Project Green

Get ready to unleash your inner rockstar, ninja warrior, and fashionista at Loseby Park, Bowral. The OG Youth Fest annual event is BACK and it's bigger and better than ever!

Check out the excellent events we including a clothes swap, rock climbing, live music, FREE lunch and more.

Inspire your students to get creative with science! Enter the Sleek Geeks Science Eureka Prize and showcase their storytelling skills for the 2025 theme 'Above and Below'. Entries due April 14 2025.

In 2025, we celebrate the 55th anniversary of Earth Day. To mark this milestone, we invite everyone to support Earth Day’s 2025 theme: OUR POWER, OUR PLANET™. Let’s unite in our collective global commitment to renewable energy, whether it’s solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal or tidal – to generate clean electricity for everyone.

Check out the earth day activity page to see how you can get involved!

ASTA Science Week School Grants open in March, with small grants up to $500 to support schools to deliver engaging STEM activities that align with the 2025 Decoding the Universe - exploring the unknown with natures hidden language.

The school theme - decoding the universe has more information here.

Outdoor Classroom Day is a global movement to make time outdoors part of every child’s day. On two days of action each year, teachers take children outdoors to play and learn. All year round, the Outdoor Classroom Day community campaigns for more time outdoors every day. Head here to learn more.

International Compost Awareness Week Australia (ICAW), is a week of activities, events and publicity to improve awareness of the importance of compost, a valuable organic resource and to promote compost use, knowledge and products. We can compost to help scrap carbon pollution by avoiding landfilling organic materials and helping to build healthier soils.

Wingecarribee Shire Council is also running some workshops on compost for the community, head here to our webpage for more details and to book.

The Coffs Harbour Waste Conference – Australia’s premier annual event for the waste management industry – is locked in for May 2025, and we can’t wait to welcome you.

Why attend? Comprehensive program, Indoor and Outdoor exhibition, Networking Opportunities and Equipment demonstrations. Head here to find out more information and to book.

Keep Australia Beautiful (KAB) invites you to help bring creativity and sustainability together in your community. Primary schools are encouraged to take part in the Paint Australia Beautiful Schools Mural Competition! This exciting national initiative inspires young Australians to connect with their local environment, showcase their eco-vision, and create stunning nature-inspired murals that reflect biodiversity and sustainability initiatives around litter and waste. Sign up for the competition here. Submissions must be sent in by 30 May!

Southerland Shire Environment Centre (also open to all Aussies) is hosting the annual Writing for the Environment Competition. The poetry writing competition (300 words max) encourages a space for hope with the theme, Hang on, humans! Don’t give up! Submissions due 31 May 2025.

Do you have a planting project you need support with at school? Make a lasting impact by planting native trees and creating wildlife habitat. Register your schools tree day event here and find our schools guide and tool kit for the event.

Over 4 week in August we invite you to join us for an exciting and innovative national gathering to share and explore together how to STRENGTHEN, COLLABORATE, and ADVOCATE for environmental education!

• FRIDAY 1 AUGUST  Research Symposium - hosted by the Australian Journal of Environmental Education (AJEE)
• TUESDAY 5 AUGUST Conference Day 1 - supported by the Centre for Regenerating Futures, Deakin University
• WEDNESDAY 13 AUGUST Conference Day 2 - supported by Curtin University Faculty of Education
• THURSDAY 21 AUGUST Conference Day 3 - supported by the SEAE (Sustainability, Environmental & Arts Education) Research Centre, Southern Cross University

For further information and to book head here.

Aligned with the UN Sustainability Goals, and the Australian Curriculum, this Reef Guardian School 2025 Eco Challenge consists of eight STEAM based challenges designed to inspire students to Care, Learn, Act and Share their passion for the Great Barrier Reef, and reefs globally. Prizes available, registration closes 1 September 2025.

To increase workplace recycling,Bin Trim rebatesof up to $50,000 (covering up to 50% of the capital cost of small-scale, on-site recycling equipment or technology) are available for NSW businesses including schools to help them to avoid, reduce, reuse, or recycle their waste. Use theBin Trim Appto complete your waste assessment before applying for the rebate.

It is worth keeping an eye on all of these grants, as they open as different stages through the year.

Looking for funding for a school project - try seeking support from your P&C or connecting with NFP in your local community for opportunities such as energy provider grants, grants for not-for-profit community groups, community building partnership grants (community infrastructure), grants for remote and rural communities, or support your local community hero.

Take your students’ ideas to new heights and engage their problem solving skills developing a koala conservation project through the Koala Heroes program. With Koala Smart on board, you’ll gain access to resources, funding (up to $1000), and expert support to turn classroom concepts into ground breaking projects.

Auburn Girls High School recently completed a trial comparing six different compost designs, in their efforts to reduce food organics waste in their school. Read more about their project here.

Take some time to check out the inspiring speakers that have been part of the 2024 Climate Education Summit Speaker Series, you can now view the recordings from educators including Marilyn Palmer, Lisa Siegel, Costa Georgiadis, Damon Gameau, Craig Reucassel and Tim Flannery.

Mid-north coast teachers joined together on a wintery day at Crossmaglen Public School, exploring the Kids in the Kitchen gardening program, reducing food waste with a fermentation workshop, and sharing local school sustainability stories and resources. Find out more about the Coffs Harbour Sustainable Schools network here.

Starting small, the Daceyville Public Schools' Harmony Garden has now become a whole of school and community project and was recently recognised as a state winner in the Grow it Local Award. For some more garden inspiration take a virtual walk through the Cudgegong Valley Public School Garden and read the East Hills Girls Technology High School bush regeneration case study.

Exploring the role of fire in land management and connecting to Country, these education programs are building resilience in young people and our landscapes. Cultural Burning for Resilience is an Aboriginal-led community project engaging Aboriginal students from Nowra, Bomaderry, Ulladulla and Batemans Bay High Schools. Greater Sydney Parkland's program, Guardians of the Park is a habitat restoration program for Western Sydney's Adolescents, working with disengaged youth to build confidence and a sense of connection to their local green space.

Keep the composting community thriving! Peels is a new community composting platform that connects composters with neighbours who want to keep food waste out of landfill.

Interested in exploring biodiversity in your school backyard? Some fabulous resources include the new Bee Squad Book and teacher activities encouraging student action to boost biodiversity, project learning ideas from the Bird, Bats, Butterflies and Bees Superhighwayproject, education resources from, What's in your Backyard, and fact sheets from Field of Mars EZEC.

Free NESA Accredited professional learning Cultivating Classrooms: Integrating Food and Fibre is available for Agriculture, Science and Geography Teachers, offered online and in locations across NSW.

Do you want to know more about your local waterways or need some fun educational activities around the water cycle. Go to WaterNSW educational resources website for more information.

The new Water Conservancy research report provides insights into demographic differences in community understanding about water. Younger Gen Z people are the least likely to have water saving habits and the least likely to be concerned about healthy waterways, saving energy and saving water. Looking to explore water issues with your students, explore these water related teaching resources from the Sustainable Schools NSW website.

Follow the journey of water down the river through the catchment to the sea. Virtual Excursions Australia provides a free online resource explaining how to use the classic story tool The Story of Water to explore water catchments in your classroom.

The Turtles in Schools program offers a tailored curriculum for schools, focussing on freshwater turtle conservation and wetland health. Free Stage 3 teaching resources focus on scientific literacy and numeracy while fostering a deep connection between students and their natural environment.

Inspire students to explore biodiversity conservation in their local area, with the Conservation Champions developed by Biodiversity Conservation Trust and Petaurus Education Group. Resources include K-12 teaching materials and education opportunities about geography, living worlds, biodiversity, agriculture, food and fibre and conservation on private land.

Explore the Healthy Living Soils education website for curriculum linked resources for both teachers and students targeting Year 7-10 Science, Geography, and Design & Technologies. Explore concepts such as productive soil biomes, First Nation Australians and Soils, and water and carbon cycles.

Explore the six essential pillars of Regenerative Agriculture with Southern Cross University's Farming Together initiative. The Regenerative Agriculture Professional Learning for Educators website offers a wealth of resources and workshop recordings designed to support teachers in science, agriculture, and geography.

Ocean Watch have developed a series of education resources on sustainable seafood harvested in NSW, suitable for Stage 4-6. Seafood Industry Partnership in Schools resources include fact sheets, videos and activities designed to facilitate teacher led and student led approaches to promote knowledge of NSW local seafood, fishers and farmers that sustainably harvest it. 

New teaching resources from Planet Ark and Cool.org explore ideas to reduce food waste and increase recycling in the classroom and at a larger scale. Teach your students how to reduce lunchbox waste, create a worm farm for the classroom, how to spot sustainable packaging or learn about the circular economy. 

Primary Industries Education foundation Australia's (PIEFA) Mighty Mushie resources for Yrs 5 - 10 students include interactive, curriculum-aligned card games, worksheets and accompanying videos clips. Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies (CERES) has created online excursion programs for pre-school through to year 6 covering zero-waste, farming and restoring ecosystems.

OzHarvest created FEAST (Food Education and Sustainability Training) from the belief that educating children about healthy eating and food waste prevention is crucial to enable positive change. FEAST is a Year 5 and 6 education program that runs for 10 weeks and addresses STEM, English, Health and Physical Education and Sustainability curriculum outcomes. FEAST teaches students about food waste, sustainability and nutrition using hands-on cooking activities in the classroom (no kitchen required).

FEAST education program includes:

• Curriculum-aligned resources
• Kitchen kit and electric fry pans to make cooking in the classroom accessible
• 20 hot and cold recipes
• Teacher training
• Ongoing support from the OzHarvest FEAST team

Throughout the program, students are tasked with exploring and designing their own recipes for their “School Cookbook”, while addressing food waste prevention, healthy eating and inspiring the local community!

More than 500 schools have already delivered the program nationally, inspiring nearly 25000 students and trained 800+ teachers. Don’t let this opportunity go to waste.

Register your school here.

Email feast@ozharvest.org for more information!

Please note that funding is available for eligible primary schools to sign up to the program at no cost. To know if your school is eligible, please fill out the registration form on the FEAST website. 

International Women's Day is celebrated annually on 8 March and is an opportunity to explore issues of gender equality with students. Support your students to explore issues around gender equality with these Kreative KoalaSDG education resources.Delve deeper into gender issues with the webinar, Repositioning gender and environment in education, hosted by the SEAE Research Centre.

Looking for ways to help young students understand natural disasters?Birdie's Tree offers engaging online stories and resources to help young children build resilience and recover from natural disasters.

The North American Association for Environmental Education’s offers ideas for Educating for Climate Action and Justice, in the Guidelines of Excellence series, which synthesis best practices for climate education and justice.

Exciting youth-led training available about climate and leadership issues, offered through the changemaker platformYouthtopia. Registration is necessary, but courses are offered freely. Strategies and ideas to teach climate change for educators are also offered through the Planet Media’sfree online Toolkit for Climate Storytellingwhich outlinesfour essential climate principlesthat can help young people to build an understanding of climate change and agency to act.

Are your students in need of some positive climate news? Stay Tuned to our Planet (STTOP!) is a mini climate action series on YouTube and TikTok that delivers simple, everyday actions you can take to help the planet. Each episode features an interview with an eco-warrior who helps unpack an environmental issue, encourage action and help reduce climate anxiety.

The Arts based toolkit for climate resilience, created by Dr Meg Parsons and Dr Susanne Pratt, harnesses art to make complex climate issues relatable and emotionally resonant. This toolkit offers strategies for collaboratively imagining climate resilience and justice through diverse media. The value of storytelling to explore climate resilience can be seen in these award winning stories from the Grist 2024 competition, Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors and the graphic novel Because IPCC celebrating the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

UNESCO Greening Education Partnership has released Greening Curriculum Guidance, which proposes a common understanding of what climate change education should consist of and how countries and schools can green their curriculum. UNESCO are leading this work, with the objective to have 90 per cent of all countries include climate change in their curriculum by 2030.

A new Stage 3 resource from Forest Learning explores sustainable material options for products used in canteen. The lessons uses design thinking to explore material alternatives to plastic use in canteens. For additional resources to support your move to a more green canteen, visit the Sustainable Schools NSW website.

Has your school or community been impacted by fire and/or floods? Minderoo Foundation work collaboratively with communities to help build resilience projects.

If your School would like to know more about the program and the support provided you can visit minderoo.org.

Explore climate change in your classroom with this range of teaching resources: University of Melbourne Climate SuperPowers encourages students to assess their strengths, assets and ideas for actionable change to address climate issues, UNICEF provides curriculum aligned Stage 1 - 3 teaching resources Climate Change and the Importance of our Environment, NASA Climate Kids provides a simple online kids guide to climate change and NPWS Stage 3 teaching resource Cooling the Schools action learning program explores the 'urban heat island effect' and the effect of climate change on local environments and management of spaces.

If you didn't get the chance to attend our Leading sustainability in schools webinar last year, you can now listen online to Sustainability Leadership Specialist Dr. André Taylor, and practical ideas from teachers who are engaging their school communities as sustainability coordinators and environmental educators.

An audit of your school's own waste is possible, and a real eye opener for students and teachers alike. If you would like more information on how to get started, please contact our Waste Education Officer at: waste.education@wsc.nsw.gov.au. 

Wingecarribee Shire Council is partnering with EnviroMentors in 2024 for a fourth year in a row to provide sustainability incursions.

Topics range from composting, lunches unwrapped, to sustainability and keeping waterways clean.

Recently Mittagong Public School had the EnviroMentors team out who led a waste audit, they looked at the types of waste and talked with the students about how they could reduce their waste.

The audit revealed a large amount of paper in the bins from lunch orders. A lot of uneaten food and some still in wrappers.

Interestingly there were very little beverage containers, which indicates an excellent uptake of reusable water bottles. Improved waste management could include an alternative to order slips for canteen orders, a compost container in each classroom with an attached educational piece, when uptake has been successful it could extend to the playground and may include bin monitors.

A compost or worm farm would be necessary onsite to deal with the food waste.

If you would like more information take a look at the Public Schools education program by the EnvironMentors or visit the EnviroMentors here or contact: sustainabilityservices@wsc.nsw.gov.au.   

Council’s Environmental Officers would relish the opportunity to share our knowledge with your students to hopefully inspire them to live more sustainably and care for nature.

If your classroom is looking for a bit more information on climate change, sustainability, biodiversity, conservation, regenerative agriculture, the water cycle, waste education or other topics please reach out to us via email listed below to talk about how we might be able to help. 

Alternatively, if your school is interested in tours of Council facilities, please contact us via email to find out more information and to organise a date: sustainabilityservices@wsc.nsw.gov.au.

Wingecarribee Water Treatment Plant is now open to run frequent tours for our local schools!

Do your students understand the process water goes through, from a drop of rain to the glass of water you hold in your hands? Wingecarribee Water Treatment Plant services 90% of the Wingecarribee Shire’s water supply and our tours explain the treatment process starting at the raw water source, through the stages of treatment and what happens when it leaves the plant and enters the water supply network to your household tap.

Please note, the Water Treatment Plant is a functioning site, because of this, safety requirements exist, tours are open only to high school ages and above. Tour dates are limited, please email your request to our Water Services Team at: watersewer.requests@wsc.nsw.gov.au.