2016 ResourceSmart Schools Awards

Ongoing improvement of biodiversity in the school ground and the wider community is a commitment close to the hearts of the students and teachers of Badger Creek Primary School. Students completed a habitat census, created a wildlife pamphlet, organised working bees and have a highly successful community leadership partnership that has strengthened ties with Zoos Victoria (Healesville Sanctuary). The school has presented information on frog bogs, Helmeted Honeyeater Web Collection and Wipe for Wildlife at a Love Your Locals Schools Showcase.

First time entrant, Badger Creek Primary School’s harvest kitchen garden project partnership is a significant achievement. The school has partnered with Healesville High School’s Senior (Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning) team, the local Men’s Shed and Yarra Ranges Alliance for Sustainable Learning to extend the harvest kitchen garden and is an example of a community working together.

Through this partnership project the school was able to solve watering issues over summer holidays with the establishment of a wicking bed. The partnership strengthens and supports the development of students’ skills and knowledge and links to the curriculum.

Badger Creek Primary School is committed to learning about water use, efficiency and supply. While they learn about water at school, students take personal, local and global action. The student-led water-well project fundraiser secured an ongoing water supply to a Cambodian school and engaged students through studies into global resources. Four students led the project providing clean water to over 400 people in Ang Takim, Cambodia. Their actions promoted water-efficient, sustainable habits at school and in the community.

Truganina South Primary School are buiding environmental sustainability awareness through strong community engagement and actions around water conservation.

The ResourceSmart school is working hard to complete all five modules and aims to be the first Private Public Partnership school to be achieve a 5 Star rating. The school has engaged students’, parents and the broader community and is strong on community leadership. The school encourages sustainable events, incursions and excursions and opportunities for staff, students and their families.

Action such as students bringing drink bottles to refill throughout the day are encouraged. In term four, 2015, students had one lesson per week on water usage. Interpretive signage ‘Every Drop Counts’ were used around the school and have reduced the school’s water use as a whole. Students only plant drought tolerant Indigenous plants at the school, and toilets use water from rain water.

At Warracknabeal Secondary College, students have completed water audits, identified and eliminated significant water spikes that have been wasting water and costing the school thousands of dollars. Students completed water quality testing and made comparisons with countries around the world through online collaboration. The college has a dedicated group of students and staff who are making a big impact in a small amount of time.

Warracknabeal Secondary College’s most significant achievement has been the creation of a 1.3 x 1.3 metre cube of rubbish presented at the school assembly to raise awareness of waste management. Taking months to create, the visual reminder has helped to bring about a reduction in waste at the school and an increased focus on paperless classrooms and recycling.

Ongoing improvement of biodiversity, in the school ground and the wider community is a commitment close to the hearts of the students and teachers of Badger Creek Primary School. The school’s many achievements include a Harvest Kitchen Garden extension and Hen House Project; and a highly successful community leadership partnership that has strengthened ties with Zoos Victoria (Healesville Sanctuary) as a Partnership School.

Mildura West Primary School is the creator of the Lake Ranfurly Birds and Plants App. The app is a field guide, developed by students, that allows users to discover the plants and birds that inhabit Lake Ranfurly, where students have planted 280 indigenous trees.

The school is also in partnership with Mildura Rural City Council as caretakers of the Rio Vista Park and Johnson’s Bend where students have planted trees and installed nesting boxes.

The transformation of Moorabbin Primary School’s barren grounds into an indigenous habitat with frog-friendly gardens and outdoor learning opportunities has been the catalyst for raising awareness of and placing value on local biodiversity among students and the broader community.

Achieving a 15 point improvement in habitat quality score from a baseline of 56 recorded April 2016, and 42 hours of dedicated biodiversity teaching, the school is set to become a 2 Star ResourceSmart School.

Braybrook College successfully applied for a grant from Maribyrnong Council to purchase bird and possum box kits to add to the habitat available for local and protected wild animals in the school grounds.

With a ring tail possum setting up home in a tree near the staff room, the school placed a possum box nearby to ensure the possum had a safe place to shelter during extreme weather events.

St Monica’s College, Epping is rising to the challenge of engaging students to become involved with its EnviroFriends group’s sustainable activities such as composting and tree planting.

EnviroFriend captains promote awareness to their peers by talking at year level assemblies and creating displays. These actions help students to learn valuable life and sustainability skills such as how composting works to reduce global warming and why trees are important for earth’s atmosphere.

Woori Yallock Farm School, which caters for ‘at risk’ and disengaged students from other feeder schools, has recently partnered with a Registered Training Organisation and have created a contextualised ‘Certificate Program’ in Conservation and Land Management for students, which meets National Standards. Students get involved in a range of environmental projects that supports their learning, builds self-esteem and helps them to develop communication, team working and leadership skills.

Badger Creek Primary School’s Harvest Kitchen Garden Project Partnership is its most significant achievement in the area of Community Leadership over the past year. Last year, the school made wicking garden beds, while this year’s focus was the hen house.

Partnering with Healesville High School’s Senior Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning team and the local Men’s Shed, the school has created a project that is integrated into the curriculum.

St Louis De Montforts embodies ResourceSmart Schools’ 5 Star behaviour by providing outstanding commitment to community leadership. The students and school leadership team take the leading role with presentations, school tours and workshops to deliver their sustainability learnings to the wider community. The school’s activities include ‘Kids Teaching Kids’ events, presentations at Council Environment Meetings, promotion of sustainable practices through publications in local papers and the establishment of the Friends of the Aspendale Train Station group.

In November 2015 the principal of St Joseph’s, Gabrielle Espenschied, and Indonesian teacher Ebony Jenkin travelled with the principal of Our Lady of Fatima in Rosebud, to Indonesia. They visited two sister schools in Lombok with local marine experts to engage the schools’ students in a program called ‘The Sea Is Our Best Friend’. The relationship has provided all students with the opportunity to learn about Indonesian environmental challenges and differences, while sharing their Australian experiences.

St Joseph’s College believes in the preciousness of the earth’s resources. The college is committed to exploring partnerships within the community to provide valuable experiences for students and to foster the notion of stewardship.

A host of activities reflect their commitment to their vision including tree planting excursions at Waurn Ponds Creek; an alternative energy workshop; coastal revegetation work at Torquay with the Great Ocean Road Coast Committee and a Clean Up Australia campaign.

The Outdoor Education School Bogong has created a learning plan focused on Sustainable Living Actions that underpin all of the school’s programs. The actions introduce students to the concept of sustainability and how they can help reduce Bogong’s environmental footprint. Through the Sustainable Living Action program, the school leads discussions on local ecosystems and the impacts of climate change, which builds student connection to the outdoors. Students share lessons learnt with their community.

Maffra Secondary College has taken a leading role in increasing the biodiversity and amenity of its local rail trail. Partnering with community groups, the school has planted trees and recieved funding for new bench seats. Maffra’s efforts has made lasting changes to the rail trail as community members now have better access to the trail. Armed with a Local Landscape Enhancement grant the school aims to build and nurture long-term community partnerships to support its sustainability work.

Heathmont-East Pre-School actively involves its children observing the composting process by getting children to collect worm tea, which they now sell to families. The children cut up left over food scraps, feed it to the worms and maintain the farm with little supervision from educators. They have also been creative in re-purposing materials creating a screen curtain out of used bottle tops and an edible gumboot garden made from outgrown gumboots donated by families.

Springside Kinder’s outdoor play space was created by dedicated staff. The children were engaged in a large planting operation, and take ownership and responsibility over the space, worm farm and compost, using the extracts for their garden. The children sort their food waste into labelled containers and monitor the worms and compost. The children are also taught the importance of recycling and saving water and paper.

Clarendon Children’s Centre was involved with the ‘Seedlings’ program, which led to the implementation of a worm farm. The Centre has also installed solar panels, which has led to a reduction in power use. Recently they introduced SustainaBill, a plush donkey from the op shop that goes home with his scrapbook for the children to document their sustainable adventures. SustainaBill allows the children to share their sustainability knowledge at home.

Koonwarra Village School has seen a 35 per cent reduction in electricity consumption per student over the past year to 180 kWh per student per year – well below the benchmark of 250 kWh. This is due to a range of energy efficiency and behaviour measures. Koonwarra has incorporated solar passive design and improved insulation in new and renovated buildings on the site. In science classes Koonwarra students looked at energy across levels two to six, learning about circuits and storing energy for all types of energy; where electricity comes from.

Manchester Primary School students are environmental leaders, ensuring the student leaders of today are the educators of tomorrow through the school’s ‘Kids Teaching Kids’, Earth-Hour and Enviro-Week programs. The students monitor energy generated by the school’s 70 solar panels, transferring those learnings into practice and sharing them with the community. To achieve ResourceSmart Schools 5 Star status Manchester Primary’s activities include energy audits, walking to school, black out blinds and Earth Hour switch offs.

Werribee Primary School has taken practical action to meet specific energy reductions and demonstrate sustainability leadership internally within the wider community. Over the course of the year, the school’s 27kW solar system generated 27 per cent of its electricity. At the sunniest point of a sunny day that rises to 48 per cent. Comparison data shows 4,000 kWh generated in June, 2016, with 11,000 kWh in June 2015. The school prides itself on its students who are ‘change champions.

Braybrook College has reduced its energy use by 15 per cent through monitoring, using ResourceSmart Schools’ tools and SWEP data logging. Braybrook reduced overall energy consumption of the school through the School Council funding a large lighting upgrade project to assist with energy reduction. The school has established an Environment Committee, which is tasked with looking at new and effective ways of reducing energy use and encouraging sensible energy use.

Having added another 42.12 kW solar Photo Voltaic system to its current 5 kW system, Princes Hill Secondary College is expecting energy savings of around $67,000 over the next decade. The school has converted all suitable lighting to LED, replacing more than 2,000 globes, tubes and fittings. The goal was to reduce energy consumption and as a consequence, greenhouse gas emissions. Expected emissions reduction from the combined project is estimated at 64,700 kg annually.

Combining innovation with energy conservation, St Joseph’s College, is making real progress in raising awareness of renewable energy within the school and broader community. The school’s innovative approach, using film and social gatherings, has provided a platform from which to reduce its carbon footprint. St Joseph’s sustainability initiatives have included an Alternative Energy Workshop with 80 students from Fyans Park Primary School, a school-wide switch off hour and a National Ride to School Day.

Mildura West Primary School’s student action team spreads awareness of the need to conserve water and energy, reduce waste and increase biodiversity. The team promotes recycling using milk bottles for a furniture program and encourages kerbside recycling for the whole school. Projects are completed to a high standard as evidenced by the development of the Lake Ranfurly Birds and Plants app, which is now available on iTunes.

St Joseph’s Primary School’s Enviro Captains take the lead on communicating the school’s current sustainability projects and goals, internally and in the wider community, leading action teams for waste, biodiversity, water and energy. The student action team plants and harvests produce in the school’s sustainability garden. The team also encourages and monitors recycling and composting, and ensures landfill bins are used correctly.

The Patch’s ‘Gang Green’ comprises year four students that have taken responsibility to restore a swamp situated on a neighbouring reserve. Students identified the swamp as a project for restoration. Land abutting the school ground is weed infested, prone to flooding and a safety issue due to the hidden nature of the water, mud and ground irregularities. Students gathered base-line data relating to the land’s current habitat and amenity value. They established partnerships with The Patch Landcare Group, Platypus Education Group and the Yarra Ranges Council.

The Senior Student Leadership Group meets fortnightly with the senior student leadership team mentor, Principal and year 12 manager at Portland Secondary College. The group targets projects that students have a passion for, such as beach cleanups at Discovery Bay, the blue whale project and taking action against the damaging presence of plastic in waterways. The students networked with the Sustainability Leader at the College, DELWP, Resource Transfer Station at Portland about how to dispose of accumulated beach-cast items. The students attracted media interest.

Swan Hill’s Green Team was established in May 2016. Some of the team’s key roles have been: attending meetings to discuss ideas; planning fundraising activities; meeting with school staff to organise tree plantings; negotiating with Bunnings for tree donations; presenting updates at assemblies; planning small group projects to remove bottled water from the canteen; increasing biodiversity; and building a chook yard. The most important role of all members is to encourage others to think about sustainability and to spread the enthusiasm.

Point Cook P–9 College’s Senior Environment Leadership Team are role models for Environmental Stewardship and actively work on engaging the school community. The school pride itself in biodiversity education as a key area of environmental focus. Point Cook College P–9 (PCC) is a 3 Star ResourceSmart school with onsite wetlands and a Stephanie Alexander food garden. The school boasts two wonderful environmental leadership teams. The year five to six Green Gang (28 students) and the years seven to nine Senior Environment Leadership (17 students).

Courtney Deacon is something of an inspiration at Banyule Primary School. She has encouraged students and staff to be involved in sustainability projects and is the instigator of many of the projects such as a lunchtime gardening club for a new generation of student green thumbs. She nurtures sustainability creativity in students, inspiring them to develop their own sustainability projects at home as well as at school.

Sandra Surace is the Sustainability Leader at St Catherine’s Primary School. She works with the student leaders through a mentoring model to facilitate sustainability through peer-to-peer teaching, has embedded whole-school initiatives using ResourceSmart Schools, and has developed the school’s first sustainability policy. Sandra’s enthusiasm has inspired activities such as rubbish reduction, a garden program that supports the curriculum standards, and a working veggie patch.

Heather-May Buzza has been passionately growing environmental sustainability awareness at Truganina South Primary School (TSPS). In her role as sustainability and science teacher, her specialist classes have engaged students’, parents and the broader community. She has organised sustainability professional development for staff, incursions and excursions as well as opportunities for students and their families by running Science Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths (STEAM) events.

Jacqui Godfrey took on the role of Sustainability Coordinator at Ringwood Secondary College in January 2016. She promotes sustainable activity throughout the school, manages the schools’ Environment Prefects/Captains in their leadership roles and supervises the school’s green team. Jacqui is known for being dedicated, motivated and informed. She has shown great enthusiasm and in the first six months of her role she recruited 20 regular members of the green team.

Ben Lawless has been Head of the Humanities Faculty at Aitken College for three years and has contributed significantly to the school’s achievements through ResourceSmart Schools. Ben engages students by turning learning into challenging problem solving activities that capture their attention. To maximise student engagement he recently spent much of his spare time training year six teachers how to facilitate a political science simulation game, which also assists students with environmental learning.

Ben Coleman is dedicated and passionate about educating staff and students to work together to care for the environment. He embraced new technology by creating a Google classroom for the EnviroFriends group. He encourages senior management to review policies, to advocate for bikes and native plants, energy efficient lighting and solar panels. Ben along with collegue Rachel Zammit also works with other local primary schools to promote awareness of environmental issues and ResourceSmart Schools.

Caulfield South Primary School will soon earn a fourth ResourceSmart Schools star thanks to a school waste reduction program. The school’s sustainability leaders created a plan that used the school community, the network of teachers and wider community to reduce waste production by 50 per cent.

The school worked closely with Glen Eira Council throughout the program and has shared learnings from the program at council sustainability meetings.

Mentone Primary School has recorded significant reduction in its waste and heightened students’ awareness of how damaging waste is for the environment. In 2015 the school’s measurable waste data was 0.25m3 per student compared to 0.61m3 in 2014. In 2016 the school has recorded 0.15m3 of waste per student and achieved its goal of 75 per cent waste reduction. The school has changed its culture, with students and teachers taking action as part of everyday activities.

St. Macartan’s Parish Primary School has developed a top waste management system managed by student leaders. The system means the school sends only one 240 litre bin to landfill per week.

Due to the system’s success, other schools seek its support and the school’s student leaders are rostered on weekly to share learning experiences with local and international schools and businesses. The school’s success in waste reduction has been achieved through a sustained change in behaviour.

Lorne-Aireys Inlet P-12 College’s environmental activities include recycling, reducing and reusing waste. The student sustainability leaders educate the school community in waste management, even teaching younger children and their parents. The school has participated in a Wakakirri performance using recycled costumes and old signs for props, built an onsite greenhouse using recycled bottles, recycled chicken waste as fertiliser and educated students on plastic pollution with beach clean ups.

Naranga Secondary School has a host of sustainability achievements to its name. Last year senior art and kitchen garden students won the Diggers Perpetual trophy in the schools category at Redhill Spring Garden festival for garden projects using recycled mosaic tiles and terracotta pots.

Senior horticulture students designed and built new garden beds, planted an orchard from trees and established 11 worm farms. Naranga won Frankston Council’s Sustainability School of the Month.

St Jospeh’s College focuses on ways to evoke positive waste management behaviours. Achievements include adopting Tim Silverwood’s ‘Take 3’ approach to waste collection and conducting a ‘Take 3’ competition. The school also carried out a Clean Up Australia service, collected blankets for the St Vincent De Paul Winter Sleep out, and shared learnings regarding waste audits at other educational organisations. The school has recently introduced e-waste and bicycle collections, and set up waste systems to encourage better resource use.

Badger Creek Primary School is committed to learning about water use, efficiency and supply. While they learn about water at school, students take personal, local and global action. The student-led water well project fundraiser secured an ongoing water supply to a Cambodian school and engaged students through studies into global resources. Four key students led the project providing clean water to over 400 people in Ang Takim, Cambodia. Their actions promoted water-efficient, sustainable habits at school and in the community.

Truganina South Primary School students are empowered to become water savers. The school encourages students to bring drink bottles and refill them throughout the day. In term four, 2015, students had one lesson per week on water usage. Interpretive signage ‘Every Drop Counts’ is used around the school and has reduced the school’s water use as a whole. Students only plant drought tolerant Indigenous plants at the school, and toilets use rain water.

Deer Park North Primary School successfully secured State Government funding for their ‘School as a catchment’ project in 2015. The funding assisted them to redevelop a disused car-park into a wetland, construct a rain garden and develop a garden. The wetland reduces water runoff from the school’s hard surfaces and acts as a litter trap thus reducing pollution in waterways. The rain garden reduces runoff and has increased the local biodiversity. The garden is integrated into the curriculum with horticulture and home economics classes offered to the students.

At Warracknabeal Secondary College students have completed water audits, identified and eliminated significant water spikes that have been wasting water and costing thousands of dollars. Students have completed water quality testing and made comparisons with countries around the world through online collaboration. The college has a dedicated group of students and staff who are making a big impact in a small amount of time. They are connecting with people all over the world to raise awareness of sustainability issues.

Ringwood Secondary College has made significant improvements in reducing water consumption. It is a school community effort, which is what it takes to make sustainable change. The facilities manager always finds ways to encourage and prioritise water conservation. The school participates in SWEP, has a new building for the catchment of roof water to irrigate the oval and a new pump system to allow external toilets to run on tank water.

Wedderburn College is proactive in conserving water and encouraging the community to do the same in their own backyard. The school has recognised that to run successful vegetable gardens internally and in the community, that it needed a plan to maximise water. The school remodelled and repaired a mulch system and planned an aquaponics system. The school is mindful that chemicals don’t end up in local water ways or the water table.