Solihull School

In a recent assembly, Head of the Preparatory School Mark Penney shared updates of our Roots & Shoots-inspired charitable initiatives with the children.

Diepsloot informal township – Johannesburg, South Africa

Construction and garden revitalization at the Early Childhood Development Centre in Diepsloot are well underway to providing sustainable classrooms, food-source gardens and ample spaces in which they will engage in Roots & Shoots activities of their own.

On 1 February 2025, the Earthly Touch Foundation officially launched the construction and gardens programme, where volunteers, educators, and local children came together to celebrate the beginning of something special and exciting.

 With the funds raised by the children, the Earthly Touch Foundation have already:

• Installed a water tank to ensure a sustainable water supply to irrigate the gardens.
• Initiated garden revitalization by clearing, preparing, and beginning to plant new crops in the area outside where the ECD centre will be.
• Created 10 garden beds with eco-brick walls surrounding them. Seedlings (kale, tomatoes, onion, spinach) and manure have been planted.
• Produced and collected eco-bricks filled with plastic and sand to be used in the construction process. To date, they have completed circa 10 000 plastic eco-bricks and over 1000 sand-filled eco-bricks.
• Cleared ground for the construction of the eco-brick classrooms, dug foundation trenches and begun the construction of the new classrooms.

Chimp Eden, Jane Goodall Institute – Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, South Africa

The children’s fundraising also granted Chimp Eden’s full wish-list of items, enhancing the care on offer to chimpanzees who in a previous life have been very badly mistreated.

The items have been ordered and are expected to arrive very soon. They include food storage solutions, technical equipment and hammocks.

Mavai, award winning model farm - Maviddapuram, Jaffna district, Sri Lanka

The runaway success of our Roots & Shoots Club members’ ‘Minted’ initiative where World Book Day costumes and Christmas jumpers were resold, has now raised just shy of £1,500 – every penny of which has been used to seed over 1750 grow bags, providing food and income sources for five schools and over 55 families living well below the poverty line. The cultivation process takes 4 to 5 weeks, and the second batch of beneficiaries will receive theirs very soon.

Reflecting on the children’s achievements, Mr Penney said: “The children’s passion to deliver meaningful positive impacts for the identified needs of people, animals and the environment continues to burn brightly, as does my admiration for the support and guidance parents, carers and my colleagues provide them in doing so.

“The pathways they are carving towards true global citizenship, with outlooks to match, are something we can all take pride in.”