FLYING their ‘Platinum Eco School Flag’ high is Brackenham Primary School who recently received a prestigious award by WESSA (Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa).
Brackenham Primary has been in the Eco-School Programme since 2008 and was awarded Platinum status due to its 2013 project of mentoring Richards Bay Secondary School into becoming an effective Eco-School.
The Eco-Schools’ Programme is an international programme of the Foundation of Environmental Education (FEE) and is active in 51 countries around the world.
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.
Eco-Schools were initiated in South Africa in 2003, with WESSA as the implementing agent. More than 1 200 schools are registered in the programme.
Brackenham Primary has enjoyed many celebrations, victories and awards for the past five years for reducing their carbon footprint in the school as well as in the pupils’ homes, the country, continent and planet at large.
For the past six years, the school worked on five eco-school themes: Resource Use, Nature and Biodiversity, Local and Global Issues, Healthy Living and Community and Heritage.
Reduce, reuse, recycle and repair
Earlier this year, 30 pupils were selected to attend a three-day team building course at Twinstreams sponsored by USAID.
USAID is the US Government agency that works to end extreme global poverty and enables resilient, democratic societies to realise their potential.
‘They invested in our pupils’ education and we are grateful to them as the pupils were trained in Leadership Skills, Water Study, Mangrove Study, Scavenging along the Coast, Forest Study and other team building activities. Our pupils really benefitted.
‘A special thanks to our Eco-School Team Leader Mrs GP Khoza, her dedicated band of educators , the school management team, pupils and parents for sustaining all the Eco-School projects, setting benchmarks and examples for surrounding schools to copy or follow.
‘Remember to ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Repair’ to protect our planet for the future generation,’ said school Principal BK Govender.
