Eco-School

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ECO-COMMITTEE

Our new Eco-committee has been elected!

The learners had to motivate why they wanted to be on the Eco committee and what they can do to help the environment.

Grade 7: Olivia Kingma and Ashlin Fenton

Grade 6: Finn Montague, Angela Euston-Brown, Nigel Njazi

Grade 5: Justin Schoon, Sarah van Zyl, Ryan Young, Anja Coulthard, Ben Ringwood, M. Ammaar Slarmie

Grade 4: Leto du Plessis, Julia Plougmann, Ruth Andrew

They will hold fortnightly meetings during school hours and will be the co-ordinators in all the Eco School Projects. They will have to attend meetings, give talks to fellow learners, take minutes and write reports (those belonging to the media club).


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COMMUNITY PROJECTS

Kommetjie Primary have teamed up with Imhoff Waldorf and Marine Primary in Ocean View, in working on the Eco Schools Programme. We will work on various projects together, the main one being the Bokramspruit River.

All three schools have registered for the programme at the same time and see this as an opportunity n bringing our communities closer together in working with our beautiful environment.


Project Bokramspruit River

Our first joint project was the initiation of the Bokramspruit River project.

What was meant to be a short talk and an outing to the river to observe and assess the state of the river, turned into a longer talk and no outing due to rain.

Matthew Dowling and Nicola Okes gave really interesting talks in the community hall in Ocean View. Matthew spoke about the river and the importance of monitoring, cleaning and improving it. Nicola spoke about the Cape Clawless Otter which is found all around our area. She is doing her doctorate on this otter and is needing help in GPS coordinates of sightings, droppings etc. Cameras have been set up from Noordhoek to the Slangkop Lighthouse and appealed to the children not to touch them as they are set in specific directions.

Both Matthew and Nicola will be there to help with outings and information.

The plan is to now get water testing kits, test the water and monitor all the biodiversity found. Matthew has encouraged all the children to become little scientists and to find something that interests them along the river, and to study this is as much depth as they possibly can.

The three schools will take sections of the river which are accessible to them and all our results will be put together. This will be an on going project for all the schools.

Recycling Bins

Di Christian has very kindly donated large round cardboard bins to the school for recycling. The children are presently decorating them. These bins are also being donated to Marine Primary and Imhoff Waldorf Schools

International Ocean Conservancy Beach Cleanup – September 17

In partnership with organizations and individuals across the globe, Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup engages people to remove trash and debris from the world's beaches and waterways, identify the sources of debris, and change the behaviors that cause ocean trash in the first place.

These cleanups have been taking place for the last 25 years, and Kommetjie Primary has now registered as a co-ordinator for Kommetjie beach and Bokramspruit River mouth.

Our beach clean up was held on Thursday 15 September. This was very successful and 137 kg of litter was collected by the entire school. This will now be sorted and recycled by the Eco-committee.

With the latest storms and NW winds, our beach is particularly dirty at the moment, so all efforts to cleanup are making a huge difference.

Check www.oceanconservancy.org for more information about this project.


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School wetland

The school wetland has dried up! There has been no water in it this winter season. The rivers on the mountain above the school have also been dry.

The City of Cape Town (CoCT) identified the area behind the jungle gym at the end of the sports field as being a previous wetland. We would eventually like to rehabilitate this area back into a wetland.

CoCT are also keen for the school to be involved in the rehabilitation of Skilpadsvlei which will commence in the next year or so… this used to be a breeding area for the Leopard Toads.


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Talks

We are aiming to organize speakers to come and talk to the whole school possibly once a month who are involved in environmental issues.


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To see what is going on with the Kommetjie Primary Eco Schools project, keep an eye on the Eco Schools board in the foyer!