School Grounds and Infrastructure
Indigenous Gardens
The gardens at Danville have always been attractive and well maintained. Greater environmental awareness has, however, caused a whole re-think about garden planning, and Danville has answered the call to ‘go indigenous’. In 2011 all Category 1 Aliens were finally removed, and Danville’s gardeners set about proving that indigenous can also be colourful and appealing. Our many indigenous trees are labelled and new trees are planted periodically.
Recycling
Recycling has been part of the school ethos since 2005 when the school started recycling paper. Recycling bins are set up around the school for cans, plastic, glass, batteries and computer cartridges. Organic waste from the tuck shop and egg boxes from Consumer Studies are turned into compost and worm wee in our worm farm. This is used on the school gardens.
Every classroom has a paper recycling bin. A weekly inter-class paper recycling competition stimulates rivalry to earn a prize each term and a trophy at the end of the year.
Grade 11 Life Sciences learners visit the Mariannhill Landfill Site every year. Waste management forms part of the Grade 11 and 12 curriculum. The Grade 11’s then do a project on waste management in their homes.
The whole school was involved in making ecobricks from plastic waste in 2018. These have been made into stools for the computer room.
Danville has benches, tables and monkey-proof bins made out of recycled plastic.
Saving Water
Rainwater harvesting tanks – Danville has nine rainwater harvesting tanks at school with a total capacity of 43 000 litres. One of the tanks is linked to the bathrooms to supply water to the toilet and basins. The others are used to water the school gardens, vegetable garden and fill the swimming pool.
Cooldrink bottles in school toilet cisterns – These were installed in 2016 in order to reduce the amount of water used with each flush.
Saving Electricity
Solar geyser – A solar geyser was installed on the staff quarters in 2009 in order to save electricity.
Energy reduction – Much of the school’s lighting had been changed to energy efficient CFL or LED to save energy usage. Lights are on timers in passages to save electricity. Computers are turned off and unplugged at the end of each day. Lights, fans and data projectors are turned off when not in use.
Vegetable Garden
The school has had a vegetable garden for many years. Vegetables are planted using permaculture techniques and vegetables are donated to the school feeding scheme that we support, the Domino Foundation. Only vegetables that would not be eaten by monkeys were planted in the past as we have a troupe that visits the school on a daily basis. A 5000 litre water tank is connected to our garden for watering. Danville has been awarded funding as part of the One Planet Water Explorer UN Global Search for Sustainable Schools to establish a monkey-proof enclosure around our vegetable garden in 2020, so a wider variety of vegetables can be planted.
