The excitement is building for the students taking part in the national Npower Climate Cops competition, as the date of the grand final approaches...

For those of us following the progress of the 'M' team finalists in the national Npower Climate Cops competition, excitement is building as the date of the grand final in Birmingham is fast approaching. On Wednesday 24th March the Macmillan Academy team will find out how they got on against the other 9 finalists. They are currently collating film evidence to submit as final work on their solution to the Academy Eco-problem.

It was back in July 2009 that the last film submission to Npower led to being a finalist school, and since then, there have been a number of events and developments. In October/November students went to London and the Lake District to meet other finalist schools and build on teamwork skills and strategies for solving the eco-issue. The students have presented assemblies to all year groups and spoke at a staff briefing. They have written letters to Ed Milliband and Ashok Kumar asking for their support with the paper problem and spoke to a reporter from the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette (article appeared in Jan 14th issue.)

In addition, 'The Paper Problem' film is featured on YouTube, a Paper Strike day was held on Tuesday 9th Feb and on Wednesday 9th Feb, the 'M' team presented a whole-school assembly at Archibald Primary School, before carrying out paper making workshops and paper collages from waste paper. The dining hall has been used to promote paper awareness through food choices on the lunch time menu and there is now an information stand about paper and paper production.

To further raise awareness, there is an Npower finalist school banner displayed at front of the Academy and the BBC Big Screen in Middlesbrough Centre Square is showing the Paper Problem film created by the 'M' team. There is also a blog and website link up running on this website.

The students involved have worked tirelessly to get as much support as possible for their project and have made a massive impact both within the Academy and in the wider local community. We will keep you posted as to how they get on in March!