We're going to build up in this section information for schools, and also information from schools about activities of interest.

There are three ways in which schools can access the Festival.

One is to come along as a group to any of the events. Admission is free, and you just need to book in advance. This year schools are coming along to visit events like some of the talks in UHI Science Day on Friday 4th September. For instance North Walls School are coming across from Hoy for the talk on Earthquake Detectives.

The second way is to ask us if a particular speaker may be available to visit your school. Sometimes the speakers are here for several days, and can allocate time.

And the third way is to ask about some of the special events that we organise for schools during the Festival. These include this year visits from the Shell Education Workshops,  from the St Andrews University physics team, and from Bill Leslie with astronomy activities.

Each year many hundreds of pupils take part in Festival activities, often a thousand and more.

But as well as overall numbers we like to go where we can make a difference, and our visits this year will vary from workshops with senior pupils at Kirkwall Grammar School with the use of Hubble's original spectral data to a trip to North Ronaldsay for astronomy sessions with two very active pupils.

We'll bring you a report of both visits. In the meantime here's a report from North Ronaldsay of an event earlier in the year – the school's Eco Open Day held in National Science and Engineering Week.

"The Eco Open Day was held at North Ronaldsay Community Hall on Thursday the 12th of March 2009. The pupils were holding this open day to raise awareness of being environmentally friendly and to collect money for their P7 trip to Loch Eil.

We invited environmental agencies from around Orkney, and although none could make it out they did send some eco leaflets and freebies. For example, Orkney Energy Agency sent out free energy saving light bulbs and some eco TV plugs that automatically turn your TV off when it's on stand-by. Also EMEC (European Marine Energy Centre) sent out a selection of information on tidal power. People took great interest in the leaflets and were delighted with the energy saving light bulbs and the eco TV plugs.

We had a bring and buy sale with lots of interesting items, a fun tombola stall, a raffle, a hit the clown game, eco demonstrations and a school stall. People also gave donations for the tea and coffee we made for them.

I felt that the whole open day went extremely well and we managed to make a lot of money. I would say my favourite part of the day was the tombola stall because it was very addictive and people kept coming back to win what they wanted.

A big thanks to all the agencies that helped to support our eco open day and to all the people on the island that donated stuff and came up to support us., without them we wouldn't of been able to make a whopping grand total of £234.38."



We grew seeds and put them in pots ...



... and we made a greenhouse out of plastic bottles