Recycling workshop and Environmental - Centre tour at Geelong College middle school
Last week (Tuesday 16 May) the SJC sustainability leaders travelled to Geelong College for a few hours to exchange projects and ideas about waste reduction, recycling and biodiversity. The SJC leaders spoke to the year seven and eight Geelong College SRC students about how we reduce and recycle our waste here at St Josephs. The leaders spoke about the Bokashi bins, the worm farm, the REDcycling and much more.
After a quick break we headed over to the most exciting part, the year four Enviro-Centre! Exploring the year four Enviro-Centre was an amazing experience and would definitely change St Josephs for the better if even a few of their ideas and projects were implemented. These ideas included; an indigenous garden, a frog pond and a “Pot to Plate”, where one day a week were some year fours cook a meal using the ingredients from their garden. Although, the thing that surprised me the most was the knowledge of the young grade fours and the new the creatures and plants hiding and growing in their garden head to toe. Both schools learnt a lot and I hope that next time our schools meet, St Josephs will have some of Geelong Colleges’ ideas and projects implemented. Xavier Korolis |
To the Year 4 students,
I would like to thank you for showing me and my fellow students around your Enviro-Centre. You were really informative and you seemed well prepared. I was really inspired by your commitment, initiative and your understanding of your Enviro-Centre and the fact that you brought the Superb Fairy Wren back to your school. You showed real initiative in the way you planned to bring back the species to your school by planting native plants to recreate the Superb Fairy Wren’s habitat. You are really lucky to be able to go down to the Barwon river and to study the wonderful bounty of life that is there. I was really impressed with your frog pond and your paddock to plate initiative. I love the way you utilize your garden and your system of cooking with the produce in your allergy safe kitchen. Including those chillies! I think that you are very committed and I think that you are brilliant leaders with a wide understanding of your environmental initiatives. All together it was a pleasure to be shown around by you and Mr Johnston. Sascha Wheelwright Dear Year 4’s, Thank-you for allowing us to experience your amazing Enviro-Centre and thank you for giving us so many ideas on how we can improve St Joseph’s college’s biodiversity. I was very impressed with your understanding of biodiversity and all of the plants and creatures inside your Enviro-Centre. I also think that many of your projects would definitely change St Joeys for the better if they were implemented. My personal favourite would be the pot to plate (but in such a big school I’m not sure if it would work). I hope that the next time our schools meet, St Josephs will have many of your ideas and projects implemented. Xavier Korolis To year 4 thx for showing us around it was a great day learning about what you do at Geelong collage 3 things were looking at the cool gardens you showing us the kitchen and showing us the frog pond. Dear Year 4 students. Thank you for showing me around your Environmental Centre. It was fun, educational and interesting. I was impressed when I heard that your goal was to introduce the Fairy Wren in to this area and that you planted species to create the native environment for them. I am inspired by how you displayed an excellent understanding of plants and animals living around your centre. I really enjoyed the chickens, Ginny pigs and the frog pond. We hope that we can implement some similar ideas from you. Mark wee To grade 4 students, Thank you for letting SJC come to Geelong College and look at your garden. All the sustainability leaders liked the tour of your environmental garden. The pot to plate idea is a genius idea and should be introduced into SJC. I like how you bring back the Fairy Wrens and other native species to their natural habit by introducing native plants and how you are preserving the wildlife for future generations to come. I liked how you are so enthusiastic about sustainability and preserving our world today. Jacob Hill Dear year 4 students, Thank you for showing us around your Enviro Centre. I really enjoyed it! I liked how you introduced particular native plants into your garden to attract bird species such as the Fairy Wren. I also loved your “Pot to Plate” initiative and I thought the pot house was really creative. I am inspired by your frog pond and how quickly you created it and found frogs to live there. I like the fact that you have chickens, guinea pigs and birds that you can take home. You have taught me about a new berry that I did not know about before and I was surprised that the Mulberry bush grows so tall. I think it is a shame that only year four students get to use this space, because it seems that you establish some wonderful sustainable practices in year four and perhaps do not get to use them again. Harrison Salmon |