Project Green

New date now available!

School’s Environment Day (SED) November 2022 was a massive success, with year 5-6 students from 4 local primary schools & home-schooling participating in the environment focused outdoor event. Despite it being November, the weather was rather chilly and windy early on until the sun came out fully to turn it into the perfect day.

The students gained environmental knowledge across several different areas including natural habitat protection + wildlife identification, the importance of protecting our waterways and how to reuse common household materials to live more sustainably.

We find that being in nature doing practical hands-on activities is one of the best ways to enable students to really immerse themselves and learn about sustainability practices. 

The date for our next session in March 2023 is now open for registrations, to request more information or register your interest please contact council via email: sustainabilityservices@wsc.nsw.gov.au.

Great turn out, the excited students arrive

The Kreative Koalas Program has seen two local schools within the Southern Highlands participate who are now nominated to receive an award. We wish them luck!

Here is what Mark Gardiner M. Ed. Leadership Principal Hill Top Public School had to say about the program.

“All students enrolled at Hill Top Public school are supported in learning about sustainability education by our team of committed and professional educators. Our executive staff and senior teachers have crafted a framework for our teachers to build on and create learning activities that incorporate simple and compelling messages about how to be better ecologically clever global citizens. In short, our hopes and dreams are that students in the Hill Top school community will be better equipped to care for and nurture our planet when they leave our school. Our immersive lessons on gardening, and cooking are balanced by ongoing efforts to use resources more wisely, leaving our spaces better than we found them. Our teachers deliver on this by modelling what they teach and by reporting on each student's learning each semester in a detailed and integrated manner, matching outcomes to sustainability strands throughout our curriculum.

Working with Action4Agriculture we are empowering our students to create visual representation and reminders of what we have done and what we still need to do!”

To find out more about the Kreative Koalas program and how your school can participate visit here.

This December join the Sustainable Us and Reviva Teams at the Resource Recovery Centre in Moss Vale for a workshop suited to both adults and kids to learn how to up-cycle old items.  Many items are easily discarded, but often can be wonderful for activities such as craft. Items old like music sheets, sticks and old ribbons can be made into beautiful Christmas decorations such as a hanging colourful Christmas tree or an angel.

Join us in giving life to discarded/up-cycled/pre-loved items by turning them into something special for Christmas this year.

This session is free and all materials needed will be provided with examples of what can be made as well as a tutorial and helpers to assist if needed. There is no suggested age range, but please be mindful of what your child’s capabilities are.

Check out the link here for more information and to book. Hurry, places are limited!

Capture Your Students Who Want To: 

• Challenge the status quo.
• Be part of driving change from the grassroots level.

• Find new ways to create positive social and environmental changes. 

Do you Want a Program That Will:

• Align with the curriculum
• Support teachers with resources
• Encourage leadership, build resilience and enhance wellbeing?
• Help others to strengthen their capacity for change?
• Connects your school with the community?
• Fosters Leadership ad student engagement? 

Then we have a the perfect opportunity for you!

Youth4Action - Young Environmental Champions program will empower your students to create scalable and sustainable impact connected to your local context.

Click here to see Key Dates or submit your Expression of Interest here. Closing Date for Expression of Interest: COB 18th November 2022. 

Wingecarribee Shire Council’s Earth Hour event occurs at the end of March yearly and is co-hosted with the Southern Highlands Botanical Gardens, there are environmental stallholders and many opportunities to learn how we can all take better care of our Earth.

The Recycled Material Sculpture Competition is an opportunity for your students or school to submit their works to win prizes and more. Open to all ages there is a primary, high school and open categories.

Click here to register your interest in joining the competition or to find out more information.

A guide is also available to run waste audits on your own.  For more information on how you can conduct your own Waste Audit click here for the guide.

Wingecarribee Shire Council now runs the Solar my School program for our area which was designed to help schools get solar panels for their roofs while simultaneously educating the next generation on the importance of renewable energy.

So far we have successfully been able to help Moss Vale High and Berrima Public School in applying for and receiving funding support from the Department of Education and other community grants with installation planned hopefully for the end of 2022.

We are always looking for new schools to get involved to take advantage of the opportunities currently available.

To find out more about how easy it can be, all the benefits and how to get started click here or contact sustainabilityservices@wsc.nsw.gov.au. 

Wingecarribee Shire Council will be partnering with EnviroMentors for a second year in a row to provide sustainability incursions.

Topics range from composting, lunches unwrapped, to sustainability and keeping waterways clean.
 
For more information on what the EnviroMentors program can do for your classroom click 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.

The NSW Government is upgrading school lighting across the state to LED lights as part of their LED Light Upgrade Program (LED LUP). LED lights use less energy and require less maintenance while saving on the power bill.

Head to their website for more information click here.

If you wish to understand your schools eligibility please reach out to your Asset Support Officer (ASO) or email schoolinfrastructure@det.nsw.edu.au.

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 or email Margaret Moreton of the Minderoo Foundation at mmoreton@minderoo.org.  

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. 

As part of Water Conservancy week in October we opened for tours to the public. These tours were well received and enjoyed by all. 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 complete this form to enquire and send across to our Water Services Team at: watersewer.requests@wsc.nsw.gov.au.

The program offers investigative, engaging, relevant, integrated and hands-on learning experiences that address syllabus outcomes for Preschool, kindergarten and Stages 1-3 in an outdoor setting; full-day (10.00am—2.00pm) programs led by volunteers in whole and small group activities, and a safe (fully fenced) environment.

There is a small charge for each student attending, who receive workbooks and use of all equipment to carry out each module. For further information or to make a school booking please visit www.shbg.com.au.

Open Parachute, is a K-12 school program that aims to make a difference in the mental health of adolescents. To operate their program they get funding from the Guy Sebastian Foundation.

A new way that the foundation raises funds for Open Parachute is through a partnership with E-Thread, a clothing recovery programs which redirects unwanted clothing away from landfill by upcycling them into local and global communities, as well as social and charity enterprises.

E-Thread host and manage textile recycling bins (including servicing them daily) and the clothing gets reused or repurposed into rags and sold. Their partnership with the Guy Sebastian foundation results in E-Thread donating money directly to the foundation. It’s a great passive way for the foundation to support Open Parachute, who need $30/week to support one child.

We want to hear from you so we can get collection bins into the Shire, at schools, shopping centres, Council facilities, etc.

Please contact us at sustainabilityservices@wsc.nsw.gov.au if you know of a suitable site.

Water week in October is a yearly event with a night allocated for special awareness placed on your water use. As part of this week an excellent suite of educational resources was made available to help our children learn the importance of water, and the processes it must go through before we safely use it. Please visit this site here to see the excellent resources available for school kids. And click here to download this fun colouring in book for the younger years. 

Remember to pack your reusable shopping bags when you go to the shops as lightweight plastic shopping bags are now a thing of the past in NSW (as of 1 June 2022). 

The state’s ban on the highly littered item is the first in a series of single-use plastic phase-outs that will see a number of other items added to the list.

A second ban from 1 November this year will include single-use plastic straws, stirrers, cutlery, plates, bowls, cotton buds, expanded polystyrene food ware and cups, and rinse-off personal care products containing plastic microbeads.

Single-use plastic items and packaging make up 60% of all litter in NSW. 

These plastic bans will prevent almost 2.7 billion items of plastic litter entering our environment in NSW over the next 20 years.

At Wingecarribee Council we encourage you to use either cloth or tote bags as a great alternative to the now banned lightweight shopping bags. 

For more information click here.

Wingecarribee Shire Council’s Sustainable Us Team has been busy creating a video series based on our monthly sustainability themes. These short videos are an excellent educational piece for students that showcases ways to be more environmentally friendly through the stories of local residents and businesses.

Some key themes explored include reducing food waste, proper recycling, planting environmentally appropriate plants for your garden and improving environmental impacting behaviours.

We have uploaded our videos to YouTube for all to enjoy. Please go to our YouTube page to start watching our video series here.

If you would like more information about the Sustainable Us monthly themes and the events associated please visit us here.

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.