IEU/TMB Environment Grants:

And the winners are . . .

WillowBee Early Learning Centre 1, Willoughby

Project Sunshine

Being on the top floor with ample sunlight, we want to utilise it more by building a bush tucker garden and installing a clothesline. We will be getting an elder from Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council to guide us in choosing the appropriate plants while learning about the Aboriginal culture of the land. This means that children will have a sense of belonging as they explore the interdependence between land, animals and plants. In addition, installing a clothesline will drastically reduce our carbon footprint and electricity usage as we use the sun’s energy, rather than our dryer, for the laundry.

St Leo’s Catholic College, Wahronga

Learning with Eco-Gardens @ Leo’s

The project will involve creating garden beds from recycled and new resources. The garden beds will be filled with local native plants that will be used for learning within the school. For example, we will grow plants like finger limes and lemon myrtle which will be used by the Food Technology students for recipes. We will grow other plants and fruits that will be sold to create money to sustain the garden for future years. We will install a water tank so that students can learn about the water cycle and the importance of using water from water tanks. The student will learn about the different types of composting and worm farms so that they have a better understanding about ecosystems and food webs.

St Michael’s Primary School, Dunedoo

St Michael’s outdoor living classroom

St Michael’s is located in a small rural community and has 38 students. Our vision is for an outdoor classroom to expand our curriculum, with practical environmental projects to improve understanding of our impact on the environment. It will provide a communal learning space not only for the students by the wider community of Dunedoo. The aim is to utilise this space as a platform for further environmental projects such as partnering with the new solar farm to learn about conserving energy, working with the local Landcare to create a seed bank and developing our natural school grounds.

St Peter’s Anglican College Junior School, Broulee

Junior School Eco-Program

Our eco program is an educational sustainability outreach project. We aim to create a closed food waste system with all plant based food waste being composted and used to feed chickens and worms and to fertilise vegetable garden beds and existing fruit trees/bush tucker plants. Our petting farmyard would provide students with real life learning experiences that develop a deep understanding of the environment and how to live sustainably. Banksia Village is keen to bring ‘hensioners’ to the school to use our garden and spend time with our chickens. Our Indigenous vegetable garden and fruit trees will be used for preschool visitors.

St Patrick’s College, Campbelltown

Patties Plastic Pollution Solutions

The aim is to move towards a plastics free school. To do this we must reinvigorate our current recycling management system. The students in the Environment Group have implemented some successful initiatives already this semester, eg the introduction of ‘keep cups’ to reduce styrofoam waste, the collection drive of plastic bottles and cans and a new eco-bin system in each classroom. We would purchase eight permanent transparent bins to visually demonstrate recycling and a TerraCycle box for pens, pencils and markers. Our current waste bins would become the new collection point for soft plastic waste for RedCyle.