Energy Saving Around the School
Every month, the Beacon Hill School's Green Team checks each classroom to make sure that the lights, air conditioning, fans, and projector are switched off to save energy when no one is in the classroom. We also check that each classroom has a recycling bin, scrap paper drawer, environment monitor sign and energy checklist in their classroom.
At the end of each month, classes that had everything turned off at the right time are awarded a happy face, and at the end of the year, we will count the total of our electricity bill to see if we have improved on our energy saving. We aim for every classroom in the school to earn a happy face each month.
Adopting Animals
Beacon Hill School (BHS) adopted animals last year. BHS raised enough money to adopt polar bears and sea turtles. We chose to adopt these animals because we were concentrating on water conservation and they are both endangered. By adopting these animals, the money we donated helps to clean and look after their habitats. We also adopted a panda because our green team logo is a panda.
Totem Pole
Beacon Hill was lucky enough to work with China Light & Power (CLP) to make an environmentally friendly totem pole, with the theme “Save Our Seas”. It was designed by BHS children and is now displayed in the school’s foyer. The whole school collected used items, such as plastic bottles, computer key boards, headphones, spoons and mirrors. Year 6 then reused these items to create the decorations of the totem pole.
Learning about the Environment
It’s not only the Green Team that learns about the environment – we also learn about it in class as well. Year 2 does a lot of planting and gardening, and learns how to look after their plants. They have been growing herbs and vegetables, such as tomatoes. Year 4 learns all about habitats and how important they are for living things. They visited the Hong Kong Wetland Park to find out about some local habitats.
Year 5 learns about water conservation and water around the world. They have found out how lucky we are in Hong Kong to have all the water we need and how precious water is. To help with water conservation last year, they filled water bottles with water and put them in the cisterns of the toilets around the school. The water bottles take up some of the water space in the cisterns, so that when anyone flushes the toilet, it uses less water. Year 5 also learns about producing energy and how some ways, such as solar power, do not harm the environment.
Composting
We collect as much organic material as we can, including apple cores, banana peels, tea bags, leaves and branches for composting. We don’t collect cooked food, tissue, plastic, and of course rubbish! When all the organic material is mixed together for a while it becomes compost. Members of the Green Team are responsible for collecting all the organic material from special composting bins located around the school and putting it all in a large composting bin that was donated by the PTA. This compost is used in our butterfly garden.
Clean Hong Kong’s Air
The children and staff of BHS all want clean air in Hong Kong. Our air is getting more and more polluted and not much is done to clean it, so we all signed a petition. You can see our petition here.
Green School Award
We are really proud of winning a Green School Award, as we all worked really hard to get it. We are going to continue to be as “green” as we can all the time.
By Michelle Wong, Karina Poon, Aqua Chi, Frencesca So, Oliver Tainui and Sam Dailley, BHS Year 4, 5 & 6 students.
Composting is not smelly!
Composting is a natural process that breaks down organic materials such as leaves, vegetable peelings and fruit skins to simpler forms that are ready for enriching soil. Plants differ from animals because they manufacture their own food from sunlight, carbon dioxide and water, but they also need other nutrients that they obtain from the soil via their roots for healthy growth.
Composting is often misunderstood as smelly, dirty and something that attracts vermin. If done properly, it’s none of these and is very educational as well as helping to add to our school’s recycling programme, going beyond metal cans and paper. Still, we had to convince many people that we wouldn’t have problems, such as with attracting vermin, before we could start. It takes some time to learn how to compost properly and what not to put in – the other day we found a carton of milk thrown in the composter that had become very smelly and we had to throw the whole batch away!
Carol Clifford, Beacon Hill School
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