This year’s Green Trust Schools Award winners are shining examples of commitment to the environment, writes Hilary Fine
WINNER: BATHURST PRIMARY SCHOOL, EASTERN CAPE
Dreams of a healthier planet and a self-sufficient community prompted educators at Bathurst Primary 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. Bathurst Primary’s environmental endeavours are ongoing and 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.
When Campbell first became principal of the school 11 years ago, he started an annual traditional tree planting ceremony. On Arbour Day learners dress in traditional costumes and plant trees, and every year the school-leavers, the grade 7 learners, each plant a tree. The grounds of the school were once bare, but many of the trees first planted in the school grounds a decade ago are now lovely and big.
Regular tree-planting activities mean that “now we have trees and beautiful shade”, says grade 6 learner Lolly Mapapu. The greening of Bathurst has been so successful that it’s hard to see the school for the trees.
Trees provide shelter and beautify the environment, but they can also be a source of food. This year grade 6 and 7 learners undertook a pawpaw project to raise these fast-growing trees from seeds and then plant them in the school grounds. Bathurst learners have high hopes for their gardens, where they cultivate vegetables which are harvested and used to feed the school population. In tending to their gardens learners, adopt environmentally sound cultivation practices. Each class from grade 3 to 7 is involved in making compost for the gardens.
Flower beds have also been planted by learners, making the grounds bright and beautiful. A birdbath was constructed out of stones to bring more birds into the school. A bigger creature roams the grounds daily. “Now that there are lots of trees, a monkey visits our school often,” says grade 7 learner Beaulah Tolwana. “The monkey comes to the window asking for bread and fruit,” explains Penny Duma, who is in grade 5. The monkey has even jumped in through a window and perched on a bookshelf where Something, the school’s pet Jack Russell, barks at him. The dog attends class everyday with the grade 2 class.
Bathurst’s endeavours are not only concerned with plants and animals, but also with building to improve the school’s facilities while respecting the natural environment. The school does not have a hall, so a communal meeting place with a difference was built. “We have an outdoor stage at Bathurst Primary 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 5 learner Kyle Lewis.
The natural, self-contained sanctuary of Bathurst does not serve as a shelter from the real world. Learners are encouraged to extent 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,” explains Mduduzi Mkdipi, a grade 7 learner.
Operating in the world beyond the school’s borders isn’t all work. Most Friday afternoons Bathhurst learners go on nature walks near the Bathurst stream and the Fish River where they can “see the pristine vegetation at its best” explains grade 5 learner Aaron Shaw. On these excursions learners enjoy the bush and learn about the indigenous vegetation of the area.
A love for the great outdoors seems to be integral to a Bathurst education. Learners realise that their existence is inseparable from the world around them and that nature is a gift to be respectfully utilised.
– The Teacher/M&G Media, Johannesburg, September 2001.