One of the latest initiatives of St Dorothy Senior School’s Eco-School Committee has been to learn sign language and teach it to other students. One might ask: ‘How is this related to the environment?’

The answer is that since it is vital to communicate the message of the beauty of God’s creation, it is important to have the means to pass it on to everyone, including those with communication difficulties. Once it took off, the sign language initiative became an adventure in itself.

Since it was set up in 2009, the committee has organised several projects and aims to embark on something new every year.

This year, students are being given their own vegetable patch to grow local fruit and vegetables

It participated in an eco-audit of St Vincent de Paul residence, while another project involved collecting used items, selling them on Parents’ Day and using the money to buy small plants and donating the unsold items to a charity shop.

The committee has continued running a compost bin initiative which encourages the reduction, re-use or recycling of waste and embellishment of the environment.

Students take responsibility to water organic plants.

For the We Eat Responsibly project, students grew tomatoes, herbs and celery in pots  and sold them on Achievement Day.

This project will be expanded this year, with students being given their own vegetable patch to grow local fruit and vegetables. Everything will be grown organically and the final product will be used for cooking sessions in home economics and hospitality, thus bringing together the humani­ties and science subjects.

Since the launching of the committee, the school has received the Eco-School Silver Award and has been awarded the Green Flag for the third consecutive time. However, its most important achievement is that many students have developed a true love for the environment and an awareness of their duty to protect it.

The school wants slogans like ‘Go green’ and ‘Save the Earth’ to be more than just trendy catchphrases; its aim is to become a true beacon in the struggle to raise genuine care for the natural environment. This care is not simply utilitarian but also a love for the environment as God’s gift to us, and the means through which He communicates with us. In fact, helping students develop respect for the environment as God’s gift to us has been included as one of the school’s formal aims and objectives.