A green oasis in the city

TREE Tops School in Musgrave, which has been operating on the Berea since 1932, has long had a strong environmental ethos, but it is now a registered Eco-School and proud holder of a Green Flag for the third consecutive year.

According to principal, Carolyn Robinson, the school was initially awarded a WESSA Green Flag – which usually takes three years to achieve – in one year, as it was already so involved in environmental education and related projects. The WESSA team who assessed the school’s portfolios at the end of 2013 commented that Tree Tops is, “a great eco-example to those around you and keep conserving those spectacular Albizia adiantifolia and Ekerbegia capensis trees.”

Tree Tops has a ‘Healthy Living Project’ which involves children from three to nine years old. Carolyn said the school acknowledged the place technology had in their pupils’ lives, but felt that they first needed to know their place in the natural world and the importance of sustainability. Each campus has water storage tanks, wormeries and organic vegetable gardens and each year, the Grade 2 pupils complete a one-day course on permaculture at the Durban Botanic Gardens. In addition, there are ‘butterfly gardens’, ‘lizard hotels’ and indigenous gardens and this year, ‘indigenous medicine gardens’ are being established.

“We do companion planting and use worm wee (or ‘worm tea’ as some prefer to more delicately put it!) We teach the children the importance of biodiversity and about indigenous and exotic plants, as well as alien species. Our children are water-wise and are ecologically aware to the extent that visitors (and parents) are often surprised by their knowledge of the environment,” she said.

The school also contributes to other organisations and donates trees through the ‘Food and Trees for Africa’ programme, which are planted in poverty-stricken areas that have largely been deforested. The children also grow yellowwood trees which, when they are at sapling height, are given to Natalie Rowe, (a keen conservationist), who arranges for them to be transported to Hoggsback where they are planted as part of a re-afforestation project. The depleted yellowwood trees are the only habitat for the Cape Parrot so preserving these forests is essential.