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Inside this issue

Spotlight ............................... 2

Resources & Ideas .................. 8

Get Involved .......................... 10 Greetings from the Editor Greetings to all. We are glad that this newest issue is finally here. A very warm welcome to new schools that have recently joined the programme. First and foremost, I am your editor for this issue. I have just recently got on board as an intern. As part of our ongoing efforts for eco-schools, we will share plenty of news and resources. All these news and resources are available on the microsite, eco-schools.wwf.org.my. Feel free to drop by anytime!

We would like to apologize for the delay in publishing this issue due to a few technical glitches on our part. We would try our best for the next issue to be out on time. In ac-cordance with this, we hope that you will write your own article on any event related to environment sustainability to be shared with us for our next issue. We would like to thank all contributors for this issue. We hope to see more schools actively contributing articles as this is a good sharing platform.

Nadiah

Kata Alu-Aluan daripada Editor Selamat menatap isu yang kelima bagi “Green Flag Times”. Kami disini mengucapkan selamat datang kepada sekolah– sekolah yang baru sahaja mendaftar untuk program eco school . Pertama sekali salam perkenalan daripada saya yang baru sahaja menyertai WWF Malaysia sebagai pelatih untuk program Environmental Education. Kami akan kongsikan pelbagai sumber menarik dan berita terbaru untuk anda gunakan bagi seba-rang aktiviti di sekolah. Sumber dan berita boleh didapati di laman web eco school; eco-schools.wwf.org.my . Kami amat berbesar hati dan berterima kasih kepada beberapa sekolah yang sudi ber-kongsi aktiviti mereka untuk dimasukkan di ruangan spotlight. Di sini kami ingin memo-hon maaf kerana mengambil masa yg lama bagi keluaran isu Jan– Dis 2013 ini di sebab-kan oleh beberapa halangan teknikal. Kami akan cuba sedaya-upaya untuk memastikan isu-isu seterusnya dikeluarkan mengikut jadual. Dengan ini, kami amat berharap sekiranya anda dapat menghasilkan beberapa artikel yang berkaitan dengan penjagaan alam sekitar dan kongsikan aktiviti yang telah anda lakukan bersama kami untuk keluaran yang seterusnya. Sekali lagi kami mengucapkan terima kasih kepada sekolah yang telah berkongsi artikel kepada kami. Kami juga amat berharap agar lebih banyak sekolah dapat bersama– sama berkongsi artikel di ruangan ini. Nadiah

Issue 5

Jan – Mar 2014 Green Flag Times

ECO -SCHOOLS PROGRAMM E MALAYSIA NEWSLETTER

Editorial Team

EDITOR:

Nadiah Roslan Environmental Education

Programme, WWF Malaysia

EXECUTIVE EDITOR:

Thiagarajan Nadeson(tnadeson@wwf.org.my)

Chairperson of National Eco-Schools Committee

CONTRIBUTORS:

SMK Damansara Jaya

Fairview International School, Fairview Kuala Lumpur

SK Damansara Jaya 2

WE’RE ON THE WEB!

See us at:

http://eco-schools.wwf.org.my/

© WWF-Malaysia

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Spotlight on Eco-Schools

This section features the activi-ties of schools that have regis-tered for the Eco-Schools pro-gramme.

For this issue, we have invited schools to send in articles for contributions on sustaining a clean and healthy environment at their schools.

SK Damansara Jaya 2 is the first to respond enthusiastically to share with us their recent pro-gramme of “Cerdas Minda” Revision Session.

SMK Damansara Jaya recently registered in the Eco-school programme. It did provide a comprehensive overview of the school’s eco-programme, and we felt that this school’s first contribution and involvement to the newsletter should be shared with others.

Impressively, Fairview Interna-tional School, located in Wangsa Maju Kuala Lumpur has incorpo-rated lessons on local and global issue into the student’s curricu-lum through “Share the Planet” programme.

SMK Damansara Jaya is now an Eco-School! By: Lew Cheng Wei SMK Damansara Jaya, Petaling Jaya

A week after PMR ended, a talk was organized by the school and repre-sentatives from WWF to increase awareness of the importance of conser-vation and preservation of the environment. The Form 3 students who attended the talk showed great enthusiasm and spirit.

First, the speaker noted to everyone about how devastating the effects of mankind activity have been to the environment these past few years. To emphasize on his point, he presented a slideshow of photos that pictured damages to the environment formed due to mankind. It was not surprising to find out that the condition of our environment has deteriorat-ed over the years. With problems like global warming, deforestation, open burning, thinning of the ozone layer, haze, rubbish piling up, landslides, flash floods and soil erosion becoming more and more serious every day, it’s hard not to see why people everywhere in the world are panicking over the destruction of the world.

In spite of this, he pointed out that there are a few ways to face this problem and one of them was recycling. More slides appeared on the screen as he explained how recycling could help save our environment and create a better place for the coming generations to live in. Recycling for one can reduce the amount of garbage disposed every day, and it can also reduce the amount of natural resources used up.

To instil the awareness among the students, they have split up into groups of three. Each group had to collect rubbish around the school for half an hour and create a model or a project made up from the rubbish collected. Every student showed a display of great enthusiasm and the activity was conducted with ease.

With problems like global warming, deforestation, open burning, thinning of the ozone layer, haze, rub-bish piling up, landslides, flash floods and soil erosion becoming more and more serious every day, it’s hard not to see why people everywhere in the world are panicking over the destruction of the world.”

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“One group was very creative as they built a model which they said was a rubbish convertor. You throw in rubbish from one end and a new item comes out from the other end. ”

Gallery: SMK Damansara Jaya on the Eco– School launching

The signing of the registration form by the Principal, Pn Ashimah binti Ahmad, marking the initiation of SMK Damansara Jaya as an Eco-school

Photo ©: SMK Damansara Jaya

Next, each group had to come out and introduce what

they had built and they had learnt during the process of

the activity. One group was very creative as they built a

model which they said was a rubbish convertor. You

throw in rubbish from one end and a new item comes out

from the other end. Another group made a model which

they called a rubbish classifier. They explained that any

rubbish that was thrown into it would be analyzed and

sorted into compartments for glass, paper, aluminium and

pure rubbish.

During the Q&A session, the students came up with imagi-

native and resourceful questions. It was quite a wonderful

sight to see our students learning so much about what’s

beneficial and harmful towards our environment.

However the representatives from WWF had another mis-

sion coming to our school. They were here to initiate our

school as an eco-friendly school. We are now officially an

Eco-school. It was a beneficial day and everyone went

home learning more about something that plays a very

important role in our lives.

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“To catch the reader's attention, place an interesting sentence or quote from the story here.”

“Continuing this magnificent campaign of environmental and humanitarian efforts, the student’s constructed useful items from recycled materials as part of their les-sons using the theme “How we express ourselves”.”

ing within subject areas and participate in activities

which have positive local and global effects. Some

themes used so far this year are “Sharing the planet;

teaching students the rights and responsibilities in

the struggle to share finite resources with other peo-

ple and with other living things”, and “How we ex-

press ourselves: an inquiry into the ways in which we

discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture,

beliefs and values”. Through these themes the teach-

ers across all four of Fairview’s IB World Schools have

been able to construct strong links to the WWF’s en-

vironmental education efforts. By using these themes

the students of the Primary Years Programme

brought together two ventures they love most, recy-

cling and philanthropy.

Sharing In The Face of Desolation

For the community of Fairview, November was a

month of devastation and heartbreak as well as love,

gratitude and togetherness. The carnage which Ty-

phoon Haiyan caused to our neighbouring Philippines

in early November shocked the world by its colossal

destruction. Among the Fairview family, the school

has a large Filipino community ranging from teachers,

students and staff, some with families in the worst

affected areas. To support our family members and

victims of this desolation, all four campuses; Kuala

Lumpur, Penang, Johor and Subang, pulled together

to contribute in-kind and monetary donations to help

victims in the regions most ravaged by the typhoon.

Recycling to Save Life’s

As part of this donation drive, the PYP students built

a recycled Christmas tree filled with wishes for the

victims of Typhoon Haiyan. For RM1, each student

wrote their special wish on a piece of recycled paper,

As an International Baccalaureate (IB) World

School, the students of Fairview’s Primary Years

Programme (PYP) adhere to the use of six trans-

disciplinary themes which allows the school the

opportunity to incorporate lessons about issues

found locally and globally into the student’s cur-

riculum. Through this, the students are encour-

aged to “step up” beyond the confines of learn-

Learning To “ Share the Planet” with Fairview International School

PYP Recycling Committee

Photo: © SMKA MOHD Ali/Floridah

By: Sarahjane Tierney , Media & Communications Executive, Fairview International School, Fairview Kuala Lumpur

Photo ©: Fairview Kuala Lumpur

“To catch the reader's attention, place an interesting sentence or quote from the story here.”

“Continuing this magnificent campaign of environmental and humanitarian efforts, the student’s constructed useful items from recycled materials as part of their les-sons using the theme “How we express ourselves”.”

Photo: © SMKA MOHD Ali/Floridah

By: Sarahjane Tierney , Media & Communications Executive, Fairview International School, Fairview Kuala Lumpur

Photo ©: Fairview Kuala Lumpur

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gave this to the teacher in charge which was then put inside

a recycled can and these in turn placed together to form

the shape of Christmas tree. As the tree grew, more and

more students made wishes for the victims in the Philip-

pines in the hope that bringing the tree to full height would

bring their wishes to life.

Continuing this magnificent campaign of environmental and

humanitarian efforts, the student’s constructed useful

items from recycled materials as part of their lessons using

the theme “How we express ourselves”. The pupils worked

in pairs or groups of 3 and constructed useful items like

plant pots and stationary holders, as well as fun objects

such as castles, play houses and robots, all made by the

students themselves using 100% recycled materials. Beauti-

ful handcrafts like these will be placed on sale at the

school’s annual Carnival Day, April 26th 2014, to help contin-

ue raising funds for the victims in the Philippines. From

these environmental and philanthropic actions the students

now truly understand the theme “Sharing the Planet”; that

when we collaborate for the better good we can rise above

our own expectations for the betterment of society and our

fellow man.

Gallery: Fairview International School, Fairview Kuala Lumpur on the Learning to “Share the Planet” Programme

Photo 1: Recycled flower pots

Photo 2: Recycled Stationary Holders

Photo 3: Xmas Tree– Construction

Photo 4: Xmas Tree– Finished

Photo 5: Recycling Bins

2 3

1

Photo ©: Fairview Kuala Lumpur

Photo ©: Fairview Kuala Lumpur

Photo ©: Fairview Kuala Lumpur

Photo ©: Fairview Kuala Lumpur

4

5 Photo ©: Fairview Kuala Lumpur

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“To catch the reader's attention, place an interesting sentence or quote from the story here.”

“16 units of 8 watt led energy saver light bulbs are being installed to replace existing fluorescent lamp. This initiatives helps reduce electricity bill at the school in a big margin where 6 classroom comprising 24 fluorescent of 40 watt each will not be switched on. “

where each day would feature a different subject for revision. Astro educational tv channel are also being aired

at the reading corner next to the canteen. The difference in this programme with other school is the lightings

that being used to light up the whole canteen. 16 units of 8 watt led energy saver light bulbs are being installed

to replace existing fluorescent lamp. This initiatives helps reduce electricity bill at the school in a big margin

where 6 classroom comprising 24 fluorescent of 40 watt each will not be switched on. By the time this pro-

grammes ends at 8 pm, classroom are now bright enough with natural sunlight.

Having all the kids assemble in the canteen meant the teachers and volunteers could be better mobilized to

focus on more children.SK Damansara Jaya 2 is the perfect example of a grassroots initiative where the com-

munity has, on its own accord, come together to make up its own solutions.

The enthusiastic volunteers there say they hope their work will encourage others to realise that green initia-

tives do not have to come from the Government or Private sector. And as cliched as the saying is, “practising

what you preach” or setting an example is the best way to transfer values to fu-

ture generations. I think all this (the recycling and energy-friendly cerdas min-

da sessions) will help guide the mindsets of our young ones with regards to envi-

ronment-friendly practices.

EARLY morning sees the canteen benches of Sekolah Kebangsaan Damansara Jaya 2 neatly lined

with students, many chattering excitedly as they busy themselves with pencils and exercise books.

It is 6.45am and the day is still creeping in but students of SK Damansara Jaya are already in school and

while waiting for the morning bell at 7.30 are already working their way through their school subjects and

revision at the canteen.

About 21 teachers plus volunteers including parents and PTA committee members are assisting the stu-

dents, helping some with spelling and others with the pronunciation of certain words. The book reading

sessions which started as early as 6.45am evolved into Cerdas Minda (intelligent mind) revision sessions,

By: Syed Nasurudin B. Syed Abu Bakar , PTA Chairman , SK Damansara Jaya 2

“Cerdas Minda” Revision Session

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“ ’practising what you preach’ or setting an example is the best way to transfer values to future generations.”

Gallery: SK Damansara Jaya 2 on the “Cerdas Minda“ Revision Session

Photo ©: SK Damansara Jaya 2

Photo ©: SK Damansara Jaya 2

Photo ©: SK Damansara Jaya 2

Astro educational tv channel aired at the reading

corner next to the canteen

Kids assemble in the canteen

Students having their revision

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Resources and Ideas

This section features tips, ideas and resources that schools may find useful as they run their eco-schools program.

In this edition, we share a brief guide on how to sus-tain clean environment in your school.

Easy ways to Sustain and Save the Environment:

By : Nadiah Roslan, Intern, WWF-Malaysia

Aligning to the theme of sustaining a clean and healthy environment in schools,

here are some information that students might want to know. It can be part of

practices to be implemented in student’s learning time as it gives benefit not only

to your school but to the environment as

well.

Do you know that cleanliness in your

school can affect students’ learning pro-

cess? Keeping your school clean can actu-

ally help you perform better academically

because there will be fewer distractions

in terms of cleanliness. In addition to hav-

ing a positive learning environment, do-

ing your part to keep your school clean

and simply cleaning up after yourself will

also show others that you are a responsi-

ble person. Here are some of the sugges-

tions that you may want to practice in your school:

1. One of the way to keep school’s clean is by reducing waste. Many of the items

that you would normally consider as rubbish could be used for other purposes. So

instead of throwing items away, reduce waste by reusing them according to stat-

ed waste criteria.

a) Paper and Envelopes - Can be used as scrap paper for making notes.

b) Cardboard, Newspaper and Bubble Wrap - Can be used as packing materials.

Packaging products, such as foil and egg cartons, can be used for art projects in

schools and nurseries.

c) Jars and Pots - Can be used as small containers to store odds and ends.

d) Plastic and Paper Bags - Can be reused in the shops, used as bin bags around

the school or as wrapping paper.

e) Used wood – Can be used in woodcrafts for making small garden objects

such as bird tables.

Get more info on this at http://www.recycling-guide.org.uk/reduce.html

(Continued on page 9)

Extracted from www.buzzle.com

9

Source: www.buzzle.com

www.laschools.org

2. Plastics and polystyrene are common in our school canteen and it is a non-biodegradable product that give disad-

vantage to our environment. Pack a no-waste lunch is an example on how you can minimize the usage of plastics

and polystyrene. Use a reusable lunch box or bag and fill it with your lunch in reusable containers. Don't forget to

bring it home so you can wash it and use it again.

3. Save water - The simplest way to save water is to turn off water taps after use. Use only a needed quota of water as

necessary. Make sure there are no dripping. Students should report to their teachers if they have noticed any drip-

ping from the water tap in school.

4. Save energy - Switch off the lights and fans in your classroom before leaving. Make sure the electrical appliances

are not left on (unless necessary), when leaving the class especially during the PJPK session.

5. Teachers can ensure that students pick up trash in a classroom or other teaching station at the end of each class-

room period, before recess, or at the end of the day. The students should be required to clean and put away sup-

plies after a class activity.

6. As for the school itself, putting up a "Please Do Not Litter" signage also might be another traditional or cliché solu-

tion but students need to be reminded as much as possible to keep the school area clean. Besides that, with a sign

that clearly says "Please Do Not Litter", students would feel more gutted to throw their garbage in appropriate

places.

7. Set up School rules that saying “no to littering”. If littering around the school got included in the school rules and

teachers are given authority to punish students who are caught throwing their garbage inappropriately, there will

definitely be an enormous amount of complaints coming from the students. But on the other hand, there will also

be a cleaner school environment. Students should be encouraged to throw their garbage in a trash canonly. If they

can't find one then they should keep their garbage with them until they do.

8. Schools can initiate a “Keep our school clean” effort or theme with their selected student body. Students can serve

as a mentor to fellow students on a rotating basis to remind them to keep the facilities clean and to pick up discard-

ed trash, not to apply graffiti, etc. Student poster contests regarding school cleanliness should be encouraged. A

box could be utilized for those students to anonymously report on other students who are seen on act of littering

or vandalizing the school.

(Continued from page 8)

Extracted from:

www.thedogooder.com

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Get Involved

1. International Science and Arts Festival in Turkey (ISAF)

As one of the members of Eco-Schools, Fen Bilimleri Secondary School in Turkey is organizing an International Science and Art Festival (ISAF) be-tween 20th-25th of April, 2014. This festival is to share eco-school projects and art activities, by presenting different cultural figures during the festival which aim to know more on each other schools better.

To see more information regarding the registration and others on this festi-val ,please visit http://www.fboblogs.com/isaf

Look out for the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/ISAF/1404632619774418

For any other information or questions ,please contact Belgin ARUSOĞLU at belgin.arusoglu@gmail.com

2. The 28th Caretakers of the Environment International Confer-ence ‘Nature, Culture and Future’

There will be an event called CEI 2014 Conference by Caretakers of the Envi-ronment International (CEI) from 6th-12th July ,2014 taken place in Yilan, Taiwan.

Seminars and workshops in this event will cover the topics of food sovereign-ty, permaculture, sustainable development, international and local environ-mental initiatives and debates. There will also be various hands-on activities and social events that encourage participation by delegates from many na-tions.

To look out for more information regarding this amazing event, please vis-it http://www.cei2014.org/

Get Involved

This section features events and projects from around the world that Eco-Schools might want to get involved in.