WESSA Schools Programme Annual Report 2019/2020

De La Salle Holy Cross College

Victory Park, Gauteng

De La Salle Holy Cross College is located in the suburb of Victory Park in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg. Serving around 900 girls and boys, from Grade RR to 12, the school has a total staff complement of around 100.

Embarking on the conversion of our school into an environmentally friendly place – with an environmentally aware community of educators, learners and parents – has been exciting, educational and challenging!

OUR ECO-JOURNEY Our journey started late in 2013, when De La Salle Holy Cross College decided to install large water tanks to harvest rainwater for use in the school’s toilet blocks. Early in 2014, the junior school’s Parent Advisory Committee established a collaborative environmental committee. The committee’s role was to involve and assist our educators, to complement the high school’s learner-led environment committee. Over the years, these committees have embarked on projects, large and small, aimed towards creating an energy-efficient, toxin-free, green and healthy learning environment. SOME OF OUR PROJECTS Our projects have concentrated on a variety of environmental challenges and issues.Our energy focus includes continually optimising the school’s

As part of the school’s nutrition focus, there has been a drive to ensure that the tuckshop sells food with high nutritional value. Outdoors, the emphasis for all our garden planting has been to plant indigenous plant species. We have built wormeries with the children for use in the school’s gardens. We run awareness activities and workshops with all ages of children. We also advocate being water-wise, whether in the garden or in the school buildings. Directly tackling waste challenges, our active campaign recently included hands-on core projects such as building eco-bricks to optimise the reduction and reuse of our plastic waste, as well as helping to clean up our immediate and surrounding environment. CHANGES IN OUR SCHOOL We have realised that becoming ‘green’ is an ongoing and continuous journey.

Educating our community to become aware of the environmental impacts of all their actions and choices is a long-term project. This will endure for the lifespan of the school as new learners move through their education cycles. It is inspiring to experience the eagerness of our learners to change their behaviour and to influence others to do the same, in the interest of protecting their environment. We have increasingly used the junior and high school learners to conduct the environmental educational programmes themselves. We have found that they are able to connect more effectively with their peers than the parents and educators, who assist by providing material and logistical support where possible. IN THE FUTURE We seek to keep improving the habits of our community and the physical environment of the school. We intend to focus even more on the use of renewable energy sources and the awareness of our impact

use of power and improving the learning environment, in particular with attention to temperature and comfort.

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