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. 1 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. 2 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. 4 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 . 5 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. 6 • 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 7 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.