Using nature’s gifts to fill their needs
Hilary Fine
Dreams of a healthier planet and a self-sufficient community prompted educators at Bathurst Primary, near Port Alfred in the Eastern Cape, to infuse an environmental ethos into everything they do.
“Our aim is to develop a sanctuary of learning where respect for the world we live in is fostered,” says Ed Campbell, the principal.
A number of outdoor projects form part of the school’s plans to sustain and improve their facilities. Environmental endeavours include the planting of trees, vegetable gardens and flowers, building structures to entice wildlife into the area, creating outdoor spaces for learners to use and enjoy, adopting and caring for pets and going on rubbish clean-up campaigns and nature hikes.
All efforts encourage the learners to live in harmony with the Earth’s ecology and to use nature’s gifts to fill their needs.
The sandy surrounds of the school are constantly being transformed. When Campbell first became principal of the school 11 years ago, he started a traditional tree-planting ceremony that takes place each year. The grounds of the school were once bare, but many of the trees first planted in the school grounds a decade ago are now tall.
“Now we have trees and we have beautiful shade,” says grade six learner Lolly Mapapu.
The trees are also a source of food. This year grade six and seven learners undertook a paw-paw project, raising these fast-growing trees from seeds and then planting them in the schoolgrounds.
Bathurst learners also have high hopes for their gardens, where they grow vegetables that are used to feed the school population. In tending their gardens, the learners adopt environmentally sound cultivation practices, like making compost from school waste.
Learners also remove alien vegetation from the area. “We must destroy alien plants or put them on the compost heap, but not the roots or new ones will grow,” explains Mxolisi Mdlalo, a grade five learner.
Flower beds have also been planted by learners, making the grounds bright and beautiful. A bird bath and a pond constructed out of stones have enabled them to introduce fishes and attract birds into the school.
A bigger creature has also started roaming the grounds. “Now that there are lots of trees, a monkey visits our school often,” says grade seven learner Beaulah Tolwana. The monkey sometimes jumps in through a window and perches on a bookshelf to the irritation of Something, the school’s pet Jack Russell. The dog attends class every day with the grade twos. Snakes and a goat have been seen in the school grounds.
Bathurst’s endeavours are not confined to plants and animals. Learners have helped to improve the school’s facilities in tune with the natural environment, like making paving stones to encourage grass to grow.
The school does not have a hall, so a communal meeting place with a difference was built. “We have an outdoor stage, which nature gave us. We have four huge wild fig trees for a roof and lots of little trees. The stage is a wooden square with lots of logs around it,” explains grade five learner Kyle Lewis.
Learners are encouraged to extend the environmental care lessons they learn at school to the world around them. “Our school goes regularly to the beach to clean up. Last Saturday we went to the beach and cleaned up litter for more than an hour. We filled several plastic bags with litter. We did it for mother Earth,” says Mduduzi Mkdipi, in grade seven.
Apart from regularly participating in initiatives such as International Beach Clean-up Day, Bathurst learners clear litter from the roads surrounding the school.
Operating in the world beyond the school’s borders isn’t all work. Most Friday afternoons learners go on nature walks near the Bathurst stream and the Fish river, where they learn about the indigenous vegetation of the area.
A love for the great outdoors is integral to Bathurst education, centred on a sense of wonder and love for all things great and small.
Schools Project Winner
Winner: Bathurst Primary School
Prize: R10 000, sponsored by Total SA
Judges’ comments: “This is a school which introduces education to primary learners through an environmental lens. It has an inspiring, holistic philosophy that extends beyond the classroom.
“The school is also looking at innovative ways to generate funds from some of their environmental projects so that they are sustainable.”