Miss Werrell and Miss Blair in South Africa

In late October 2019 Miss Blair and Miss Werrell headed out to South Africa, to join our partner school Adelaide Primary in our shared ZeroWaste project.

You can read more about their week below (scroll down for more):

21st October 2019

Today we arrived at Adelaide primary school with a warm welcome. We had a lovely sign greeting us. We spent some time with the head teacher getting to know the school and asking lots of questions. After, we went to watch the choir, they were practising for a concert. Their voices were amazing and so powerful, some of the songs they sang were jingle bells and the wheels on the bus. They also used lots of actions. After break, we visited a Grade 7 lesson. They were getting ready to leave the school in three weeks. They are preparing a dance and they were also preparing for entrepreneurs day where they have a stand and make a game- exactly like our summer fair but it is the children’s stall.

22nd October 2019

This morning we visited grades 1, 2 and 3. We spoke to them about zero waste and what reduce, reuse and recycle means. They told us all about their eco-bricks they have been making in every class to help build a wall in their school.

We've been making Ecobricks in Adelaide and in Wood Farm

The older the classes already knew some of the words because they have been doing the same project as us! We showed them what a landfill site is and how we have different bins for recycling. They don’t have different bins for recycling and lots of litter is on the ground in the community. We spoke to them about the importance of not throwing litter on the ground and they told about the cows in their community eating it. We also spoke to them about the tip and that even if it goes in the bin it still ends up in the ground so we need to think of ways to reduce and reuse our plastic until they can get a recycle centre in Adelaide. The children came up with pledges to make sure they reduce and reuse their plastic to help make a difference.

23rd October 2019

Today we enjoyed watching and listening to the senior choir. They sang us lots of wonderful songs, including a Hawaiian Christmas song. After choir, we helped the Grade 6 children in their English lesson to create board games all about their school. They had to think of 26 questions and present their work beautifully. We are hoping to bring one of the board games back with us to use as wet play games at Wood Farm to help us learn more about Adelaide School.

We're hoping to bring back one of the children's beautiful board games

After break, we helped the dance group prepare for the BEFSA schools concert. Then it was entrepreneurs day, hosted by the Grade 7s. The children had to create a stall to make a profit. There was a huge array of stalls: curry bunnies, computer game pay and play, bompies (ice lollies), Walky talkies (chicken heads and feet), face painting, skittles made from water bottles and eco bricks, bouncy castles etc. All the children were responsible for their stall and they had to provide money for a float themselves as well as their product. They all made at least £10 each and the best one made £55, it was a huge success!

After school, children from a range of schools in the area took part in a performance. They were incredibly talented, performing a range of songs, readings, poems and dramas (please see video at the top of this page!)

24th October 2019

Today we visited a Year 5 maths lesson. They were doing division. The children copied down their calculations from the blackboard before solving the problems. We helped them with their times tables by introducing them to arrays to help them work out what the division facts were and if there were any remainders. After, we did our project lesson on zero waste with them. We spoke about recycling and they told us lots of facts about reducing, reusing and recycling. The children said that it is a common occurrence to have cows eating litter here and it causing problems.

The children impressed us so much with their knowledge of recycling and zero waste

The children then made pledges to reduce and reuse at home. Next we visited Mrs Ferreira’s Year 7 class. They wowed us with their knowledge on zero waste and all about trash islands! They impressed us so much that we asked them to write a letter to their local council to ask for a recycling centre to be built near them. The children have been working so hard on their eco-bricks that it is now difficult to find plastic around school to put in them. After lunch we also visited Year 8 and Year 6 to find out about what they had learned about zero waste and to write pledges to take home to create a better environment at home.

25th October 2019

Our last day started with us filming some of the children speaking about the lessons we had taught this week. They spoke really well and clearly. After filming, we visited a Year 4 maths lesson where they were making clocks because they have been studying time. The children took great care with cutting and colouring them in and adding the 24hour times too. After lunch, along with the principal (Mrs Every) the Grade 7s (Year 8s) began building with the hundreds of eco-bricks the school had made. They were split into 5 groups of 8, within each group they had to decide who was the project manager, who was the architect and who were the workers. The managers were set the task of giving the workers instructions and the architects had to listen carefully to the head adult architect to ensure they created a quality built planter. The children worked diligently, even when they were tired they were reminded that they need to “do what they must, not what they felt like”. They very much enjoyed the experience and it will be a long lasting memory and reminder of the zero waste project, whilst advertising the use of eco-bricks to passers by at the front of the school.