ECO SCHOOLS SUBMISSION 2018 ‘Collaboration Is the Future.’

ECO SCHOOLS SUBMISSION 2018 ‘Collaboration is the future.’

When you look at what is happening worldwide, it is clear to us that the more we collaborate, the more we can do. This year, we have seen collaboration as the key in working towards sustainable change in our school, community and in the world. If we join up as schools, as businesses and even individuals, we can achieve so much more. Collaboration also builds hope through shared experiences and positive outcomes. Hope is what we need. We hope you enjoy our portfolio submission this year; we have included the activities and projects done by our Pre Primary, Prep and College.

Our contribution:

1. Eco Clubs 2. Celebrating important days 3. Community outreach 4. Ongoing projects: Eco School themes 5. Eco awareness throughout the year 6. Curriculum evidence (please see separate documents) 7. Feel good vibes

We have three Eco Clubs at Merrifield. One in the Foundation Phase, one in the Intermediate Phase and one in the College. 1. ECO CLUBS Eco Club reports 1. Junior Eco Club Kirsty Richards Mrs Richards runs her Eco Club by inspiring the children to be creative in their love of nature. This Club builds a love of Eco at a young age through various acitivites from art to creating objects in an Eco friendly way. One particular project stood out for its wonderful ethos of recycling and giving back. The Junior Eco Club have been having a ball making toys out of recycled goods!As part of their theme they are also collecting good, second hand toys for Greensleeves and The Rising Sun Daycare Centre.

Isn’t it just a delight to see children having so much fun while repuposing goods for a worthy cause.

2. Grade 6 and 7 Eco Club Chay Bachar

2018 has seen a wave of changes taking place globally when it comes to the awareness about single-use plastic items. The club continued on their work in this regard by getting involved in a number of local initiatives around the hot topic. We worked closely with The Ocean Lifeline Project which raises funds to help support stranded or injured animals along our coastline. The Club supported the initiative by selling toys and bracelets at school.

We also continued to support the Buckaroo project and turned old mugs into succulent planters which we sold to raise funds for the sterilisation of dogs in East London. This year we had many interesting guest speakers who shared so much knowledge with us. We were also so spoilt by the speakers who always gave the club a sample of their products. Two lovely sessions included sampling natural soap making and then edible straws.

Outings included beach clean ups and attending a local Eco themed dance show called The Last Straw. As a club we have really enjoyed seeing more and more local businesses and people get on board the Eco wave of change. We also took part in the Big Beach Clean Up Collaboration hosted by Merrifield and Lilyfontein

3 and a number of local organisations. It was wonderful to see everyone uniting for the oceans.

The passion for protecting our oceans also led to us getting involved in the building a giant Whale structure outside Pine Creek for the Big Green Expo. Our club also set up an awareness stall at the Expo and donated some of our Eco Bricks to the Whale structure.

Eco Bricking continues here at Merrifield with two big handovers to Jikani that took place in 2018. Over 600 Eco Bricks were given to the community project situated in Hogsback. As we head into a new year, we will also be supporting the building of an Eco Brick swap shop and a chapel in Morgan Bay. So, keep those Eco Bricks coming in!

The club will be attending the East London Garden Show in October where we will be selling baked goods at the Buckaroo garden to help this worthy charity.

Don’t forget about the Big 4 Challenge which continues: give up plastic bags, plastic straws, take away coffee cups and lids and of course plastic water bottles.As a school we now have our very own branded reusable bags and coffee mugs-such great way to make changes on a daily basis. We also promote the use of using your own reusable straw and did a huge promotion of bamboo straws in the first term.

Caring about the planet is not always easy. There are so many obstacles in our way. But, remember why you do it and remember that every small change and action does make a difference. Thank you to the Eco Club of 2018 for the passion and their genuine care for making a difference.

The wonderful play we attended as a Club. Jen Moorcroft (left) wrote the play and is a part-time Drama teacher at Merrifield. Charene Harris choregraphed all the dancing and is a parent of one of our Grade 8 students. We also supported The Buckaroo Project as part of our Eco work. Buckaroo raises funds for the sterilisation of dogs in areas where funding is not avaialbe. They also resuce dogs and find homes for many who are in need. We held a ‘beadathon’ where we made 112 bracelets and some craft cones to be sold at the East London Garden Show in October. All funds raised from the sale of the beads go to the Buckaroo Project. We are also baking cupcakes for the Buckaroo tea garden which will sell their treats at the Garden Show. We also helped make Christmas decorations at the beadathon The beadathon

As a Club, we also took part in the Big Green Expo. We presented and put up a display. We took this opportunity to also make a waste sculpture. We called her Poppy. ‘POPPY THE JELLYFISH’ Every single day, single-use items are wastefully used in society. Many of these items are used once, for a very short period of time, and then thrown away. Balloons are used in this way and do not biodegrade. They land up in our landfills and ultimately our oceans. They break into smaller pieces, moving up through our food chain. A balloon that has popped and landed up out at sea, can very much resemble a jellyfish floating on the sea surface. This in turn means that many Sea Turtles have ingested balloons thinking that they are food. The balloons, once ingested, pose huge health risks for our sea life like Turtles and we say it’s time to celebrate the end of the balloons! This is Poppy our Jellyfish

As it was women’s month when we began constructing her, we have given her a feminine characteristics. Poppy is constructed from waste only: • A wire structure made by one of our Grade 10 students for market day last year was used. It held air plants and when the air plants were moved to a new place, we took the wire structure to use as Poppy’s body.

• The balloons and cling wrap are all from one celebration that took place on the school grounds. We collected it all-all of it being single-use plastic that represents the very issue we feel passionately about changing-the destruction of our oceans. • Poppy represents the floating sea of waste society is creating-she looks like a Jellyfish, but in fact she is not what she seems. After the show, Poppy will be finding a home in the Ocean Lifeline premises at the aquarium. Poppy is a floating problem we have created. But, if we created the problem, we can also fix it!

Balloons land up in the sea and resemble jellyfish.

Our pledge board at the Expo The Eco Club presenting at the Expo

We also put together a 12 month challenge which we displayed a the Expo. We want to make ‘going green’ easy and sustainable for everyone! Simple ways to green your home……. Start where you are, with what you have. If we all do small things they will amount to big changes. Try the 12 month challenge: 1. Decide on 12 changes you would like to implement in your home that can help the planet. 2. Implement one change each month and make it a habit through daily implementation. 3. Challenge friends and family to join you. A community making changes becomes a strong community.

Ideas for the 12 month challenge in your household: • Replace plastic soap dispensers in your bathrooms with bars of soap. If you use an average of one soap dispenser per month, that could add up to 12 plastic bottles per year! Soap bars often come in paper or cardboard packaging which is much kinder to the planet • Stop using plastic shopping bags. Stock your car and house with reusable bags. Plastic bags are landing up in fields and in our oceans. Going reusable will make a big difference. • Bamboo toothbrushes are an amazing replacement for plastic toothbrushes. They are completely biodegradable. Replace your next batch of toothbrushes with bamboo ones. • Get some reusable veggie and fruit bags-these are resuable bags which can be used to weigh fruit and veg in stores. This replaces the single use thin plastic bags many stores use to package our fruit and veg. • Eco brick all your non-recyclable waste. Eco bricks are being used to build great community projects all over South Africa. Channel all the single-use wrappers into a brick and not into your bin. You will be amazed how much less goes into your bin. This will also create a natural consciousness to choose better packaged products. • Get reusable coffee mugs for your family. Road trips and daily coffee runs can be so much more eco friendly this way.

• Invest in a reusable water bottle. There are always places to fill your water bottle and this saves you from buying a single use plastic water bottles each time you are out. These water bottles can also double up as smoothie or juice bottles if you ever want to take away one when you are out. • Keep a selection of lunch tins in your car. These can be used to get take aways or lunch on the go. These will replace the unnecessary use of polystyerene or plastic at take away shops. • Invest in wax wrappers for storing food in your fridge. These can be used to cover cheeses or any leftover food without using foil or plastic. • Compost all your biodegradable food waste at home. This will be a lovely way to feed into the creation of rich soil for your garden. • Go eco friendly for your parties and childrens parties by replacing balloons with bunting or reusable paper lanterns. Serve drinks without plastic straws and mix juice in glass jugs instead of buying many plastic juice bottles. The ideas for greening parties are endless. • Carry a reusable straw in your bag or store it in your car. There are bamboo and steel straws on the market as well as edible straws. Plastic straws are harming sea life at an alarming rate. • Recycle. In East London there are many great local companies working towards making recycling so easy for us. Contact a local company and sort your waste to make a difference. • Choose natural cleaning products for your home. This way you can channel grey water into your garden and be kinder to our entire water cycle. • Pause. Pause before every purchase and ask yourself: is there a better alternative to the packaging I am about to buy or use? • Spread the word. Challenge another person to try out the simple ways to green your household.

A visit from ‘Clutching Straws’ showing us pasta and edible straws Each student received a pasta straw and an edible straw. It was so interesting to test them out and see what is possible with innovation.

Nixstix Creations (below) shows us how to make organic soap

Zero waste seed planting

 Egg boxes used to make biodegradable cards

 Reused pots for planting

 Potting soil bags cut up to make ribbons We planted spinach seeds as gifts for special people and can't wait to see them grow!

3. College Eco Club Pauline Wetmore Global warming! Rhino poaching! Mountains of plastic in our oceans! There is so much happening in our environment that makes the average adult want to give up hope. Mrs Wetmore and Mr White have found the perfect antidote to the world’s sense of hopelessness – spend one afternoon a week with approximately 20 energetic, positive and committed Merrifield students in the Enviro Club. These young people believe that the future is worth fighting for and that the battles are won through every little action taken by each individual. Over the course of the year, we have tackled a few old, ongoing projects and a few new ones. Nahoon beach has had a perennial problem with invasive species and one of our goals was to reduce the thorny alien species to such an extent that the runners of the Surfers Marathon were not hindered as they were in past years. Pulling these invasive weeds left many a hand full of holes and scratches but it was worth doing as we know we have made a difference. In all our visits we would also do litter pick-ups; sometimes focusing on micro-plastics and nurdles in particular. One of our new projects was doing litter clearing and invasive control in the Nahoon Estuary Reserve. The wardens of the reserve were great in supplying collection bags and tools to clear the lantana and other species. Their friendly, welcoming attitude towards our group always made us feel part of an important system working towards the general benefit of the natural world and the greater East London community. All was not just work, however, and we did two field trips to the Aquarium and Museum respectively. Both visits were informative and worthwhile and we thank the guides at those institutions for their input. A wonderful opportunity of learning about river water quality and the importance of organisms needing unpolluted habitats presented itself through the input of Mandy Uys (a Merrifield parent) when she introduced our club to the Mini-SASS water quality testing methods. After learning the theory we used this Stream Assessment Scoring System to measure the levels of pollution in the Nahoon River at the Abottsford weir. Needless to say, it was a wonderful learning experience but the results were disturbing. The highlight of the year surely was the weekend camp at the Katberg Eco Golf Estate, courtesy of the Osner family. Here we hiked, pulled out

Black Wattles, went horse riding, walked to San paintings and just enjoyed the beautiful setting in general. We are sincerely thankful to the Osners for their amazing generosity and hospitality. 2018 has been a very successful year for the Enviro Club and we look forward to spending more time with these inspiring young adults who are adamant that their natural environment will not be destroyed and that they can make a positive difference to the world around them.

Alien vegetation clearing and Mini SASS testing

Mrs Wetmore and some of the Eco Club in their lovely Club shirts.

Collecting nurdles on one of the beach clean up outings. We are so saddened by how many nurdles are still washing up.

Searching for the seeds of the large cocklebur (the alien plant the College group have been very involved in eradicating.

2. CELEBRATING IMPORTANT ECO DAYS This year we celebrated many important days. Our social media posts and pictures are featured below:  Arbor Day “Thank you to our families, staff and alumni who have embraced the initiative of “a gift of a tree” to the school on its 21st birthday, which overlapped suitably with Spring Day and National Arbour Week. Over R16000 has already been raised towards enhancing the landscape of the new sports development and adjoining roads – a remarkable achievement in the space of one week. The tree donations are a wonderful gift to the school and received appreciatively as your landmark contribution to watch as they grow in tandem with the unrelenting progress of the school in the next 21 years ahead.”- Dr Guy Hartley

We are so excited to see all the trees being planted in the months to come!

 World Rhino Day This year we once again supported the Protect Africa’s Wildlife Casual Day initiative. Our entire school, from Grade 000 to matric, took part this year. We raised the civvies day donation amount from R5 to R10 each this year. We will continue to fight for our Rhinos! The Prep hosted Mr Gavin de Lange for a Rhino Day assembly and the Grade 8s had lessons on Rhinos to raise awareness about this important issue. We raised R5 8230. 50 this year! Mr de Lange let us know that, ‘The proceeds this year will be going to Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre and , depending on amount raised, to PROVET wildlife vet service for their Rhino and Pangolin projects.’

A sea of colour celebrating World Rhino Day and a Spring picnic with parents. Everyone who paid the R10 got a sticker to show they care

 Earth Hour Every year we encourage our students to participate in Earth Hour. As it is usually on a Saturday, we encourage them through social media and in class.  Heritage Day At Merrifield we celebrate diversity everyday, but on Heritage Day we make a special effort to show the wonderful array of diversity of cultures at our school. The Pre Primary and Prep all had a chance to show off the beautiful colours.

 Mandela Day This year we combined five things to celebrate Mandela’s legacy: - We collected food for our local SPCA. We also donated handmade, recycled toys for the dogs. One of our teachers, Mrs Wardle hosted the toy making in her classroom. - We made Love Sandwiches and brought fruit for the Rising Sun Daycare - We had a board up in the lapa where the students could write a note of appreciation for anyone in the school. This centred around our goal to get ’67 notes of kindness’ up. We managed to get 100! Quite symbolic in the year in which Mandela would have turned 100. - The SRC in the College had music and face painting on offer - The Grade 6 and 7 Eco Club sold bracelets for the Buckaroo Project at Vincent Park shopping centre. A message from the SPCA: “To the Educators and Pupils and Merrifield School We acknowledge with sincere appreciation the generous donation of Dog food received at the East London SPCA. We will be able to use this for the animals in our care many thanks for your kind assistance this helps us with our endeavours to prevent animal cruelty and enable us to reach out to the next generation of animal owners with a message of responsible pet care. Your assistance is much appreciated. Kind Regards, Yvonne Campbell SPCA - East London”

Toys and food for our furry friends Some notes of kindness from our board up in the lapa

Love Sandwhiches, food for the SPCA and our kindness board

Selling Bucakaroo bracelets and handing out flyers to encourage the support of the sterilisation drive and rescue of dogs in the East London area.

 Outdoor Classroom Day This year we signed up for the Internaitonally celebrated “Outdoor Classroom Day’. The ethos of this day is described by the organisers as: “Outdoor Classroom Day is a global campaign to inspire and celebrate outdoor learning and play. By getting involved in the annual celebrations, you help send a message to the world that time outdoors every day is important for every child.” outdoorclassroomday.com Both our Prep and College got involved with activities ranging from Afrikaans lessons under the trees to planting a Grade garden. It was wonderful to learn in the breeze with the sounds of nature all around us. We will most certainly make this an annual event!

Afrikaans in nature

The Grade 7s used this special day to plant a water wise garden at the recycling area.  Women’s Day This year we wanted to provide a platform for an inspirational woman to share her story with us. We believe that women can change communities and this year we honoured the women involved in the Rising Sun Daycare Centre where our weekly Love Sandwiches go. “The SRC and POP collaborated for a Women's Day Assembly today.A big thank you t o our two special guests, Taralyn McLean and Sanele Mswi, who came to pay tribute to a phenomenal woman. Sanele's mom was the founder of the Rising Sun Daycare Centre where our love sandwiches go each week. Mrs Nozie Mswi showed us what a strong woman can do to transform a community. Thank you to the students who prepared videos, information and shared so much wisdom and love today. Here's to all our Merrifield women”

Sanele Mswi and one of our staff members, Taralyn McLean, who has been instrumental in the Rising Sun Daycare’s sustainability.

We also did something special for our matric girls in Women’s Month: “The Grade 6 and 7 Eco Club made Earth friendly foot scrubs for the matric girls. Each jar has a special message for the girls. To all the women before us and all the women with us, happy Women's Month.” We used glass jars, reused ribbon from our homes, brown sugar, olive oil, essential oil and freshly picked lavender. To all the women before us and all the women with us, happy Women's Month.

 World Environment Day We hosted The Big Beach Clean Up Collaboration with Lilyfontein. This collaboration was such a great way to join forces in East London to clean up our beaches. We collected so many nurdles and we also used Eco Bricks to ensure the small micro plastics would not land up back in the waste cycle. Our Grade 8 Geography classes made lovely pledge boards which we used at the clean up to encourage people to commit to changes in their daily lives to care for the planet. Please watch this great video put together by Craig Giese Photography. It captures our Beach Clean so well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7gxPF05DpA

3. COMMUNITY OUTREACH Eco Schools is also about engaging on a broader level with our communities and ensuring that we are working towards local upliftment. Each grade in the school works with different projects throughout the year. We also have our People of Passion group in the College working daily on outreach opportunities. Outreach is also a wonderful extra mural for our College students each Tuesday afternoon. College Outreach Report “Thuma Mina” (“Send Me”) President Ramaphosa reminded us in his state of the nation speech on February 16 2018, quoting Hugh Masekela’s famous song - and so our Outreach team sent themselves into all sorts of stretching and enriching situations. The Reading Revolution team worked with Grade 3 learners at Sinempumelelo Primary, building reading and writing skills, while the Each One Teach One Team shared English and Computer Literacy skills with the Sakhikamva Senior School students. Some visited the elderly battling dementia at Kennersley Park, while others spent time with the children facing cancer at Frere Hospital.

Although a few Tuesday afternoons were heart-hurting, there were many that brought us great joy. We value deeply our longstanding partners who help us develop this essential element of our students’ education and help nurture a life-long love for our communities. Emilie Rautenbach

People of Passion report From small beginnings we have seen POP evolve into a very active group within our school. POP stands for People of Passion and is a group of students working towards three main goals: • Creating opportunities for community engagement outside of the community outreach extra mural hours • Developing an environmental consciousness in our school • Creating an inclusive school environment for all This year we have been involved in a number of exciting projects and have seen more and more students wanting to get involved. We have also collaborated with the SRC for two themed assemblies: one on Freedom Day and one in Women’s Month. One of our POP members, Litha Chimusuro wrote the Freedom Day assembly. These collaborations were such a great way to join forces in promoting positive change and far reaching impacts on important issues. POP also got involved in the Shavathon this year and collected handbags for Rotary Ann’s collection. They also ran the World Rhino Day collection for Protect Africa’s Wildlife drive to support local sanctuaries and reserves who are protecting these majestic yet threatened animals. We also worked on preparing for and we attended the Big Beach Clean Up Collaboration hosted by our school, Lilyfontein School and a number of local businesses and organisations. POP is very proud of two particular projects they launched this year which will be sustainable going forward and have proved to be really be welcomed by the student body: 1. Love sandwiches Each Thursday the College students are encouraged to bring sandwiches and fruit to school. These are collected and given to the Rising Sun Daycare. We are so thankful to be able to give to others in this way. Thank you too to the SRC for actively getting involved in this initiative and working with us to promote this within the College. An awesome love sandwich memory is the whole College making sandwiches out on the field in an inter-class competition overseen by POP and the SRC.

2. Courageous Conversations Linda Lambert said, ‘ One good conversation can shift the direction of change forever.’ We wanted to start conversations that really matter-to promote safe places where young people can listen to stories and engage in conversations about important issues in a confidential environment. These conversations are student led. We are hosting these conversations once a term in a relaxed environment. In the third term we hosted our first one led by Redempta Rugriyamu and Liyabukwa Tywakadi. All available spots were taken and an amazing afternoon was shared as we heard the journeys of these two courageous young people. They inspired the students to believe in themselves and to find strength in challenges. We look forward to many more conversations! POP would like to thank everyone who got involved this year and for all the support as we have put roots into this group. Making a difference is making a life. Mrs Chay Bachar

4. ONGOING PROJECTS We are so proud that our Eco projects from 2017 have grown and been sustainable into the new year of 2018.

 Tops and Tags for the Sweethearts Foundation We filled two big bins with bread tags and bottle tops and delivered them to the central collector in East London. We really love this project’s two prong approach of recycling and helping those in need.

Eco Club girls with our full bins. Challenges have included the prevention of other materials in the bins. This led to us moving the bins to a better location where they won’y be not mistaken as rubbish bins.  Eco bricks Our Eco Bricking continues here at school with more families getting on board in 2018. This year we did two big hand overs to Jikani Community Project in Hogsback. In total we have sent 657 Eco Bricks to the Project. Before our first hand over we put together a really fun visual which we used to create awareness. This is a drone picture of the 411 Eco Bricks we handed over to Jikani. We designed a wave to resemble the ocean and all the waste that is landing up in our beautiful seas. We called the pic: Save our Seas which as an acronym stood out as SOS- an eerie reminder of the state of our

27 oceans. The drone design and implementation of the picture was a collaboration between the Eco Club, two Grade 11 Art students and the Grade 7s. Drone picture taken by: Kevin Adams

“Save Our Seas. “One action multiplied out can make an enormous difference. 411 Eco Bricks were handed over to Jikani today. As part of our handover we did this design with the bricks on the school field. Every single piece of litter you see in these bricks has been diverted from landfills and the oceans! Thank you to each and every person who has handed in a brick-you have all helped to make a difference to the health of our oceans.”

We have now also committed to our Eco Bricks going to Morgan Bay. Our first hand over took place just after the Big Green Expo. We got involved in an exciting project run by Dean Knox. We helped to build a Giant Whale out of reused wood, pipe and Eco Bricks. The sculpture stood outside the Expo for the weekend as a reminder to rethink our daily packaging choices and that our oceans are ultimately feeling the pressure of our choices. Getting involed in the amazing Giant Plastic Whale Sculpture: As part of the Big Green Expo, one East London man called on like- minded individuals to help build an awareness sculpture. The giant whale was a great way to raise awareness of ocean pollution and plastic waste as the Expo ran for the weekend. Merrifield students got on board the process from start to finish under the leadership of Mr Dean Knox and his collaboration team. Again, the theme of collaboration was key. The whale was made from recyclable materials and filled with Eco Bricks. Schools and businesses were called on to help and donate their Eco Bricks. We filled the whale with bricks which were then channelled to the Yellowood Forest in Morgan Bay. They will be used to build a swap shop and a chapel.

Counting out Eco Bricks to go into the Giant Plastic Whale

It turned out beautifully! Merrifield had first option to take the Whale once it was dismantled, but we chose to let Lilyfontein have it. They have a great idea to turn it into a living garden-what a lovely idea! We do not see Eco Schools as a competition and love to share resources and ideas whenever we can.  Take 3 for the sea We encourage all our students to always ‘Take 3 for the sea’ when they go to the beach. Getting a message from some of our students who went on a hike this year was just such a rewarding way to know the message is filtering through our school.

Taking 3 usually turns into 300!

 The Merrifield Big 4 Challenge The Big 4 Challenge continues, with students encouraging their families to get on board. The following write up is what we put together for the Big Green Expo: Merrifield Big 4 Challenge! At Merrifield, we encourage all our families to take up the Big 4 Challenge. This is a project aimed at reducing our single-use plastic on a daily basis. We challenge everyone to: 1. Ditch the straw! Plastic straws suck-replace your plastic straw with a reusable bamboo or metal straw. In the first term we sold bamboo straws at school to our students.

Our SRC heads, Jordan and Leah, with the first box of straws we receieved.

We used a local Eastern Cape company and all the profits made were used for the matric farewell fundraising.

We were so excited to share the story below on our social media: “How awesome is this! This is Josh Sacks-an Eco warrior from Durban. His mom, Anna, saw our mission to get rid of plastic straws. She ordered bamboo straws from us and we sent them to Durban. Now Josh is paying it forward and spreading the Eco message in Durban by using his reusable straw. Well done, Josh! The power of spreading good is at our fingertips. Thank you to the Sacks family for this special gesture. Merrifield cares about our planet and we love that so many of you have ditched plastic straws!”

2. Give up plastic shopping bags! We have so many awesome reusable options-be a trend setter and get your very own reusable bag. In the second term, we introduced Merrifield’s very own reusable shopping bags.

We have two sizes which are sold at school. It is the best feeling to walk into a shop with our very own reusable bags.

3. Replace take away coffee cups and lids with your own reusable ‘keep cup’. Many coffee shops are offering wonderful initiatives now for bringing your own cup. To throw away a cup and lid after one coffee does not make sense-reuse, reuse, reuse! In the second term we introduced school branded reusable glass coffee mugs. The matrics were invited to a tea to help launch the beautiful glass mugs.

“The Merrifield Big 4 Eco Challenge continues! Following on from reusable straws and shopping bags was the launch today of gorgeous re-usable branded glass coffee mugs (R75 each). The Merrifield Eco-Club served hot chocolate for the Matrics in Mrs Bachar's classroom, and now the mugs are available to purchase for any student or eco-aware friend of the school. The mugs must be paid for at the school's finance office, and can be collected from the PR/Marketing office.”

4. Refill your own water bottle-do away with single-use plastic water bottles. Take a reusable water bottle with you wherever you go. This way there is no need to keep buying a water from a shop. Plastic water bottles make up a large number of single-use items landing up in our oceans. Plans are in place for our final Big 4 product to be launced soon-a Merrifield branded reusable water bottle. Are YOU up for the challenge? For our planet. For our oceans. For all of us.

5. ECO WORK THROUGHOUT THE YEAR  The annual Eco Fashion Show

Our annual Eco Fashion Show was spectacular this year. The Grade 10 Art students really did an amazing job of creating outfits from waste. Their Art teacher, Mrs Camilla Du Preez, is a creative mind with so many

innovative ideas which light up the stage.

The Grade 6 and 7 Eco Club also presented ‘Eco Hacks’ between the catwalk appearances. They shared tips on going green with the audience. We also set up an awareness welcome at the front of our hall on the night of the show.

* We hosted the activist, Hayley MaClellan for an evening talk in our school hall. The talk was open to the East London community.

 We took part in the ‘Stop the cruelty at the East London Zoo Protest’ Merrifield students and teachers took part in a protest to create awareness of the state of some of the animals in the zoo. We learnt that activisim in action is needed in order to force change in the world. Our sign was made at break times in the classroom. The process of activism is as important as the day of an event-learning what we are standing for is vital.

 The school market day Each year the EMS teachers hold a big project for their Grade 7 and 8 students. Each student has to get into a group and plan for the sale of goods. The project goes from business plan to the sale and everything is marked according to many criteria. One of the criteria is environmental responsibility. This year’s market day was one of the most Eco-friendly the Eco teachers have ever seen! Here are some glimpses of the different stalls.

Handing over profits to the Ocean Lifeline Project

Awareness Handmade reusable veggie bags

 We went to thank the SPCA for all they do and initiated a reading project with the dogs and cats “How do we make a difference? Sometimes all it takes is love. The Grade 6 and 7 Eco Club took a cake and books and headed to the SPCA. The cake was to say thank you to the staff for all they do for the many strays and unwanted animals in their care. We appreciate these champions for animals so much. We then read to the dogs and cats. What a beautiful experience it was to see the connections made and the responses of sometimes sad or lonely dogs and cats. We felt like we gained so much today. Our hearts are full. Thank you too to the debaters who sent their fines with us to hand over to the SPCA - an amount of over R500!”

We could not believe how much love was shared between us and the animals. To hear a soothing voice has been proven to increase adoption rates! We will most certainly be doing this more often. We even got to witness an adoption while we were there. 6. Feel good vibes Instead of focusing on what still needs to be done ( there is a lot we can still do at Merrifield) and what is not happening (it is challenging at times to implement all our ideas), we wanted to zone in on the good. What are the moments this year that have made us believe the consciousness is growing? Who are the change makers? There have been moments this year where we have seen such special things take place. Moments where we have felt that each individual has the power to make really big changes. We wanted to share some of the special times we have captured in 2018:

A few of the Merrifield teachers opting out of plastic lids for the coffees at the Merrifield Mile. We have seen some teachers make some conscious changes to their lives and in doing so, have inspired students.

Two groups of students donated money from their market day sales to the Ocean Lifeline Project. This project rehabilitates stranded marine life and supports the work of the Aquarium. One of the groups (Sea the Future) got so involved in the project, they were asked to set up their stand at the opening of the revamped East London Aquarium. Tye Benge, Harshul Ranchhod and Matthew Ham selling their bracelets at the Aquarium.

Their proceeds went towards helping a stranded and injured Seal who they got to meet. The boys are passionate about making changes. Their bracelets will also be used for future Merrifield projects under the banner of ‘Merrifield Cares’.

The bracelets have been so popular with students and parents.

Tammi Freeman-Elliot from Ocean Lifeline was so thankful to the boys, she had certificates made for them.

Two of our Grade 6 ad 7 Eco Club members started their own Eco business. They make their own reusable bags and straw bags and also sell bamboo straws. Their business is called Sea Salt and they even have an Instagram account for it. Kelly Sparg and Courtney Linke

When students travel, they often send Mrs Bachar pictures of really awesome Eco initiatives and changes they see all over the world.

After hearing of the release of the recent climate change document (released by the Intercontinental Panel on Climate Change), a group of Grade 8 girls formed a Climate Change action group called, ‘New Minds’

The New Minds Climate Change Action group

Their goal is to do as much as they can to educate the school about Climate Change and to get as many trees as possible planted. Just after the group was formed, an opportunity arose for a project in Chintsa which needs a group of students to research and rehabilitate a dune damaged by Climate Change. The girls will be working on the project run by Coastal Management in the Eastern Cape.

Sarah Schewitz is in Eco Club. She is also a very talented sportswoman and recently went on Hockey tour.Unbeknown to her Eco Club teacher or sports coaches, Sarah had taken along a bunch of reusable straws. She handed these out to the touring team, encouraging everyone to think about their single-use plastic purchases while on tour. Sarah also attended the SPCA Open Day and sponsored a kennel for a year.

Olivia Lustgarten is one of our Grade 000 students. She made our hearts so proud when she recently told us how she tries to save water everyday by making sure all the taps are turned off at school. She also always turns lights off and keeps everyone aware of litter around her. Olivia shows us that the seeds of care are planted at a very young age. We think you are a super star, Olivia! Olivia with her reusable shopping bag and her bamboo straw

Tannah Whiteley is really passionate about Rhinos. She was so devastated to hear the 2018 statistics and really wanted to do something to help. Tannah baked cupcakes and walked around her neighbourhood selling them. She asked one of the Eco Club teachers which would be a good organisation to support and worked with her mom in sending over R700 to the Rhino Orphanage in South Africa. Go Tannah!

How does the wave of change work? Bella Da Silva started Eco bricking last year. She paid it forward and got her family on board. Then, she got her gran on board, putting a list of instructions together for her. Her gran then became an eager Eco Bricker and began to get her friends on board. Bella and her dad, Mario, dropped off a boot full of Eco Bricks from the Gonubie Glen Retirement Complex! They signed and stacked them into the Giant Plastic Whale. 1 person can make a difference. 1 person can change a community. 1 person is not too small to start a wave 

Bella and her dad at the Giant Whale

Our sports department has some great plans for 2019. They want to reduce their single-use plastic footprint and have already switched to paper cups for sports events. They plan to have an Eco focus when going on tours and we are so excited to see our teams become more aware when on tour. Thank you to Mr Llewellyn King and Mr Jacques Nel for this initiative.

Our school tuckshop is on a journey to becoming more Eco conscious. Some amazing initiatives have taken place in the tuckshop this year:  They stopped selling plastic straws. Students can bring their own reusable straws or purchase paper straws from the tuckshop.  All packaging and single-use items are Eco Bricked in the tuckshop. From wrappers to delivery packaging-it is Eco Bricked.  The tuckshop business owner, Mrs Weena Moolman, has also recently purchased reusable lunch tins for staff lunches. She is in the process of getting these labelled but for now the staff hand them back to be washed and reused.  All organic waste from the tuckshop is kept aside and taken off to a gorgeous donkey on a Merrifield family’s farm.

Our Debating teams have made so many small choices and changes to help the environment. We so appreciate the conscious effort they make to be a part of our Eco Schools work. The money they raised for the SPCA was so appreciated by the shelter.

Our Debating teacher, Ms. Ronwen Pearce Everyday there is a special person who quietly walks around picking up litter. He does this before school and after school when the school is quiet an no one really sees. His name is Christian Ngwabeni and he is an Eco Warrior. We are so lucky to have him on our team.

Mr Christian Ngwabeni

This year our Marketing and PR manager, Mrs Tracey Mangold, has tried her best to help make Merrifield more Eco conscious. We were so excited to see the previously balloon adorned arch at Founders Day replaced with paper lanterns. Tracey is always conscious of our requests and we are so thankful for her enthusiasm to learn more about what we can do as a whole school.

Mrs Tracey Mangold The Prep Art Department are presently very excited about getting on board our ongoing Eco projects. They have already added their magic touch to our Tops and Tags initiative by designing and making amazing bottle top art pieces which will be displayed as awareness on our campus.

Art teacher Mrs Rebecca Wheatley with two of her Art students

What better way to motivate our students than by being the change. Our German teacher, Mrs Geraldine Hawkes, is a very enthusiastic supporter of all our Eco projects. She Eco Bricks, does the Big 4 Challenge daily, composts, does beach clean ups with her son and husband, uses reusable veggie bags and much more! Thank you, Mrs Hawkes for being the change.

Mrs Geraldine Hawkes

Closing remarks Never before has it been so important for the whole world to be aware of our footprint on the planet. Never before has it been so important for each of us to make changes necessary for future generations to live sustainably on this planet. Never before has putting together an Eco Schools portofolio been more meaningful-we have to do even more in 2019. As a school and as a community, we need to work together so that the 12 years the ICPP has predicted we have to make changes, will be sufficient. Here is to working together as a school in 2018 Yours in Green, Merrifield Pre Primary, Prep and College