Earth Day Celebration – May 2024

On Monday 20th May 2024, the school celebrated Earth Day with the main theme being Reducing Packaging Waste. This day served to showcase the work carried out by the school community during this scholastic year.

This activity was attended by various guests. Sr Eugenie Ghirlando and Sr Bernardette Gafa’ represented the Sisters within the Congregation of St Joseph. Paola Mayor, Mr Dominic Grima, and Ms Audrey Gauci, EkoSkola teacher also attended the activity, as well as members of the Parent-Teachers Association.

The activity started with the EkoSkola President, Sarah Sacco, and Kate Falzon, Vice-President, outlining the main work carried out by our school in relation to the environment during this scholastic year. Dr Kenneth Vella, the Head of School, highlighted the school’s great effort in its work to contribute in its awareness on reducing packaging waste, both at school and also within the surrounding community. He thanked the EkoSkola committee for their hard work, under the guidance of Ms Madeleine Agius Carbonaro, Ms Lycia Bezzina, Ms Alexia Brincau and Ms Cristina Spiteri. Julia Rose Attard, of Senior 1, proceeded with the reading of a poem written by herself, urging the community to make use of reusable material. The mayor of Paola, Mr Dominic Grima congratulated the school for its commitment to help sustain a healthy environment. Sr Bernardette Gafa’ stressed on the importance of thanking God for the environment, and on our responsibility to take care of it. Ms Audrey Gauci commended our school for its commitment in sustaining a green and safe environment both at school and in the community. During the celebration, Ms Gauci launched the bags which the school produced to promote the use of reusable bags. The bags will be distributed to 2 businesses owned by parents, who were today represented by Ms Gatt and Ms Sacco, who in turn, will be distributing them to their customers in order to encourage them to make use of reusable bags. The celebration proceeded with Ms Maria Farrugia, a representative of Wasteserv, delivering an interesting talk about reducing waste and how to recycle things. At the end of the presentation, Ms Farrugia was joined by Garbage Monster, Commander Yellow and General Buzz, 3 ECOHIVE characters, who participated in a song together with the girls. All the classes had the opportunity to take a photo with these characters.

During the activity Ms Mary Grace Grech, the Music teacher, directed the Senior 1 students in singing songs with meaningful messages about the environment. The activity was compered by Lea Cassar, of Grade 6, and Anthea Manara, of Grade 5.

Towards the end of the celebration, the school proceeded to Duminku Mintoff Garden where Mr Grima, the Paola mayor, led a tree-planting activity with the help of the EkoSkola students and teachers.

This celebration was coordinated by the EkoSkola link teachers.