WESSA Schools Programme Annual Report 2019/2020

Wynberg Girls’ High School

Wynberg, Cape Town, Western Cape

Located in the suburb of Wynberg, Cape Town, our school was founded in 1884. The school’s Eco-journey with WESSA began in 2017, although Wynberg Girls High School (WGHS) has had an Environmental Club as far back as anyone can remember. The Environmental Club continues to organise various activities such as beach- and park clean-ups but also raises awareness throughout the school about the meaning and value of environmental days. Our weekly meetings promote environmental awareness in all sorts of ways – through hosting a guest speaker, for example, or setting a hot topic for discussion. Some weeks we spend the meeting tending to our vegetable and fynbos garden. Most recently we conducted a very smelly waste audit of the school’s municipal rubbish bins as a part of our ongoing quest to make the school more sustainable – the first step being to know what we are wasting!

RAISING SUSTAINABILITY’S PROFILE Receiving Eco-Schools awards plays a sizeable role in cementing this club into the psyche of the school. Raising the profile of environmental issues has highlighted that sustainability and environmental awareness are desirable and attainable goals for the whole school, not just for the club! CUTTING PLASTIC Our Rethink the Bag campaign, launched in 2018 under the guidance of the Two Oceans Aquarium , was the turning point for focusing the school community’s attention onto our individual consumption and responsibilities. It also showed the Enviro Club as a change maker in the school system. Our school is now a proudly plastic shopping

bag-free zone, even though we still face the challenge of maintaining and monitoring this status. We have encouraged learners to bring or make their own reusable bags and even had some bags designed by girls from the school! MAKING POLICY One of the most notable moments was that, in 2019, it was decided that the school needed a learner on the School Council whose designation it would be to promote sustainability on our campus. Environmental awareness has thus gone, in the space of a few years, from being the job of ‘a small club of passionate girls’ to becoming an official part of school policy making! We are grateful to WESSA for all the encouragement and guidance that has led us to this point.

REFLECTION One of the greatest benefits of joining Eco-Schools has been the portfolio that has to be submitted at the end of each year. reflect on what the school has done in the year, check in to see what more we could be doing and help plan to move forward. “ ” Compiling the portfolio is a brilliant way to

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