The Formentera Council, with the help of the local public library system, is putting on one more in the series of environment-themed learning workshops currently programmed for children four and older. This Thursday 19 February at 5pm, the Sant Ferran library will be the scene of an educational session aimed at teaching the island's children all about the three R's.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle – three actions that are fundamental to an instructed approach to caring for the environment. This session of the workshop series is conceived as a way to demonstrate to Formentera youth the huge quantities of rubbish that humans generate. Participants will learn what happens with the litter they produce along with strategies for reducing their own output of waste.

Through games and practical hands-on exercises, kids will learn the need-to-know colours for recycling, details about the process of biodegradation and how to craft new objects out of recycled materials. As at every workshop in the series, the library will prepare a bookcase full of books and other educational material concerning the week's topic.

Tomorrow, 28 January, at 7:30pm a meeting will be held by the Consell Escolar de Formentera (Formentera academic council). The council, which handles affairs concerning education on the island and recently renewed the group's own guiding directive, will gather at the Council's hall of culture beside the Marià Villangómez in Sant Francesc.

The CEF is an advisory entity that permits participation in the general educational (though non-university) programme on the island. Their goal is to improve the quality of learning and ensure that the educational needs and rights of Formentera's children are respected.

President of the academic council, Raquel Guasch Ferrer, also fulfils the role of director of Formentera's secondary school, IES Marc Ferrer. The vice-president of the academic council is Teresa Costa Castelló, who herself stands as director of the Sant Ferran primary school.

The remaining portion of the advisory council is composed of local teachers, parents, students, non-docent staff, union workers and representatives of other associations involved in education. The Govern Balear plays a role in the entity as well, with Palma's delegate in Formentera – José Alcaraz – and the Formentera Council's councillor of education and culture – Sònia Cardona – also taking part.

Among the council's capacities and functions are participation in the educational map of the island – where schools are to be placed and which educational centres need remodelling. They also include decisions about how to provide transport to and from school, how academic centres might better integrate (both at the social and cultural level) into the surrounding community, and any other issue related to educational needs that are specific to Formentera.

This Wednesday, 28 January at 5:30pm, the Marià Villangómez library of Sant Francesc Xavier will host a special workshop for children four and up aimed at increasing knowledge of local wildlife.

Combining an informational portion with a series of activities specially-adapted for younger audiences, the encounter is part of a campaign to propose one environmentally-themed educational workshop per month.

This first gathering will focus on some of the most oft-encountered animals on Formentera, with recycling, clean beaches, posidònia seaweed and wildfire prevention all planned as subjects to follow.

To compliment the educational content of the day, a selection of books on local Formentera wildlife will be pulled from the library's shelves and put on display with an end toward familiarising participants with good research habits.

This morning, a team formed by Sònia Cardona, Formentera's councillor of culture and education; Xico Ribas, infrastructure coordinator and Diego Dueñas, head of town planning, met in Palma with Mateu Sunyer, head of the regional office in charge of infrastructure and educational and cultural services (Ibisec), to discuss the draft plan for the new Sant Ferran school. Also present at the meeting was José Manuel Alcaraz, the Govern Balear's delegate to the island of Formentera.

The encounter gave attendants the opportunity to see where exactly the new building would be located, thus allowing the Formentera Council to move forward with its own plans to construct a nursery on the remainder of the terrain. The meeting left no doubt that the nursery – commonly referred to as L'Escoleta in Catalan – would be built on Carrer Major street, leaving the remaining interior portion of the 11,000-sq.-m. plot for the future primary school.

The exchange also served as a chance for Formentera representatives to learn firsthand the details regarding the remodeled school. According to the draft, the centre will be equipped to hold two different groups from each year, as well as an early childhood learning facility, classrooms for the primary school-portion of the centre, a gymnasium, sport facilities and administrative offices. Also included are plans for a cafeteria and a basic kitchen, conceived as a place to store or serve food prepared elsewhere.

Sònia Cardona indicated the Council's desire to “modify this piece of the project, thus allowing the two educational centres to share kitchen and cafeteria. The idea of fitting two different kitchens onto such a reduced floor plan is unthinkable.” Indeed, the day's encounter served to bring together technical staff from both the Formentera and Palma administrations, who committed to collaborating on the project henceforth.

Cardona affirmed: “Our technicians are at Ibisec's service. We look forward to doing everything in our power to help the process along, streamlining the delivery of permits or any other proceedings pertinent to the construction of the new centre.”