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TASIS Roots & Shoots Wildlife Update

The Roots & Shoots Wildlife Club at TASIS has been very busy. After celebrating International Peace Day back in September, our club members decided that next year we want all 750 students at our school to take part in the celebration. This includes students aged 3 to 18! We will also ask all teachers and staff to join in. So, we needed to meet with our new Head of School, Dr. Hong, to ask if this is possible to put in place. She listened as we presented our proposal, and then she said yes!! We are so excited to think of nearly 1,000 people on our campus joining in for peace next year! Dr. Hong also was happy to have us plan a school wide celebration of Earth Day. In the past, our club and a few other classes have celebrated Earth Day in March, but next March, it will include the whole school coming together for awareness and solidarity.

We also have now been working on clearing up the summer growth of our Wildlife Pond. We have spoken with Harper Asprey Wildlife Rescue to plan a release of rehabilitated hedgehogs into our garden in the spring. To learn about hedgehogs and the need to protect their habitat, Harper Asprey came to our club with a rescued hedgehog. While we were not allowed to touch the hedgehog, this little guy, who lost his mother soon after birth, touched our hearts! He is so adorable, and he came with his brother. It was amazing to watch the two hedgehogs play, as they are both very different in personalities. One was very active and curious, and the other was more reserved. We have learned that the hedgehogs have limited human interaction, as to keep them wild. These two were on their way to spend the night with their carer, as they have to be fed frequently. We discussed how it is important to share our gardens with these animals, and if we are able, to leave part of our garden wild.

Another project that we undertook was to gather some gently used school uniforms to send to our Roots & Shoots family in Johannesburg, South Africa. Along with the clothing, we sent lots of lovely stickers, coloured pens and pencils, erasers, and letters that we wrote! Ms. Gediman was going to Cape Town for half-term, and arranged to stop in Johannesburg on the way over to deliver our large suitcase of donations to Lebo, in charge of the Roots & Shoots program there. We hope to be able to arrange an exchange trip with our older Roots & Shoots members next year! Meanwhile, we will be Skyping with the South Africa group soon to exchange information about ourselves. What fun this will be!

And, lastly, our brand new TASIS England, Roots & Shoots Wildlife t-shirts, which we designed, have come in. All were eager to try them on! We are proud to wear our shirts and let others know that we are part of Roots & Shoots. Ms. Gediman even wore her t-shirt on the airplane when she flew to South Africa.

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Meeting with Dr. Hong to discuss Peace Day celebrations planned for next year

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Writing our letters to our Roots & Shoots family in South Africa

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The rescued hedgehog that Harper Asprey Wildlife Rescue brought to visit

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Our new Roots & Shoots t-shirts!

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Our t-shirts

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