SOLAR electricity to power its classrooms. Native bees. Rubbish-free lunches. Thriving fruit and vegetable gardens. And a student roster of E-Teams to ensure the workload is shared.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
For a small school, Awaba is big on environmental leadership.
Awaba Public School was this week announced as overall winner (primary school section) of Lake Macquarie City Council’s 2018 School Environment Awards.
The awards recognise schools that participate in environmental improvement projects.
Principal Alison Tiplady said the school had embraced a raft of environmental initiatives over the years – many of them initiated by retired teacher Libby Walters – which had become part of the school culture.
“These initiatives have become a way of life and not just a lesson,” Ms Tiplady said.
There are big-ticket items such as the school’s 10-kilowatt solar system which generates electricity to power classrooms.
Making news:
“That solar unit is on the roof of our covered outdoor learning area (COLA) and it means that our power bills are now negligible,” Ms Tiplady said.
But most of all there are small attitudinal and behavioural changes – in the classroom and the playground – which add up to significant gains.
Each classroom has an environmental plan so that blinds are pulled down, and lights are switched off, when the weather dictates.
“We have native bees, which are stingless, and they produce a little bit of honey but mostly they are to pollinate our gardens,” Ms Tiplady said.
The school has a three-bin system – just like the rest of the city – and is working towards becoming bin-free.
“One day a week we have ‘nude food days’ where we encourage parents to put their children’s food into reusable containers, and if they can’t the students take their rubbish back home with them,” she said.
They’re working towards making every day a nude food day.
And the school’s thriving produce gardens and citrus trees are all maintained by the school’s E-Teams (environment teams).
“The students have rosters for tasks such as turning over the compost and green waste, watering and weeding the gardens,” Ms Tiplady said.
She said the school was united by a common goal that had been embraced by students and teachers alike.
And it was the pioneering work of Ms Walters – who installed the gardens and planted the seeds of environmental programs at the school – that started it all, Ms Tiplady said.
“I think it’s testimony to Libby’s input that we are still winning awards for things she put in place.”
St Mary’s College, at Gateshead, was overall winner of the high school section.
Wyee Public School won the Natural Environment category, and Teralba Public School won the Energy award.
