The Dame Marjorie Bean Hope Academy recently received a $250 donation from the winner of the ages 15- to 18-year-old category of the 2011 Earth Hour Student Essay Competition.Renee Greenslade, who came top in the essay competition, attends school in the US and donated her winning money to the Academy to help with its environmental initiatives.Luckily, the Academy has a team of excited environmentalists and gardeners who are keen to turn the outside areas into edible landscaping for the students, as well as providing them with outdoor experiences to help them learn a little more about the environment.“We realised a lot of the things we were naturally doing were environmentally friendly but now we can put it into perspective for the kids,” says Dr Dena Lister, the Academy’s principal.As well as enhancing their outdoor space with a veggie patch the school has also been doing its part to reduce energy consumption by turning off the lights at specific times of the day.“Noon every day we turn off the lights,” explains Dr Lister. “With all the budget cuts too it has worked into our plan to turn off the lights and I can only imagine how that will help reduce our costs.”The school benefits from skylights and the midday sun helps to brighten up the space.Along with turning off the lights the students at the Academy, who have severe and profound disabilities, also do much of their learning outside of the school walls through community-based instruction.“We go to a lot of places like the sensory gardens at Botanical Gardens or just to go out and enjoy the fresh air. There’s something so nice about being able to be outside or dip your feet in the water. The children have also been to see Mr Randolph Furbert and his bee keeping. They’ve also been to Wadson Farms and other farmers where they’ve been able to pick vegetables.“We have incorporated a lot of the environmental aspects with David Chapman and his Daddy & I Explore series. We’ve worked in our curriculum goals and education enhancement into our lesson plans. It’s great to be able to use the natural environment to enhance their education,” Dr Lister says.Not only are the students able to experience the environment around them but they are also coming into contact with the community and in turn educating people about students with special needs, she adds.The students have also played their part in beach clean ups and enjoyed a trip to the Bermuda Arts Centre at Dockyard where they saw the trash art exhibit. They then took what they saw and created their own mini masterpieces with the plastic found on the beach.“It’s much easier to get the students excited for a beach clean up when it involves collecting pieces to make art. Creating the art is a sensory enhancement for them, plus it helps us to teach them the proper way to dispose of trash,” says Dr Lister.The teachers at the school have recently taken part in professional development to help to integrate more of the sensory arts into their classrooms.“We’ve had the teachers working with Doris Wade of X-Clue-Sive Creations. She had the teachers blindfolded and created situations in which our kids would be in so it was as if they were one of the children. The teachers created pottery and painted masks and were very surprised at the outcome.”Back on the school grounds the Academy’s gardens are flourishing with all kinds of vegetables from Brussels sprouts to tomatoes and a variety of herbs. Some of their freshest and juiciest crops were entered into last month’s Annual Exhibition.Dr Lister encourages the staff to cook with the vegetables grown on the school grounds.“I have always been very keen on growing what you can eat. Flowers are pretty but vegetables you can eat. Some of the things we have grown we cook and the students find that fascinating, and it’s good for them to see how it all comes into play,” says Dr Lister.