their seafood each year. We absorb fewer than 1%, but they will still accumulate in the body over time. The findings affect all Europeans, but, as the most voracious consumers of mussels, the Belgians were deemed to be most exposed. Britons should sympathise - last August, the results of a study by Plymouth University caused a stir when it was reported that plastic was found in a third of UK-caught fish, including cod, haddock, mackerel and shellfish. Now, UK supermarkets are being lobbied to create plastic-free aisles by the campaign group A Plastic Planet, as a feature-length documentary, A Plastic Ocean, is released in Britain this week.

We are finally paying attention to the pollution that has plagued our seas for years - the government is considering a refundable deposit on plastic bottles, and pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson recently switched from plastic to paper stems on its cotton buds. Evidently, there's nothing like serving plastic up on a dinner plate to focus the mind.

Whether your national obsession is moules frites or fish and chips, this problem goes way beyond Britain and Belgium. Contaminated fish and shellfish have been found everywhere from Europe, Canada and Brazil to the coast of mainland China - and plastic-eating fish are now showing up in supermarkets. The question is no longer: are we eating plastic in our seafood? What scientists are urgently trying to establish is just how bad for us that is. Another question we might ask: how did we get here?

More than a century ago, in 1907, another Belgian, Leo Baekeland, a graduate of Ghent University, invented bakelite. It was, he later admitted, something of an accident, but this welcome development ushered in a colourful new age of plastics. Until then, we had, at great cost and effort, been manipulating products out of natural materials such as shellac, derived from beetle shells. (Charles Mackintosh's first "mac" - which used derivatives of tar and rubber - must have been pretty pungent in a downpour.) Baekeland, who had moved to the US, saw commercial potential in an entirely synthetic replacement for shellac that would be suitable for mass production. Bakelite was lightweight, affordable, malleable and safe, but perhaps the greatest thing about the plastic Baekeland created, and those that followed, was its durability.

Throughout the first half of the 20th century, innovations came thick (and thin) and fast - polystyrene, polyester, PVC, nylon. Soon, they were an inextricable part of everyday life. And then, in 1950, that scourge of the sea arrived: the throwaway polythene bag. In that decade, annual global plastic production reached 5m tonnes; by 2014, it stood at 311m tonnes - shockingly, over 40% of it for single-use packing. Now, plastic's durability looks less of a boon than it once did. A study in Science Magazine in 2015 estimated that around 8m tonnes of plastic go into the sea each year. And, last year, a report for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation ( launched in 2010 by the former round-the-world sailor to promote a more circular economy) estimated that, by 2050, the volume of accumulated plastics in the oceans will be greater than that of fish.

Evidently a keen sailor, Baekeland retired in 1939, to spend time on his 70ft yacht, the Ion. Ninety years after his plastics breakthrough, in 1997, another sailor (since turned oceanographer and campaigner), Charles Moore, was traversing the ocean between Hawaii and California when he came across the now infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch, one of the five main subtropical gyres (circulating systems of ocean currents that draw floating debris into a kind of massive junk vortex). Ever since its discovery, there has been vigorous debate over the size of the patch, with descriptions ranging from the size of Texas to twice that of France. It is, in fact, impossible to definitively measure, because its size - and litter visible on the surface - changes with currents and winds, but its heart is thought to be around 1m sq km, with the periphery spanning a further 3.5m sq km, stretching roughly from the west coast of North America to Japan. An aerial survey last year by Dutch foundation The Ocean Cleanup found it is far bigger than previously estimated, while the UN's environmental programme warns it is growing so fast that it is now visible from space.

In 1997, Moore saw bottles, bags and bits of polystyrene. But what really worried him, and has occupied campaigners and scientists ever since, was the vast soup of tiny plastic particles swirling around below the junk. Moore returned in 1999 to measure the weight of these "microplastics". "We found six times more plastic than plankton," he said, sparking a flurry of worldwide research that has not let up since. Researchers from around the world pooled data over six years to 2013, and reached the conclusion that there are already more than five trillion pieces of plastic in the world's oceans, most of them microplastics.

Fish and chips could also be affected by plastic contamination. Photograph: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Microplastics - which range in size from 5mm to 10 nanometres - come from a number of sources. One culprit is "nurdles", the raw plastic pellets shipped around the world for manufacturing, easily lost during transportation (in 2012 a typhoon spilled millions from a ship in Hong Kong). Recently, the spotlight has been on so-called microbeads, tiny plastic balls found in some cosmetic facial scrubs and toothpaste (many governments, including the UK's, have moved to ban them). Like microfibres - the threads from synthetic clothes lost during laundry, and rubber debris from vehicle tyres - these tiny pieces of plastic are too small to be filtered out of our wastewater systems, and huge quantities end up in the sea. But it's the single-use plastics for packaging, more than a third of everything we produce, that present the greatest problem. While many plastics don't biodegrade, they do photodegrade - UV exposure eventually breaks all those plastic bottles and bags down into tiny pieces, which, in common with microbeads and fibres, potentially leach toxic chemical additives - PCBs, pesticides, flame retardants - put there by manufacturers. These tiny particles look like food to some species, and, last November, new research showed that common plastics attract a thin layer of marine algae, making them smell like nutritious food.

In July 2015, a team at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory released film they had captured under a microscope showing zooplankton eating microplastic. Given that these tiny organisms form a crucial part of the food chain, the implications were immediately shocking. But a huge variety of the fish and shellfish we eat are consuming plastics directly too. Research published last year in the journal Science found that juvenile perch actively preferred polystyrene particles to the plankton they would normally eat. While most plastic has been found in the guts of fish, and would therefore be removed before eating, some studies have warned that microplastics, particularly at the nanoscale, could transfer from the guts to the meat (and, of course, we eat some species of small fish and shellfish whole). There is growing concern about toxins leaching - laboratory tests have shown that chemicals associated with microplastics can concentrate in the tissues of marine animals. Some commercially important species have seen the majority of their population affected. In 2011 in the Clyde in Scotland, 83% of Dublin Bay prawns, the tails of which are used in scampi, had ingested microplastics; so had 63% of brown shrimp tested across the Channel and southern part of the North Sea.

A fortnight ago, Gesamp, a joint group of experts on the scientific aspects of marine environmental protection, published the second part of its global assessment on microplastics. It confirmed that contamination has been recorded in tens of thousands of organisms and more than 100 species. Last year, the European Food Safety Authority called for urgent research, citing increasing concern for human health and food safety "given the potential for microplastic pollution in edible tissues of commercial fish". In the face of such widespread contamination, the outlook seems bleak.

Yet Professor Richard Thompson, a leading international expert on microplastics and marine debris, is upbeat. He has been working in this field for 20 years. In 2004, his team at Plymouth University released the first research on marine microplastics, were the first to show microplastics were retained by organisms such as mussels, and it was their research that found plastic in a third of UK-caught fish. He is reassuringly unfazed about the recent headlines. "You would have to eat well over 10,000 mussels a year to reach the quantities of plastics the Belgian studies suggest," he says. Even for Belgians, that seems excessive. And, crucially, there is no evidence of harm to humans from those quantities. He agrees contamination is widespread - and concerning - but it is "not yet a cause for alarm. Quantities are low, and at current levels human exposure is likely to be greater in the home or office than via food or drink." But, he adds: "It's only going to increase. If we carry on with business as usual, it will be a different story down the line, in 10, 20 years."

Mussels ... under scrutiny by scientists. Photograph: Gary Conner/Getty Images

It's important not to overstate the risks before they're fully understood. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation pointed out in 2014 (pdf) just how reliant we have become on seafood as a source of protein - an estimated 10-12% of the global population relies on fisheries and aquaculture for their livelihood. Per capita fish consumption has risen from 10kg in the 1960s to more than 19kg in 2012, and seafood production is annually increasing at a rate of 3.2%, twice the world population growth rate. In other words, demand for seafood is increasing, just as its future viability is at risk. Something has to give - and it is increasingly clear that has to be our reliance on throwaway plastics.

When you're alone in the middle of the Southern Ocean, the nearest land is Antarctica and the closest people are manning the space station above, there's time to think. If you're Dame Ellen MacArthur, it sets you to thinking about the flaws of our global economy. As she tells it: "Your boat is your entire world and what you take with you when you leave is all you have, to the last drop of diesel and last package of food. There is no more." Our economy, she realised, is no different: "It's entirely dependent on finite materials we have only once in the history of humanity." To MacArthur, the solution is simple - instead of using these resources up, we should design the waste element out of products in the first place. MacArthur, through her foundation, is working with industry leaders and others to approach design with end of life in mind. She has found one particularly strong ally in the Prince of Wales, whose International Sustainability Unit (ISU) is also working on how innovation and design can reduce the impact of plastic production on the environment.

Two weeks ago, the ISU organised a working group, which included MacArthur, to look at plastic waste in the oceans. This is how Professor Thompson found himself on the banks of Rainham Marshes in Essex, collecting plastic debris with senior executives from Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Adidas, Dell and Marks & Spencer. Of what they picked up, about 80% was plastic bottles - those executives probably saw their own products spat back at them from the Thames. They were shocked, apparently, at the scale of it, which Thompson pointed out "was not inconsistent with beaches worldwide". Then they all went to the recycling plant. Only a third of the UK's annual 1.5m tonnes of recyclable plastic waste is recycled. While many drinks bottles are made of easily recyclable PET, some brands add plastic sleeves or colour the bottles, reducing their recyclability. The execs watched those bottles picked out, simply due to a lack of thought at the design stage.

The idea of the circular economy is taking hold; there is now broad agreement that industry needs to move towards products that maximise recycling and re-use. As the Prince of Wales put it: "We do need to consider, from the very beginning, the second, third and, indeed, fourth life of the products we use in everyday life." Thompson is heartened. "This growing recognition," he says, "was not the case 10 years ago when industry pointed at consumers saying they were responsible ... now it's much clearer there's responsibility on both sides." And in what he describes as an exciting step forward, we might see the formation of a stewardship council for plastics, which will connect industries from manufacture through to recycling, and, as the Marine Stewardship Council does for fishing, accredit responsible practice. After all, plastic is not the enemy, it's incredibly useful, not least in reducing food waste. What's so positive about recent progress, Thompson points out, is that "unlike other environmental problems, this isn't a case of us having to do without, we just have to do it differently".

Perhaps the shock of finding plastics returning to us on our dinner plates will help to bring that message home. "We're on the edge of a major ecological disaster," Thompson says. "Microplastics in seafood is an illustration of that. There are things we can do, but we need to do them now."

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From sea to plate: how plastic got into our fish

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t's enough to make you cry over your moules frites. Scientists at Ghent University in Belgium recently calculated that shellfish lovers are eating up to 11,000 plastic fragments in their seafood each year. We absorb fewer than 1%, but they will still accumulate in the body over time.

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The coastal landscape of West Wales provides the setting for this short film. Animation,music and photography are juxtaposed in order to explore the liminal space between land and sea. The film has evolved from an original piece produced as part of an audio-visual performance with the composer Tom Middleton at the National Film Theatre, London.

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Jan Dibbets | Paintings | Photographs | Prints - Jan Dibbets - Land - Sea Horizons

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The project REEF began on August 4th, 2014 off the coast of Portland, UK when a small boat called the Brioney Victoria was towed out to sea before being deliberately set on fire and then sinking. Five cameras mounted onboard transmitted live video to the world via the web as the boat made its final journey to the bottom of the sea - where they then continued to transmit for a further six days. The video-feed from another realm documented the beginning of a process of transformation - a slow metamorphosis from defunct vessel at the end of its life to the creation of an artificial reef.

A body of work came out of this original live performance including an immersive, multi-screen video-installation that premiered in Fabrica (Brighton) as part of Brighton Photo Biennial and later at the Musee de Beaux Arts (Calais) and FRAC Basse Normandy (Caen). Other works include a single screen version of the video, a self-portrait taken in the bridge of the Brioney Victoria and a performative lecture 13 Fathoms.

At a later date, the REEF project will be extended to create REEF part 2 - the video documenting of the reef as it has evolved over a number years.

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The project REEF began on August 4th, 2014 off the coast of Portland, UK when a small boat called the Brioney Victoria was towed out to sea before being deliberately set on fire and then sinking. Five cameras mounted onboard transmitted live video to the world via the web as the boat made its final [...]

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Macro lens and ring flash

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Cyanotypes at the spy glass beach hut Eastbourne

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Volunteers from marine conservation society

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Volunteers from marine conservation society

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Spy glass beach hut

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Towner gallery

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https://vimeo.com/smokescreenvisuals/review/259850525/d51b75c326

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Andy Holden & Peter Holden: Natural SelectionNatural Selection marks the culmination of a five-year collaboration between artist Andy Holden and his father, the well-known ornithologist Peter Holden. Their collaborative work takes us on an ornithological journey: from the building of nests to the collecting of eggs.Featuring objects, sculptures, videos and animation, the exhibition has been conceived to celebrate an astonishing diversity of natural forms and embrace different ways of looking.  At first glance, it may appear to be about one kind of knowledge – natural history – but it is equally concerned with social history, aesthetics and communication. Through their investigation into often over-looked subjects, the Holdens open up different areas of enquiry such as morphology, evolution, intelligence and creativity, as well as reflecting on the nature of collaboration and parental influence.Natural Selection was commissioned by Artangel, Towner Art Gallery, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, and Leeds Art Gallery, with the support of the National Lottery through Arts Council England, Spike Island and Bristol Green Capital 2015, the Henry Moore Foundation and Artangel’s Guardian Angels.

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Andy Holden & Peter Holden: Natural SelectionNatural Selection marks the culmination of a five-year collaboration between artist Andy Holden and his father, the well-known ornithologist Peter Holden. Their collaborative work takes us on an ornithological journey: from the building of nests to the collecting of eggs.Featuring objects, sculptures, videos and animation, the exhibition has been conceived to celebrate an astonishing diversity of natural forms and embrace different ways of looking.  At first glance, it may appear to be about one kind of knowledge – natural history – but it is equally concerned with social history, aesthetics and communication. Through their investigation into often over-looked subjects, the Holdens open up different areas of enquiry such as morphology, evolution, intelligence and creativity, as well as reflecting on the nature of collaboration and parental influence.Natural Selection was commissioned by Artangel, Towner Art Gallery, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, and Leeds Art Gallery, with the support of the National Lottery through Arts Council England, Spike Island and Bristol Green Capital 2015, the Henry Moore Foundation and Artangel’s Guardian Angels.

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Towner Art Gallery

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http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/mark-dion/

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http://www.chrisjordan.com/

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Chris Jordan (Seattle) is an acclaimed artist and cultural activist. His work explores contemporary mass culture from a variety of photographic and conceptual perspectives, connecting the viewer viscerally to the enormity and power of humanity's collective unconscious.

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https://mandy-barker.com/project.php?gallNo=2

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chemigrams using fix

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chemigrams using developer

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Pigments were extracted from a range of algae. Thin layer chromatography was used to separate the photosynthetic pigments. Discussion of the reasons for the range of pigments took place. The greater the range of pigments the more of the sun’s energy that can be absorbed.

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Beach visit Jan 2018