An eco-friendly year at Margaret Mortimer Girls Junior Lyceum

Over the past scholastic year, the EkoSkola committee and teachers of various subjects at Margaret Mortimer Girls Junior Lyceum, Sta Lucija, which forms part of St Benedict's College, have undertaken a series of initiatives both on a curricular and extra curricular basis to increase environmental awareness among students and teachers at the school.

The initiatives included the setting up of the EkoSkola Website, using the notice board to display information and students' work related to the environment, inviting guest speakers to our school, organising field trips and competitions, and participating in the 'Clean up the World' and 'Global Action' campaigns.

Mariella Grixti, a representative from a WasteServ subsidiary, Medecology, gave a talk on waste separation to all students.

The EkoSkola committee organised a school competition to promote greater environmental awareness in which students were invited either to create a drawing or write a poem in Maltese or English on the theme 'Id-Dinja Taghna, nibzghu Ghaliha' (Our World, Let's Look After It).

Another initiative focused on waste separation. Form teachers encouraged students to set up a box for used paper only.

Various classes and forms took part in out-of-school activities including a seminar on global warming, participation in the 34U campaign, visits to the Argotti Botanic Gardens, Is-Simar, Wied il-Qlejja, Ta' Kandja groundwater pumping station, and Mgiebah as part of Arbor Week.

For the first time in our school, an Environmental Awareness Week was held during which key environmental issues, such as water, global warming, fair trade and justice, were tackled on every day of the week.

The week included an Ekoskola day during which several guest speakers, including Claudine Cardona from the Malta Resources Authority, Saviour Porter, Chief Meteorological Officer and Dr Paul Gauci, National Co-ordinator for EkoSkola, were invited to give talks at our school.

The week's highlight was the launching of the Eco-code in the form of a song written by one of the school's teachers, George Cremona, that emphasised the need to manage waste properly. Special thanks also go to the music teacher, Doris Debono, and the school choir.

Other activities that took place during the week included an exhibition of students' work, a viewing of the award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, a cleaning-up activity, distribution of oak seeds to Forms 1 and 2 students and fund-raising for the children of refugees.

Subsequently, a Lunch Box week was held, and students were encouraged to minimise waste by adopting this initiative all year round.

A number of posters aimed at reducing litter, water and energy consumption were also put up.

The school also relaunched its gardening club, through which students collect, sow and look after the seeds and saplings of indigenous plants, such as oak, pine, olive and carob trees. A substantial number of seeds have already germinated.

All these initiatives have taken place thanks to the EkoSkola committee and teachers working together on a year-long action plan. Our ultimate aim is for all school members to become more conscious of the pressing need to make our school as environment-friendly and sustainable as possible.