REFLECTING ON 2015

 

“Life should be lived forward, but can only be fully understood backwards.” ~ Unknown

 

If we as Eco Crest reflect on 2013 we can boast about some of our achievements but we will also have to admit some shortages in experience.

 

Reflecting on Resource management we are now more aware of the schools situation with regard to electricity usage and we have implemented a policy to use energy saving light bulbs wherever possible to help reduce the impact on nature and also to help decrease the amount of capital spent on electricity per month. By doing this we are now more responsible energy users. In 2014 we would like to stress this awareness by creating a notice board where we can remind learners and educator alike that we should not use the lights and other appliances unnecessarily.

 

We have also noticed the need to conserve more water and plan on making this one of our main focal points in 2014. Again starting with awareness and also replacing leaking taps and maybe even harvesting rain water for the gardens.

 

We have reduced the litter on our playground environment greatly. After our first lesson on how teams can not have a chicken parade once a week to clean the school grounds due to various factors we decided that prevention is better than cure. We launched a dustbin project that made a great improvement to the cleanliness of our school environment. In future we plan on building on this project by adapting the dustbins to a more recycle friendly bin.

 

Our school is fortunate to have good restroom facilities and we plan on improving the appearance at a later stage with the hope that it will create a sense of ownership in the learners.

 

Our learners are well connected to various other “outreach” activities in town but we do plan on trying to have a more collaborative approach in 2014 and thus increasing our efficiency in this regard. We plan on making use of the good technology at our school to help to keep us up to date about local and global issues.

 

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Our school has good access to up-to date technology and information regarding the environment but we as teachers lack the motivation to incorporate this into our lessons. We plan on using a notice board to try and stimulate interest in this regard in 2014. We have however started a good vegetable garden and learned that working with experts is the best route to follow towards knowledge and success. The garden is used at intervals to extend the classroom but we are not fully utilizing this resource.

 

Our school has made tremendous improvements on the Healthy living front in the safety of our learners by erecting fencing and implementing a strict policy on report to the office first. All policies are clear and available to all learners and staff members. Our learners also have access to healthy food cooked twice a week using produce from our own garden. We tried to launch a composting project but due to the socio-economic stature and especially transport related issues this did not work well and we need to rethink this concept.

 

Our school considers itself to be an involved and integrated part of the community. We regularly gather necessities for those among us in need as well as the wider community. We participate in events to help raise money and recourses to support the less fortunate. The school is also very cultural and we share in the cultures of those around us through drama, song and dance. The teachers may still be inspired to harness the full diversity of our “salad bowl” approach to culture and heritage in their lessons but we do consider our heritage strength.