2023 YOUTH SUMMIT CITY OF WHITTLESEA

Our grade 6 sustainability leaders Pearl, Angelo, Rohan, Karun, Tharuli and Chloe attended the YOUTH Summit along with Tazmin and myself on the 5th June World Environment Day.

This year’s theme focused on environmental sustainability. It provided our student sustainability leaders opportunities to engage in solutions in supporting our environment around us and coming up with a sustainable action plan. There were 18 different schools from around the City of Whittlesea with 220 student representatives.

We started the day with a traditional Welcome to Country which represents the traditional custodians of the land.

The first part of the summit was to give the students an opportunity to interact with the guest panelists asking questions related to sustainability and gaining an understanding and appreciation from their expertise and knowledge in the environment.

We had 3 schools present their sustainability stories. In the second part session of the day, we had St Monica’s present how they are increasing biodiversity in restoring the wetlands. Al Siraat presented how they recycle around their school. Alphington Grammar presented how they are restoring Darebin Creek, by planting for biodiversity and placing nesting boxes and monitoring the creek.

The last part of the day we participated in a hands-on workshop which focused on student leadership. At the end of the day we all watched a short film on “Regenerating Australia”. It brought all schools together in discussions and developing a pelage that the schools can commit to and implement their sustainable practices.

The Youth Summit highlighted what we do great already at EVPS to be sustainable. The students were inspired in improving our sustainability at our school. They were able to identify and address what needs to improve in our school to help our environment. We would also like to thank the team from City of Whittlesea for their great support and dedication in organising a fantastic event for all attendees’.

EVPS PLEDGES THAT WE AT EVPS WILL TAKE ACTION ON THE 5R’S

Practice 5Rs—Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle

We are committed in implementing the 5’R’S practices in our school and encourage our wider school community in also making a commitment in our EVPS pledge in practising the 5R’S.

Angelo:6NW

The moment I went in, my mind just said it’s a wedding. Snacks filled the tables, bright dim purple lights beaming through the room, in one word I can describe it as divine. We learned many things about climate change, how we can be more sustainable and take actions to prevent climate change. Learning about climate change was amazing, finding various solutions to end a massive problem that is affecting our planet. It made me feel good that we can end and solve one of Earth’s biggest problems. We learned many things aside from climate change. Learning about how other schools have been more sustainable. For example St Monica’s restored their wetlands by having more awareness, having clean ups around and in the wetland and planting to make it thrive. Learning about other schools' ideas was amazing, right after we ate delicious tacos for lunch. The last hour we learned about culture and to keep it alive. We had aboriginal dances and talked about the stolen generation. Even though the aboriginal culture was not as free as it was before, they somehow kept their culture alive. The main leaders of this last hour told us to always keep our culture thriving and to never forget where you came from.

Karun:6AG

As soon as I walked in I was completely shocked at the formal and neat way that they set up the entire hall. There were things such as juice and cookies sprinkled all over the tables. As the hours went on we learnt all about things such as; How other schools tackled the problem of climate change, how our school could approach it, the general effects of climate change and how an eco-friendly planet could benefit us all. We also learnt about the first nations people who lived and cared for this land long before us, how to pitch an idea to someone in a short amount of time and how to easily make a prototype of a device that can do stuff, and had a REALLY nice lunch break with amazing tacos that we could eat. 🙂

Rohan:6NW

When I walked into the hall the council set up cookies, muffins, mentos and fruit for us to eat throughout the day. The hall was beaming with purple light and had tables set up like a wedding. The entire purpose of this event was to know about how one idea can make a big change to the environment. Other schools were sharing about how they keep a healthy climate such as St. Monicas talking about how they kept their wetlands safe from things like mosquito fish which would eat everything. They also talked about how if you want to help the environment in an effective way start at home then at school, and if you want to speak to the council or parents to set up a community event, such as a community cleanup. Though if the person you want to ask for an event to get set up and they are too busy you can give an elevator pitch which is giving facts and evidence/call to action to give a brief sentence about what you want to talk about in 30-60 seconds.

Tharuli:6SB

When I first walked in I felt underdressed as the hall was set up in a really fancy and formal way. As we took our seats we all helped ourselves to the snacks on the table. We first learnt about how the Whittlesea Council can help us as a school to make sustainable changes. We found out that there were 18 schools at the summit, with 220 young people. We learnt that being younger helps us think of imaginative and creative solutions to problems. We then learnt about what other schools are doing to help. We found out that other schools are helping creeks, restoring wetlands and even recycling! We learnt that we should help spread awareness, get help and start off with something small. What I thought was really cool is that we got to see traditional aboriginal dancing and learnt design thinking. We learnt to celebrate the power of possibility. Finally, we made a pledge to our school; we pledged to always reduce, reuse, recycle, repurpose and refuse. In the end I think that the summit helped us all become a better leader.

Pearl:6SB

On June 5th the sustainability leaders went down to the PRACC Center to learn more about our roles. We all had fun and learned more about how to make our school sustainable and took a pledge to make our school better at being eco-friendly. In the end it was a really good experience.

Chloe: 6JE

When I first set foot into the PRACC Center my first impression was that it was amazing and when I saw how many schools there were I couldn’t believe it. It was a really cool experience and I loved how creative Debbie Wood who did the graphic recording through the day projected our ideas and thoughts through the summit.

Branka Petrovic,

Sustainability Leader

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