​St. Margaret's Day School Green School Certification 

Green Mission
St. Margaret's Day School's mission is to develop lifelong leaders and advocates of environmental stewardship through innovative learning, daily enriching activities, and community partnerships.

Green Vision
Students graduating from St. Margaret's Day School kindergarten program will have a thorough understanding of the role we play in our environment. They will know how their actions impact the environment and how to change their behaviors to make a positive impact. They will learn to be advocates for positive environmental change within their homes and communities.

Our mission is to provide our students a stimulating child-directed environment that encourages creativity, environmental consciousness, self-expression and socialization. Our goal is to nurture a well-rounded and independent child who has enthusiasm for learning and a positive attitude towards themselves and the world around them. Since our Green School designation in 2015, we have integrated environmental education into all of our subjects and promote interaction with the natural world as part of our curriculum and daily operations.    

We began by greening all aspects of our school’s operation with best management practices. We have highlighted our commitment to water conservation, pollution prevention, solid waste reduction, habitat restoration, structures for environmental learning, responsible transportation, energy conservation, and a healthy school environment. These practices are part of our environmentally-friendly everyday operations.

Our teachers integrate nature and green practices into all subjects of our curriculum and instruction. Our school has five classrooms, each equipped with a science/exploration center and at least one live animal. The children learn the responsibility of caring for our classroom pets and their environments. Our Outdoor classroom has evolved to include a Monarch Waystation, a certified wildlife habitat, bird watching area, bug exploration, a tree stump story circle, a growing mud kitchen and garden area. Students practice recycling, reusing, conserving water, composting and reducing food waste at school. Part of our school's mission is to provide parent education as well. These topics include what it means to be a Green School, how to compost, and our participation in the national Healthy Schools initiative. Our E-newsletters contain a section on Green Tips so that our parents can incorporate Green practices at home. In addition, our communication platform, Kaymbu, allows for teachers to share photos with parents of the children engaging in nature focused activities, connect about the daily nature lesson plans, and promote environmental advocacy.

We maintain our schoolyard gardens as part of our curriculum, educating the children on the importance of watering, mulching, composting, growing, and protecting plants. Students participated in creating the gardens in 2015 and have since added bird feeders, a compost bin, a rain barrel, and have continued to grow and maintain our vegetable and plant gardens each year. 

Our preschool body is comprised of 127 students and their families, 15 teachers, 1 administrator, and 3 additional staff members. Our students are ages 2, 3, 4, and 5 years old. The children are the inspiration for St. Margaret's Day School to continue to teach about, conserve and connect to our natural world.

Top Five Accomplishments

We are proud of all of our green initiative accomplishments. Below are some of our highlights, which are discussed in greater detail in our objectives sections.

1. Our expansive and growing green curriculum and outdoor classroom is a holistic learning process that creates lifelong environmental leaders and advocates.
2. Eat to Live continues to be our overarching philosophy that teaches our students the cycle of food growth, production, waste/compost, and preservation and conservation of our resources. 
3. Our inclusive recycling program means that everyone participates, and we are always developing new ideas to reduce waste. We started a crayon and marker recycling program in 2018. We provide the students with refillable, personal water bottles to eliminate waste.  ​
4. We have continued to develop our wonderful partnership with the Department of Natural Resources, from our wild bird unit to our resident terrapin and our new bluegill fish restoration project beginning in 2018.
5. We have continued to drastically reduce cleaning waste and to use  natural cleaning products, including Green Seal certified services and safe-ingredient homemade cleaners that our students and staff can safely handle. 

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Objective 1

Systemic Sustainability

Objective 2

Student-Driven Sustainability Practices

 Objective 3

Community Partnerships, Awards, and Special Recognition