The east-end school has been granted gold EcoSchool status May 25 by Ontario EcoSchools, a consortium regrouping education stakeholders.
The school’s green teams were judged based on their performance in four key areas, including ecological literacy, waste minimization, energy conservation and school ground greening.
“We had four different groups working on four different things – it was great to see everything paying off and coming together in the end,” said Grade 12 Sam O’Neill. “It’s good for our school to get recognized for something like this. We need to treat the environment better.”
Green projects
Cairine Wilson geography teacher and project leader Malia Robin said they worked hard to find a balance among all four fields.
As part of their green efforts, students planted trees and created a butterfly garden and shaded areas for outdoor classes. In addition, they organized battery recycling drives during which old batteries were exchanged for cookies and candy.
“In energy conservation, the big focus was turning off lights and computer monitors and we participated in Earth Hour,” Robin continued adding, “We also brought all of the black and blue boxes from all the classrooms to a central location and we sorted it out.”
Ontario EcoSchools
Ontario EcoSchools was founded in 2002 as an environmental education and certification program catering to Kindergarten to Grade 12 students.
The program helps school communities promote ecological literacy and implement environmentally-friendly practices.
