Aitken College: A leader in sustainability education

Aitken College is leading the way in sustainability education, and inspiring others to follow its example. The school has been part of the ResourceSmart Schools program since 2008 and has achieved impressive results in biodiversity, waste management, and student engagement. They have also been nominated as a finalist at the ResourceSmart Schools Awards 4 times.

Aitken is a Prep to Year 12 independent school set on an 18-hectare property in Melbourne’s outer northern suburbs, complete with a mini farm and wetlands. The school-wide commitment to sustainability is obvious through their sustainability initiatives and programs, and the way the ResourceSmart Schools program is incorporated into the curriculum.

The school partners with Melbourne Water to revegetate the creek that runs through the school grounds, and connects this work to the RSS biodiversity module. There are two active edible garden spaces with chickens; one outside the food technology area and another at the school farm, which includes sheep, chickens and alpacas.

Achieving 5 Stars as a team

‘My role is basically sustainability. Every day, that’s what I do,’ explains Glenn Hudson, Aitken College’s Agriculture Resource Manager. He is one of two team members leading on the RSS program and works in agriculture and the Kitchen Garden program.

Dwayne Ganci, the school’s Sustainability Coordinator was nominated for Teacher of the Year at the 2024 ResourceSmart Schools. He works hard to embed sustainability into the curriculum and the classroom along with other dedicated staff.

They work with a sustainability committee and a student sustainability group of about 60 students.

‘We've got a good team – the sustainability committee, our student leadership groups, and we’re well supported by management, so that that helps,’ explains Glenn.

‘We get lots of classes involved,’ says Dwayne. ‘We’ll have a tree planting week open to the whole school and we’ll get 3,000 plants planted – that sort of stuff.’

Their RSS facilitator helps them structure and guide their program, and to connect with other schools that are doing similar things. ‘Our facilitator was fantastic when I started in the role,’ says Dwayne. ‘They make the process easier, and they guide you along. They give you some feedback as well.’

Embedding sustainability in the classroom

‘The RSS program gives you the structure and guidelines to work with, and helps you implement what you want to at school,’ explains Dwayne.

The school integrated a biodiversity audit into its environmental science and its agriculture classes. ‘It's part of our Strategy Plan,’ explains Glenn. ‘It's important that we educate kids about respecting the environment – a future that they can look after. We really encourage kids to be involved and we put sustainability into the curriculum as much as possible.’

The school is undertaking an extensive revegetation program and students benefit from seeing the positive changes in the landscape across the property. It recently completed its biodiversity module and has seen an impressive increase in native animals – 69% of birds identified on school grounds were native.

As part of a STEM subject, the students worked with the broader school community to collect and recycle plastic bottle tops. The students are now making new things with the old plastic. ‘We've got equipment and we make products out of it, like pens,’ says Dwayne.

The science faculty arranged for students to run experiments to determine the quickest way to break down food waste. The school chose a Bokashi compost system based on the findings.

‘We developed it in science class. So now we collect food waste from bins throughout the whole school, and we turn that into soil,’ says Glenn. It’s composted via the Bokashi, in-ground composting and a large set of compost bays. The school is using the soil in its kitchen garden and garden beds.

‘Students get to see an outcome. They see that the food we’ve wasted – that could just have gone into a garbage truck – now we grow food again with that compost.’ The students harvest the produce and then cook it. ‘It goes back to the circular economy: the food that we eat, we turn the scraps into compost, and we use it to grow food again.’

Because sustainability is woven through school life and the curriculum, everyone is involved. ‘The program just works hand-in-hand with what you're already doing at school,’ adds Dwayne.

Over the last two years the school has partnered with the Major Roads Victoria and BMD team to prepare sapplings for their landscaping project. Principal Josie Crisara says that this is a great opportunity to contribute to community but also see opportunities for careers in Environment and Sustainability.

Student wellbeing spreads into the community

‘Students can see what we’re doing around the school, and they get it – they're part of it. They get a sense of ownership,’ says Glen. ‘They take the things that they've learned home and back into the community and have a sense of achievement. They see results and get excited and want do it again next year.’

Parents also show an interest in the RSS activities at school, especially the bottle top project. Glenn and Dwayne have noticed an increase in kids using reusable lunch wrapping.

Students have taken the initiative to build a wellbeing space in the school’s garden area, which also acts as a wildlife corridor. ‘They’re going to collect seeds, grow plants and create a space with chairs and seats among the wildlife corridor,’ says Glenn.

Dwayne says just interacting with the animals ‘helps with student wellbeing’. The same goes for lunchtime activities like weeding or harvesting at the kitchen garden.

Advice for new schools

Glenn has advice for schools thinking about starting the program: ‘Speak to your facilitator and get them to help you, but also reach out to other schools that have been doing it for a while. And do the RSS online workshops.

‘It's a great program. It helps us to achieve our goals with respect to sustainability.’