Over the years BPEG has partnered with BPDS by assisting with building a garden and composting as well as providing funds for projects that enhanced the learning of environmental issues. For the December meeting BPEG invited the students of BPDS to bring us up to date on what the students have been engaged in regarding environmental action and learning about climate change. Seven grade 7/8 students came with one of their teachers and a well thought out power point presentation.
The school has been engaged in environmental action for many years, having a UNESCO designation. Being a branch of the United Nations, UNESCO was created to help promote peace and understanding through Education, Science and Culture. With the Bruce Peninsula being declared a UN Biosphere Reserve, the BPDS School Community Council felt the school should try to earn the ranking as a Unesco associated school. This endeavour was led by Doug Petter & Ruth Hellyer. Between 2004-2008 BPDS staff & students worked hard to incorporate the aspects of the four UNESCO pillars into school events and daily lessons – the 4 pillars being: 1-Promote UNESCO values; 2.Practice Global Citizen Education; 3.Education for Sustainable Development; 4.Reconciliation – there were a number of teachers working on this, to mention a few, Tara Stanton, Terri Munn, Betsy Burrows, Birch Behman, Matt Pickett. In 2008 there was a big celebration as the school received its official designation as a UNESCO school.
At BPDS the UNESCO Club is an extra-curricular activity open to Gr.7/8 students. In the past 2 years they have focused on learning more about UN Global goals and raising awareness in the school through various activities such as: Water Walks; Vow of Silence: 30 hour famine; Food drive; Rafiki Bracelets (Me to We fundraiser) and Awareness Days asking questions such as “What is your carbon Footprint?”.
Being a UNESCO school has led to other affiliations. BPDS joined ECOschools Canada, a voluntary environmental certification program where the school has specific goals to achieve to show that they are incorporating environmental practices and education every year. Some of these requirements are: monitoring the schools energy use & waste; recycling & composting program; plan & implement a ‘green’ natural environment on the school yard. With hard work & dedication BPDS reached the highest level ‘platinum’ , accomplishing this in a shorter period of time than most schools. – find more info about this program at https://ecoschools.ca/.
In 2014, they started the “Simply Living Simply Project” https://sites.google.com/view/slsbpds/home?authuser=0 which has monthly themes to challenge students, staff and community members to look closely at how they can live more conscientiously in a planet friendly manner.
The school has created amazing partnerships with local organizations, namely the Biosphere Association, BPEG and the National Park.
The school was represented at the UNESCO Conference in Winnipeg, in April 2018. The organizers of the conference were so impressed with the school’s initiatives that they forwarded the information to the UN Conference in Paris, France! Now, schools from around the world, are asking BPDS how they managed to put together such a great project.
Students are now beginning a new project dedicated to combating Climate Change – the 3% Project – https://3percentproject.com/ – in which students are currently researching and developing potential projects and engaging with the community through surveys to find which projects resonate with the larger community.
The most recent engagement has been to partner with BPEG to take a delegation to our local municipal council (Dec. 9, 2019) where the students presented their concerns regarding
climate change and together with BPEG representatives asked the council to “formally acknowledge the scientific evidence on climate change and establish a Climate Action Committee composed of council members, municipal staff and citizens, to recommend evidence-based and collaborative actions to reduce the impacts of climate change on the municipality and our community for generations to come.” The motion, put forward by councillor Megan Myles was adopted unanimously by MNBP council.
Thanks to the dedication of the staff at BPDS, presently in particular Tara Stanton, Melissa Rosenburg & Ashley Earle, BPDS is a school that the community can be very proud of.
