Project Green

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.

The NSW Government is seeking feedback from young people about how the government can better support them. Young people aged 14 - 24 are invited to have a say on issues that matter most to them. The survey is open until 31 December, click here for more information.

We are looking to create a collaborative ideas bank about school uniforms, and are seeking useful resources, links and examples of schools that consider sustainability issues with their school uniforms including their design, production, reuse or recycling. Take 3 for the Sea are currently running an online survey exploring the relationship between plastic and fashion and our fashion footprint. Let them know, is it fashion or trashion? 

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.

Does your School want a Koala Smart Classroom? 

Looking for FREE lesson plans mapped to the NSW curriculum?  

Plus PowerPoint presentations, worksheets, learning videos, activities and more?  

Koala Smart has you covered. It’s time to connect classrooms to Koala Conservation. With the support of partners, we are currently able to provide all our resources for FREE.   

Become a Koala Smart classroom to gain access to a suite of free curriculum-aligned, class-room ready resources.  Lesson programming is done for you.  

About the program:   

• Six core lesson plans (for stages 2, 3 and 4, aligned to the Australian & NSW syllabus), but can be adapted to suit other stages 

• Resources includes factual information, activity outlines, power point presentations, interviews with experts in the field, worksheets, and a video tour of a Koala Hospital  

• Additional resources available directly to students through the online ‘student area’   

• Connection with relevant expertise to mentor student projects (optional)   

• Individual teachers can register, or the entire school can be involved  

• The program is supported by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment’s Koala Strategy   

• Program able to be adapted to suit teacher and student needs, and does not need to be delivered in order or in full 

Koala Smart schools have the potential to make an impact, enrich your students’ lessons while streamlining and simplifying programming for the year.  

To begin your classrooms Koala journey and gain access to the extensive library of classroom ready resources, register at www.koalasmart.org.au. Get in touch for assistance in initiating this program or for general program questions email Koala Smart at info@koalasmart.org.au.

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. 

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.

Students in Yrs K-12 are invited to participate in the 2024 ‘Litterarty’ Waste-Art Competition, with an opportunity for cash prizes and to have works shown at the 2025 Ocean Lovers Festival. Submissions due December 2024.

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, biodiversity, 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 will be opening the doors on a monthly basis for 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.