A GREENER FUTURE

The Next Steps for our School’s Green Space Project

The Green Spaces group was originally created in 2021–2022, led by Alec Ramos. They focused primarily on building the garden now located on the first floor balcony of the Senior School campus, aimed at providing a ‘Green Space’ for students to enjoy and to contribute to local biodiversity.

I officially took over the project at the start of 2022–2023, however I had been helping out with the watering and weeding of the garden since the end of last year. When I took over I wanted to really work on improving what the last group did. My aims included making the balcony and garden more aesthetically pleasing, making sure there was enough shade to sit in and enjoy the fresh air in the summer and further aiding biodiversity by placing bird houses or insect hotels. I’ve always had an interest in gardening and in plants and botany in general, I was part of the plant propagation club even. Aside from that I enjoy participating in activities that will allow me to help. Whether that be helping people or helping the community I always see it as fun.

Thanks to the extremely dedicated students in my team –James Lawrence, Anah Ansari, Alexandra Klotz, Lucia Bricchi and Sofia Ollier Rabach, we’ve managed to push through and make a lot of progress already. We hold meetings on Fridays, along with the rest of the Environmental Society, we typically spend this time arranging watering schedules or discussing and researching ideas for the garden. It is my hope that as the weather progressively improves we can start meeting out on the balcony instead.

So far, we have succeeded in the construction of a pergola on the balcony, a structure that we plan to grow vines on to create shade for students to rest or hang out under. Since construction has officially ceased, we are now looking forward to planning new ideas, this time focusing on furnishing the garden.