Sunshine School is focused on creating a greener and healthier learning environment through education and awareness about the environment. The school has implemented programs to reduce waste and encourage recycling and composting. Children are taught the principles of zero-waste and encouraged to bring less packaged food to reduce lunchroom trash. Through awareness programs and an award system, the students keep the school surroundings clean and the classrooms relatively empty of litter at the end of each day. On Saturdays, a nature club tends gardens and greenery around the school to provide an education about plants and the environment. The school aims to develop good environmental stewardship in the students that will stay with them for life.

1. ,
SUNSHINE SCHOOL, GREEN AND CLEAN SCHOOL
Welcome to our eco-friendly, green and clean school. Having kept the same
theme to fit the celebrations this year too we are happy to have exposed 28 new
children from class 3 as a part of the Design for Change community. At Sunshine
School our mission is to create a Greener & Healthier learning environment
through education and awareness. We make the connections between having
healthy bodies and a healthy planet. This has helped our children develop a
connection to the environment, through both learning and experience.
"A true, yet very simple definition of waste is something we don't want
andthrow away”.The biggest problem we have been facing in our school is
waste and though we were not be able to implement a school recycling or
composting program, but in our little way taught the principles of zero-waste
within the domain of our school premisesand classrooms.
Food we eat the products we consume, cars we drive, heating in our homes.
Reducing this involves rethinking how we design, use and dispose of things,
minimising wastage throughout production, useful life and after we’re finished
with them.
*So is any of this really possible?
We encouraged our children to keep the school surroundings clean through
awareness programmes and we also came up with an award system (i.e. we
appointed some volunteers to give a sudden check on the classrooms and they
keep a record of the waste produced or how clean the classrooms are kept. At the
end of every month the class who scores the highest mark is awarded a prize as
an appreciation/rewardand gradually we want the children to come up and
proudly say;now we don’t need a dustbin in our class.)The children received it

2. enthusiastically. We now have volunteers from every class asking if they could
help take care of the school surroundings.
The Questions we put up to the Children:
*Can your lunch boxes be eco-friendly? “Why not?”
The biggest issue with lunchboxes is how much of the content actually ends up
in the bin! So make sure you eat what you’ve been given and use a refillable
drinks container rather than individual cartons.
Buying foods with less packaging and using reusable containers for things like
sandwiches, rather than foil or cling film, also helps.
Our children took note of the cause and complied by bringing less package food
to school. This helped us reducing the waste in school and our trash cans are
enjoying a breather. We were also constantly encouraged by our school parents
on our ban on packaged food to school.
*Can we keep our school surroundings clean and green? “Why not?”
Keeping our school clean and green is not a herculean task. The sole
responsibility lies in educating our children to strive for a healthier and
meaningful living.
We at Sunshine School have paid a lot of attention to cleanliness. “The
surroundings and classrooms are ours,” say the children. So the kids take pride
in cleaning the surroundings themselves. In doing so many children have learnt
the dignity of labour. They have also learnt that a teacher needn’t ask them to
pick up a piece of paper, plastic or a scrap of food. They willingly do it out of
their own interest and in turn realize the interest of a clean and green school.

3. Our classrooms stay less littered and at the end of the day the trash cans are
relatively empty.
Saturdays are set aside for club activities and during these days that our nature
club tends to our gardens around our school. We do get treated to see many
seasonal flowers and vegetables in and around our school, which is an education
in itself. Our nature club also takes care of trimming the hedges. They take pride
in what they do, because it’s their school. At the end, a good sense of loyalty is
displayed by a large number of students when it comes to looking after their
environment and school.
Make the difference
Ultimately, sustainability is about being good global citizens: ensuring adequate
resources for a clean, healthy environment for all. Imagine if schools were
leaders in environmental sustainability, giving students the tools to be
innovators, and giving them a healthy environment in which to learn and play.
We at Sunshine are striving to make a difference, by teaching our children
environmental and health values that will stay with them for life. The real
question is, “Why not?”
Go for it! "Keep your school green and clean."