WESSA - 90 Years of People Caring for the Earth

working with SCHOOLS

WESSA works with schools and teachers across South Africa to support environmental education in the current curriculum, leading to better environmental learning and management throughout the school, and action in the local community. The WESSA Schools Programme operates nationally with regional project managers and co-ordinators, supporting environmental teaching and learning through lesson plans and action projects. The programme encourages learners to become the next generation of custodians of our earth and environmental leaders. •••Eco-Schools The Eco-Schools programme is an international programme of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) that was developed to support environmental learning in the classroom. The programme is active in 58 countries around the world and has been implemented by WESSA in South Africa since 2003. The programme is aimed at creating awareness and action around environmental sustainability in schools and their surrounding communities as well as supporting ESD (Education for Sustainable Development) in the national curriculum. With over 50% of the content in some CAPS subjects being environmental in nature, Eco-Schools makes a positive contribution towards improving education in South Africa.

Since2003more than10229 schools across all nineprovinces have participated in the WESSA Eco-Schools programme, of which over 6 000 have sustained their environmental projects for 3 to 12 years, involving more than 500 000 learners and 40 000 teachers. WESSA Eco-Schools accredits schools that make a commitment to continuously improve their school’s environmental performance. The Eco-Schools programme is operational inboth supported and unsupported schools. Supported schools Supported schools are where WESSA has received funding to support a cluster of schools in a specific area, and are able to offer support to the school through a dedicated staff member. Funding varies from province to province, as does the specific requirements of the funder. Schools supported within a funded cluster are required to pay the programme registration fees to cover the cost of materials and also to show their commitment to the programme. Unsupported schools Unsupported schools arewhere no funding has been secured in a specific area, and support is provided to Eco-Schools via email and telephone communications. Unsupported schools are invited to attend workshops where geographically suitable, or they may choose to self-fund transport costs for a person to run a workshop for them at their school.

28 | 90 years of people caring for the earth

29 | 90 years of people caring for the earth