Schools Corner
Announcing Keep Our Biosphere Beautiful Poem / Story Competition Winners!!!
Primary Section
First Prize: Toni Barnard (Grade 6, Noosaville State School) "You're Making the Wrong Choices"
Second Prize: Rumer Estreich (7KL, Pomona State School) "Litter Rap"
Third Prize: Jack Milligan (4P, Good Shepherd Lutheran College) "Help Clean Up the World"
Third Prize: Jessica Kennedy (Grade 7, St. Joseph's Primary School Nambour) "Jamie and Brie"
Class Prize: 7KL, Pomona State School "Litter Rap"
Participation Award: Year 4, Good Shepherd Lutheran College (for most entries)
Merits:
Imogen Cooney (4G, GSLC) "We are all throwing rubbish everywhere"
Kim DeVantier (4P, GSLC) "The Can"
Lili-Jade Jennings (4P, GSLC) "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle"
Marat Roche (4B, GSLC) "Make the World a Better Place"
Lachlan Tindall (4B, GSLC) "Wipe and Clean"
Brook Yeats (4P, GSLC) "My Advice"
Secondary School Section
First Prize: Shani Saueman-Osbourne (Grade 9, Immanuel Lutheran College) "Save Our Beautiful World"
Second Prize: Tamara Allmann (Grade 12, Sunshine Coast Grammar School) "The Hungry Garbage Bin"
St. Andrew's Anglican College (SAAC), Peregian Springs, was well aware of the National Recycling Week (9-15 Nov 09). Class 4AO volunteered to conduct a school ground litter survey and hosted NICA's see-through recycling wheelie bin for a week. The bin is really cool as it shows what everybody's put in it. They did a fantastic job recycling just the right things!
Happy litter hunters: Alex, Zoe, Letitia and Tom.
Prep AT also had a great time, as they watched project officer Wendy May set up their first ever worm farm. It's amazing to see how excited the students were as they touched the worms and fed them with their left over morning tea (strawberries, mangoes...). Even the packaging paper was devoured by the worms! Very soon, the kids will be feeding their veggie patch with delicious and nutritious worm juice!
Last year, they completed a week-long Rubbish Free Lunch Stars contest across the primary section, coinciding with the school's Health and Fitness Week (27 Oct - 2 Nov 08).
Initiated by the Fit Foodies parents group and the Sports Department, with support from Council, NICA and local businesses, the contest has achieved some great results. 206 students succeeded in producing NO packaging waste at all over the five days. On one day, 335 out of the 468 students went rubbish-free. Overall, 1,536 rubbish free lunches (out of 2,340) were consumed in the week, avoiding some 4,600 pieces of rubbish. Imagine the amount of rubbish the school would avoid if such effort is sustained through the year!
"The litter free lunch boxes were incredible ... the positive environmental impact is clear and the messages that we are conveying to our children is wonderful." Steve Robson, Sports Department SAAC.
See photo below of a few of the rubbish-free superstars and their beautiful, healthy and rubbish free lunches (photo courtesy of SAAC)!
Tewantin State Primary School is committed to the Five Steps towards Waste Wise. The Principal has signed the Letter of Commitment and endorsed their three-year Waste Reduction Action Plan.
With support from the local Council and NICA, the school launched their school-wide recycling program on 19 May 2008. In just a few weeks, cleaners reported a drop in the amount of waste to landfill from the weekly 33 wheelie bins to just 21 — a whopping 36 % reduction!
Year 6 teacher Kathy McCaul regularly encourages the students to use only reusable containers for their morning tea and lunches. As part of the curriculum, she took them shopping! At the supermarket, the students learnt about consumerism, economics and over-packaging first hand. Back at school, the class discussed what they saw, audited their waste bins, and pleged to reduce waste. The class has now many regular "Rubbish Free Lunch" stars and is leading the rest of the school in waste reduction.
In 2009, the program will further the students' learning outcomes, reduce waste stream contamination, conduct regular waste audits, continue Rubbish Free Lunches, and influence purchasing practices (e.g. replacing old ink jet printers with the more efficient laser printers).
This photo by teacher Terri Anne Harris shows students eagerly emptying their pre-sorted recyclables and non-compostable food waste respectively into the Council wheelie bins.
For the full story, check out their May / June and September 2008 newsletter articles "Waste Not Want Not", "New Waste System Working!"and Litter Free Lunch Week.
Noosa District State High School, Cooroy, recycles its paper waste through the Endeavour Foundation which benefits people with disability. The Support Services Department of the school collects food waste for composting and worm farming. The compost and worm juice are feeding a productive food garden in the school ground.
Through the process of composting, planting and selling of the produce, the studentslearn about biology, maths, self-sufficiency and sustainability. Teacher Rosemarie Emerson and her class are seeking funding support to expand this valuable program. Specifically, they hope to turn the garden more waterwise by installing a rain water tank and a simple irrigation system.
This photo shows students tending their composting station and productive food garden.
Good Shepherd Lutheran College, Noosaville, has a group of environmentally concerned Yr 11 students. In 2008, they painted several of their stormwater drains with stencils saying “no waste to the river”, alerting fellow students of the importance of stormwater protection (Photo below by teacher Sharyn Doman). Moreover, teachers of year 2 teach kids about over-packaging and waste every term 2, as part of the curriculum. Currently (term 4, 2008), Rubbish free lunches are being promoted across the primary section, showing a lot of positive results.
St. Teresa's Catholic College Noosa has a well articulated Environment Policy, and is the runner up for 2008 Keep Australia Beautiful's Qld Green and Healthy Schools Award. Having heard NICA's presentation on waste at the school library's World Changing Centre, the students are planning a "Triple Bin Challenge". By sorting their wastes into paper, bottles and cans, and rubbish, the students hope to recycle more and better.
Noosa Pengari Steiner School, Doonan, takes a holistic sustainability approach incorporating building design, site planning, water, energy and waste (even composting toilets) management. They are currently working on a Sustainable Environment Management Plan. The Plan will document the achievements of the school which aims to be a leader in environment and sustainability practises in SE Queensland.
Gympie East State School has lots of great and fun waste management activities and teams, notably the SKRAP Busters and Can Crushers!
Maroochy Catchment Centre, as the Sunshine Coast Hub for QESSI (Qld Environmentally Sustainable School Initiative), provides links to participating schools, highlighting their efforts towards environmental sustainability, notably waste reduction and water wise.
Zero Waste South Australia’s WOW — Wipe Out Waste Program gives inspiring case studies from their WOW-supporting schools.
Education Victoria has Rubbish Free Lunch Challenge case studies from primary and secondary schools
CERES Sustainable Schools Projects in Victoria showcase school projects in the area of energy, water, waste, community, biodiversity and others.
Sustainable Schools NSW provides case studies from schools in various efforts towards sustainability.
