LHPS Eco Stewardship
Discover how Lianhua Primary School nurtures eco-conscious students through gardens, green projects, and community outreach.
Introduction
Lianhua primary school prides itself as one of the schools which has a wide range of flora and fauna while surrounded by beautiful scenery–mainly due to the Bukit Batok Town Park and Little Guilin. We have four fish ponds and three gardens that host more than 20 species of fishes and organisms for the learning of Science and are frequently used for PAL (outdoor education) lessons.
Edible Garden
The edible garden situated on the second floor is used often by teachers, staff and parent volunteers to plant vegetables and edible herbs. In addition, we have two large worm composting bins armed with blue Malayan nightcrawlers to compost organic waste and water lettuce that sometimes overpopulates the school ponds. The compost will then be used to fertilise the many fruit trees on our premises (Papaya trees, Chiku tree, Custard apple tree, Soursop tree, Lime plant, Mango tree and Guava tree). The wide variety of flowers in the gardens also benefit from this composting of food waste as they provide them with the necessary minerals and nutrients.
Fig 2. Edible Garden
Green Super Heroes
We are fortunate to have a group of students and teachers who are passionate about improving our school gardens. They work tirelessly during the weekday afternoons and even on Saturdays to improve and maintain our school gardens.
Lianhua Primary School’s Green Commitment
Lianhua Primary School has been participating in the Green Schools @ Southwest annually. Being an enthusiastic supporter of the green movement, Lianhua’s efforts have paid off as the school has attained Gold Award for almost all the years that it has participated in this programme and thus has also achieved the Sustained Gold award.
Besides that, the school also participated in the School Green Audit Award organised by the Singapore Environment Council. It has attained a Palm award and an Orchid award respectively during the two years when it took part in the audit. For the Community in Bloom Awards, we have also achieved a Gold award for our Learning Garden.
School Wide Sustainability Awareness & Education
The school has a structured framework where the students from Primary 1 to Primary 6 will be educated by their Form Teachers on a different environmental topic each year.
The school also tapped on programmes by NEA like the Buddy Clean Workshop and Green Schools @ Southwest to empower our students.
Structured environmental Feedback
Level | Environmental Framework |
|---|---|
1 | Good habits starts with me |
2 | Clean & Green School |
3 | 3’R’s - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle |
4 | Water Conservation |
5 | Energy Efficiency |
6 | Biodiversity |
Assembly Talk on Environmental Sustainability: Form teachers also conduct other environmental awareness programmes, e.g. Youth for the Environment Observance Activities where our students were educated about issues like reducing disposables and food waste.
Our students are also actively involved in environmental sustainability themed VIA projects annually like our Dengue Mobster outreach where students go to the community to educate the residents about dengue prevention. They also carry out litter-picking around our neighbourhood and the nearby nature parks. This project educates participants on the importance of environmental protection through their involvement in clearing litter in the neighbourhood. They learn the importance of keeping school and public toilets clean through the cleaning of the school toilets. Through these activities, they also learnt to appreciate our school attendants more. To show their appreciation to our school attendants, our students make cards to thank them for their hard work.
Our school also actively engages in various recycling programmes like Clean up @ Southwest, Shoes recycling programme and also upcycling programmes where students are taught to upcycle PET bottles, milk cartons, shoes boxes into toys, old T-shirts into tote bags and so on. Groceries exchanged from the Clean up @ Southwest programme were then donated to vulnerable residents in the South West District.
Our Primary 6 students have also continued the Freecycle project, which was initiated by a student leader, where students donate their textbooks and uniforms. Students collect and sort out donated textbooks and uniforms. This activity not only encourages waste minimisation, but also helps students from lower income families to save on buying new textbooks. They also carry out Upcycle projects where they use recycled materials to make beautiful craftwork to decorate the toilets.
Environmental Ambassadors
Some of our students are also empowered to become environmental ambassadors by participating in external training programmes like the Junior Environment Ambassador (JEA) Training and Bukit view secondary school (BVSS) Environmental leadership conference. From the training, they learn how to plan for events to educate their schoolmates on environmental issues. Our environmental ambassadors are involved in the Green Schools @ Southwest Assembly programme. They also create their own card games and videos to advocate for environmental issues.
Environmental Monitors
In Lianhua Primary School, two environment monitors are appointed for every class. The environment monitors are trained to take charge of environmental matters in the class. They are also trained to become buddies for the lower primary students to teach them how to handle cleaning equipment and the right way to do cleaning in the classroom. Environment monitors and other student advocates who have a passion for environment issues also run recess activities to create more awareness of the issues that they are concerned about with their schoolmates.
Parents' Support Group
The Parent Support Group of Lianhua Primary School is also actively involved in the school environment activities both within school and outside school. Parents help to run various booths during our annual Earth Passion Fiesta where students learn more about environmental issues. Parents were also involved in external events like the annual Garden Festival at Gardens by the Bay and Clean and Green Carnival prior to Covid-19.
P6 Green Legacy
On 2 July, the inaugural P6 Green Legacy was launched. On this occasion, the school leaders, together with two students from each Primary 6 class, planted six Leea Rubra plants at the Science Garden.
The Leea Rubra, also known as the Red Tree Shrub, is a small shrub that can grow up to three meters tall. Today, it is a commonly sighted shrub along Singapore streetscapes, as well as in our parks and gardens. The leaves are bright green, with the young leaves displaying a reddish margin. Its bright red flowers have a central yellow disc, and attract many pollinators such as butterflies and bees. In fact, NParks listed it as the butterflies’ fifth favourite nectaring plants. Its berry-like fruits are a food source for birds like the Yellow Vented Bulbul.
This plant reminds us that we too, can be like the Leea Rubra, to always have the heart to serve and help others with whatever you have.
After the trees were planted, students from the six Primary 6 classes rostered among themselves to continue to care for the plants by watering and maintaining the plants daily.
The purpose of this event is for the Primary 6 students to leave behind a legacy for all Lianhua students to enjoy and appreciate whenever they visit the school garden. It also symbolises their gratitude to the school as well as all the wonderful moments and memories that they will leave behind.
This is an important milestone as the school continues to create a beautiful sense of place for all Lianhuareans in the school. This is part of the school’s vision to create interactive learning gardens so that our students can appreciate nature and the Singapore natural landscape in our very own school grounds.
Students' Voices
I am here to tell you all about my passion for the environment and my experience in the Junior Environment Ambassador(JEA) Training and the Bukit view secondary school(BVSS) conference. Firstly, I am passionate about saving the environment. I try my best to recycle, save water and electricity and pick up litter whenever I see it. During the JEA Training and the BVSS Conference, I had a great time learning more about the environment! I learnt about how people are polluting the environment and ways to help. The most memorable part of the JEA Training was when we got to work as groups in breakout rooms and share our finished work with students from other schools. There was also one part of the BVSS conference that I enjoyed the most, it was when we were trapped in an escape room and needed to solve puzzles as a group to escape. In conclusion, It was a fun and educational experience. Thank you!— JESSY YAP, 5 Compassion
I am glad to be one of our school environmental ambassadors. I was involved in the Clean up @ South West project by helping out in the collection of the recyclables contributed by my school mates and teachers. The recyclables collected were exchanged for groceries which were donated to vulnerable residents in the South West District. I also learnt so much during the JEA and BVSS trainings, like creating posters and how to plan for an event. We worked together to create a video. Catherine and Aubrey’s team even created a card game to teach our schoolmates more about recycling.— ILDEFONSO GREYSON TOBEY PONTE, 5 Compassion