2012 Sustainability: how will you achieve it?
Mawson Lakes Primary School 9th February 2012
Somerton Park Kindergarten - Marie Cullen (Director) and Gill Hosking (Teacher)
Part 1. Developing a sustainability focus, projects, grants and recycling (9 mins)
Part 2. National Quality Standards, planning cycles, DIAF, promoting sustainability, the butterfly garden (8 mins)
Part 3. Healthy Eating Physical Activity - vegetable garden, new foods, Street Feet Bus; support available (9 mins)
Part 4. Links to local Primary School, support, where to from here - promoting sustainability, children's voice (4 mins)
Mawson Lakes Primary School - Barry Silkstone (Teacher)
Interpretive trail along Dry Creek, sustainable school design, sustainability planning, partnerships with technical colleges
2011 Sustainability: how will you achieve it?
Woodville High School 17th February 2011
NRM Education - Agenda and Activities Powerpoint (1.2MB pdf) Selected photos (950KB pdf)
We started the evening exploring some definitions of Education for Sustainability from NRM Education and AuSSI-SA. Participants were asked to reflect on and record the following:
Which of these aspects of sustainability is already happening at your site?
Which principles and values do we already follow at our site and how do they link to the aims of EfS?
What would you like to see as a priority and why?
How will you avoid some of the traps of implementing EfS?
Melissa Allery introduced each of our guest speakers with an overview of the AuSSI-SA Approach that they are following. For more information about the three Approaches, click here.
Environmental Theme Approach: Gaynor Hellier from Magill Kindergarten described how the Butterfly and Frog Garden project evolved into a broader exploration of sustainability at the centre.
Gaynor Hellier Powerpoint (4MB pdf)
Overview of Sustainability at Magill Kindergarten 2011 (485KB pdf)
Gaynor's presentation (podcast)
Education for Sustainability Approach: Simon Wundersitz from Immanuel Lutheran School Gawler described the well-being, economic and environmental outcomes of their kitchen garden and Community Market.
Simon's presentation (podcast)
Youth Action Approach: Parul Joshi from Woodville High School briefly described the development of the school's Sustainability Committee and the role that students have played in driving decisions around environmental issues affecting the school community. Parul's presentation (podcast)
For more details about how the Sustainability Committee was established at Woodville, please click here for a podcast and powerpoint from our EfS Learning Group series in 2010.
Jonathan Noble from DECD introduced School Environment Management Plans (SEMPs) and showed us the online SEMP Database that AuSSI-SA schools can use to house and display their SEMPs and environmental data. SEMP templates are available from here. Participants worked in groups to decide their priorities for developing a SEMP from Why Teachers Like SEMPs (60KB doc), then started filling in a SEMP template for a project they would like to implement or expand on at their site.
We then moved into the Garden and Jeff Glass spoke to us about how it was established, the student involvement in its development and maintenance, and plans for expansion to incorporate a Community Garden area. Networking while enjoying fresh wood oven pizzas, made with vegetables and herbs from the garden, was a lovely way to wrap up.