Project Green

Young storytellers are encouraged to take part in the 2023 RD Walshe Memorial Writing for the Environment Competition.

The 2023 theme is Future, what future?

Entries are due by 30 June.

UNSW Bragg Student Prize for Science Writing is a science essay writing competition open to Year 7-10 high school students.

Students will explore how we use and benefit from AI, with a particular focus on science.

Competition closes 25 August 2023.

Wonderful Worms is the topic for the 2023 Soil Week Australia Healthy Soils Competition.

Primary and secondary schools are invited to enter this free competition, entries due 15 September 2023. 

The Crawford Fund is inviting a student, student teams or schools to enter the Development for a Better Future Competition.

Year 9 - 10 students are invited to develop solutions to some of the most vexing challenges to food and nutrition security.

Register to download supporting teaching resources.

Entries due 22 September 2023.

The 2023 Mobile Muster School Challenge is expanding to three mediums (film, drawing, photography), to deliver a message to school communities about the relevance of recycling old unused mobile phones.

Educating the next generation of environmentally conscious consumers is one of MobileMuster’s core objectives.

Since 2019, the annual competition seeks to educate students about the lifecycle of mobile phones and encourage them to use creative ways to motivate their local community to recycle.

This year, MobileMuster is offering its biggest prize yet! There are 2 x $5,000 gift cards to be won, with 6x $1,000 runner-up prizes.

Competition opens 12 June - 30 September.

The latest round of NSW State Government bans on single-use plastics like lightweight plastic bags, straws, stirrers, cutlery, plates, bowls, cotton buds, expanded polystyrene foodware and cups, and rinse-off personal care products containing plastic microbeads came into effect on 1 November 2022.

Living a plastic free life is a real possibility. Taking on the challenge can be easy if you focus on one thing at a time and think ahead before you head to the shops or cafés.

Take your reusable bag, straw, and coffee keep-cup.

If you would like to take on the challenge in July, head to this page for more information.

It's easy to adjust ideas about going plastic free for kids in the classroom with information on plastic pollution and tips on how to reduce our use of single-use plastics.

You can also reach out to the EnviroMentors for more information on their services and how they could help your school this July.

Looking for some epic stuff at '80s prices? Or perhaps a unique school fundraising and community building event? 

Pre-registrations are now open for schools to join the nationwide Garage Sale Trail program on 11-12 and 18-19 November 2023.

Schools can get involved by hosting a secondhand market, carboot sale, or white elephant stall on their school grounds.

School’s Environment Day (SED) in March 2023 was a massive success, with Year 5-6 students from Moss Vale Public and Gibgate participating in the environment focused outdoor event.

The weather was perfect, the day was busy, and smiles were seen all around.

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 is not yet set, but will be in the first half of 2024. To request more information or register your interest please email us at sustainabilityservices@wsc.nsw.gov.au.

Do you have some Young Environmental Champions?

Action for Agriculture is supporting young people to become agents of change through the Young Environmental Champions program.

The 10-week program focuses on empowering students to engage in an environmental project that benefits their school and community.

Available for Stage 3-5 students, the programs launch in the Riverina (starting Term 3, Week 2, Thursday) and South East/Tablelands region (starting Term 3, Week 2, Friday).

To sign up, please visit Action for Agriculture's Young Environmental Champions and fill in the expression of interest form.

You can also view the winning Primary school and winning Secondary school pitch videos from our Term 1-2 Hawkesbury and Hunter programs!

This 10-week program is tailored to empower, mentor, and network to your students in three key ways:

1. Networking with other young eco-warriors
2. Mentoring by successful young people in higher education
3. Empowering students to design and implement action learning experiences with real impact 

Don't miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Apply NOW and secure your school's spot.

Let's make a difference together!

We can't wait for your school to join us and to see the impact you'll make.

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 School and Berrima Public School in applying for and receiving funding support from the Department of Education and other community grants. Moss Vale has completed installation with Berrima soon to begin installation.

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 is partnering with EnviroMentors in 2023 for a third 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 lead 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.

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 

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.

Water Week in October is a yearly national event with a night allocated for special awareness placed on your water use. This year the special night is 19 October 2023.

Water Night helps Australian’s acknowledge their reliance on tap water with the aim of encouraging people to value water amidst climate change, improving water literacy and water using behaviours. For three years running, we have challenged households to go for one night without using their taps - no taps, no showers, no running water.

Conclusive evidence from the first three years of Water Night demonstrates that the event delivers on its aims and objectives – it raises water literacy by 24 per cent, water awareness by 18 per cent and participants claim to use their taps 10 per cent less after the event. 

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.

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.

You can also download this fun colouring in book(PDF, 1MB) for the younger years.

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 our community and 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.

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.