We love educating educators!!!! It is always such a joy to have educators on site to collaborate with and build capacity for sustainability and circularity in our schools and educational settings.
This course has been designed to support educators to incorporate sustainability and circularity into their programs and whole school planning with hands on practical activities. Our aim is for educators to feel confident with integrating sustainability and circularity into their lessons and empower them to create changes in their schools to minimise waste and showcase sustainability and circularity in everyday actions.
We were very privileged to have Dr Judy Friedlander, the founder of Planting Seeds and the B&B Highway join us this time. She shared with us the many educational opportunities available to schools in building biodiversity and championing citizen science and advocacy in our young people. Her book “The Bee Squad” provided a great platform to explore the Department of Education, CSIRO and universities supported program of indoor and outdoor hands on activities they have created. The added bonus is that all of them are linked to Key Learning Areas and General Capabilities like ICT, critical and creative thinking, maths and data collection and analysis, geography – analysing place; civics and citizenship; personal and social capabilities; literacy and Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures.
We always enjoy having our friends from WaterUps share their expertise with us on managing school gardens more efficiently and sustainably with less hassle around watering. Eric Sturman and Sam Betteridge joined us to exploring wicking in school gardens and the huge amount of water we can save (60-80%) and the time we can save with wicking (top up once a fortnight rather than water daily!) – great for the school holidays! Lots of fun exploring retrofitting old plant pots and garden beds as well as they systems they offer schools and refreshing and planting out our existing wicking beds.
Fiona Tobin and Sue Winstanley joined us from Avalon Public School to share their journey of creating a fantastic School Garden with edibles, bush tucker and sensory plants from a blank grass canvas. The sharing of their school case study enabled participants to understand the different challenges every school faces and the possibilities and work arounds. Avalon Public School is one of our School Waste Reduction Support Program schools on the final year of our support and they look all set for great success in the future.
Due to the kind support of Australian Native Landscapes, Tumbleweed, WaterUps and Up On The Rooftop; all participants received an Up On The Rooftop Grow Pouch and some lucky participants were fortunate to receive a Lucky Door Prize of a (list them here or put the winners below)
Winners of Lucky Door Prizes:
- Worm farm Complete –Wakehurst PS
- WaterUps Planter- Cammeray PS
- Compost Bin – Mosman Prep
- WaterUps Starter Kit – Currambeena PS
- Compost Mate – Currambeena PS
- Worm & Compost Conditioner – Avalon PS
We are thinking as the day is so rushed trying to pack everything in that we will maybe split the day into two next year and do some deep dives. Have one day that is focused on waste specifically – 4R’s, composting, worm farming and waste audits etc. Then another day on School Gardens – explore the importance of wicking beds in school gardens, companion planting, organic pest control, sensory garden activities, building for biodiversity etc. On these days there will be more time allocated to hands on practical activities that are accompanied with ready to go curriculum integrated resources.
There were lots of takeaways at the end of the day and planned actions included: School compost overhaul; additional worm farms; improve composting systems; extend wicking garden beds; investigate and apply for grants; engage the community more through the school newsletter; conduct a waste audit with the materials on the Resource Hive
It is always lovely to receive feedback and we are delighted to share the following from our participants and look forward to welcoming you at our next educator professional development day whether that be for an Early Childhood, Primary or Secondary focus:
That was fantastic. I really enjoyed it. I learned a few things which was really good but lots of information so thank you so, so much. Well done. Really, really awesome. Hopefully we can get some more people on board with these workshops because they’re definitely worthwhile.
Thank you for such a great day, it was very inspiring!
So inspirational coming along to Kimbriki, meeting you and your team and, of course, the educators who share a passion for the environment.
Presenters were knowledgeable and engaging. Heaps of useful information
Very engaging, great value and hands on.
Just wanted to say a MASSIVE THANK YOU for last Friday! The day was so professional and full of the most wonderful information that all your participants will be able to go back to their schools and implement. You, Angie and Abbey are so inspiring!
Thanks to you and the team for organising an incredible day, introducing us to inspiring and actionable examples, and fostering strong discussions. Your energy (and the Kimbriki tea!) kept us energised all day!
Lots of passion/energy/knowledge and info. It was amazing!
It was very well organised and there was so much information and ideas that I feel we could really embed at our school.
