Gemma Ball is a Year 9 student at ICHK.

ICHK is a hidden gem of a school, tucked away near the border, and being so far away from the ruckus of Hong Kong Island, we have beautiful green trees and hills surrounding our school. As a student at this school, I feel extremely privileged to be so close to nature, and so far away from busy Central, while still being able to get a high-quality education.

As a part of this education, we are able to connect with our environment through activities such as Project G. Project G is a new activity that was started this school year. We are a small, but steadily growing group of 12 students and our objective is to get in contact with our school and local environment. As a member of Project G, I am delighted to tell you about the big projects we have planned for this term.

Project G has already made a huge change to ICHK’s rooftop garden. The rooftop used to be black with dirt and overgrown with weeds. There was no organisation, nothing that would make you say, “I’d like to go back up there again!” But from September 2016 till the 15th December 2016, Project G worked hard to transform it into a welcoming area that we hope students and teachers will feel comfortable in. We created it by laying out the plants and bricks as if it were the centre of a park, creating art as if it were a museum and creating a place for mindfulness, the labyrinth. Not only for our school, but for the environment.

But Project G has not stopped there and we have been planning further instalments for the rooftop. One of the biggest things Project G hopes to have by the end of this term, and the one I’m most excited about, is guinea pigs! We are planning for them to live on the rooftop in a homemade hutch that is made out of repurposed pallets and other materials. We will have to go through a lot of design planning to make sure that they are safe and comfortable.

When thinking about the structure, we should make sure the hutch won’t get too hot in the sun, but not too cold as to freeze the little guinea pigs. Additionally, we need to think about how to take care of them, what to feed them and how much money we would need to sustain the needs of the guinea pigs. Some would think that gardening is just growing plants, but sometimes you need to become designers, architects and builders!

Project G also plans to create a comfortable outdoor area by stacking, cutting and reusing pallets to make tables and chairs. We hope that this way we can really say that the rooftop garden is open to students, staff and visiting parents. Students and teachers will be able to come to the rooftop to relax and let all the stress of exams, homework and marking tests melt away for a few minutes, or to bring your homework and unmarked tests with you and do some work in a place with greenery and fresh air. Overall, just a nice place to be when you need a break from the classroom atmosphere.

Now, you might be asking, “All these plans are here, but when will these plans come into place?” The answer to that is we hope for these projects to be done by the end of this term, or at least by the end of this school year. But first we need to gather all the materials and funding for our projects. Which is where you come in, our wonderful ICHK community, to help support our actions. You can help us with our actions by sourcing materials such as pallets, woodwork equipment and any old outdoor furniture that we might need and helping to care for our rooftop. With the support filtering through Project G we will give it back to the community through our environment-based projects and make ICHK Greener and Greater!

If you would like to help or want further information, please contact:

Jamie Holden at jholden@ichk.edu.hk or Jon Rees at jrees@ichk.edu.hk