For weeks, Eco-schools has been planning a Earth Day spirit week. Since Earth Day fell on a Saturday this year, we wanted to celebrate it the week before it so everyone could be more aware on the day itself. Not only did we have themed days such as ‘Waste Free Wednesday’ we also had an assembly for the whole school on Thursday as well as an after school street sweep.
We worked hard together as a team to plan and rehearse the skits (although Sasindu made it plummet down with just one word), create our speeches and involve the community.
You’re probably thinking how much work really needed to go into the assembly. Well… a lot more than any of us had anticipated. Right off the bat I knew that if early years and primary students were attending, we would have to keep it relatively short and engaging otherwise they would zone off and not take in any of the important messages we were spreading. So we set ourselves a limit of 45 minutes for the assembly. The same applied for our speeches. They had to have the important facts and figures but couldn’t be difficult to understand for the younger age groups.
Millan had a speech about eating less meat and I emphasized with him the importance of not blaming people who do eat meat and telling to cut it out altogether but instead tell them about the benefits of limiting it instead. This way we would be aware of every religion in the audience, every diet and every person.
We also had a touching moment when the DP2s handed over messages in the same bamboo batons from our baton relay, and gave them to primary grades to read out in their class. These in turn were legacies, for the younger students to become great leaders and fighters for the environment like the class of 2023.
Everyone involved did so much work both on stage and behind the scenes so I would like to acknowledge all of them; Mr Poulus, Ms Melinda, Vassilisa, Senaka, Ryan, Roy, Millan, Sam B, Lehansa, Mr De Silva, Chathill, Senaya, Sasindu and all the Dp2s and tech staff.
Featured Image Credit: OSC School Photographer