| Students at Wesley College
Melbourne’s Glen Waverley campus are involved in many
facets of environmental education. We are proud participants
in the Sustainable Schools Program.
A large proportion of our environmental program in the Preparatory
School (3 year olds to Year 4) revolves around our four environment
groups. These groups have been given names that use aspects
of the local aboriginal dialect associated with four geographically
distinct Australian national or marine parks. Each group has
a focus that coincides with one of the four modules of the
Sustainable Schools Program. Click
here to view table of the environment groups and their
relationship to the Sustainable Schools Program.
The students have been evenly divided into these groups,
using family and cross-age groupings. At the beginning of
each year, each group elects their own Year 4 leaders and
Year 3 deputies. Groups meet regularly to maintain areas of
responsibility around the school (including maintenance of
the frog pond, garden beds, chicken coop, worm farm, school
pets, etc), as well as taking part in activities that encourage
critical thinking and action about the way we treat our environment.
Recent cross-age projects have resulted in the construction
of our very own frog pond and ‘The Scrap Factory’
(the Prep School chicken coop that we use to help reduce our
food scraps - an estimated 1.3 tonnes reduction of waste to
landfill per year!). Of course, initiatives such as paper,
glass, plastic and aluminium recycling, planting native trees
and using our Wesley College calico shopping bags when shopping
are all second nature to us now. We even collect the rainwater
so that we can water the plants we have propagated in our
greenhouse and which we use to revegetate our school ground.
Some of the activities that Wesley College Junior School
have accomplished are
• Conduct a waste free lunch day every 10 days.
• Have worm farms in operation as well as a chicken
coop.
• An environmentally friendly purchasing policy has
been implemented.
• Recyclable packaging being used in canteen.
• Part of curriculum to participate in Clean Up Australia
Day each year.
• Have implemented retro fitting across the campus to
save water and employ many other water saving techniques.
• Greenhouse installed.
• Educated students in technologies designed to minimise
petrol consumption.
• Lab provided for students to study alternative energies.
• Energy usage monitored using Powermate and Clipsal
Cent-a-meter.
• Solar kits provided to students to provide education
on alternative energies.
Wesley College Junior School are very happy to see that the
success of their environment program has not only been noticed
by parents and local community, but also by local and state
governments. They are recipients of the Keep Australia Beautiful
Victoria 2003 award for school environment programs. Hopefully,
with the cooperation of other schools, organisations and industries,
they can continue to improve not only the environmental education
of their students, but the longevity and sustainability of
their wonderful surroundings.
More
info.
For more information please contact Matthew Boundy on 03
9802 4700, email: matthew.boundy@wesleycollege.net
or go to the Wesley College website at http://www.wesleycollege.net/ |
