Learning and Teaching News

Sustainability News 

We are excited to be celebrating our fourth year of ‘Green Week’ at SMDP in Week 4.  ‘Green Week’ is a week to highlight all the things we have achieved in our school to promote sustainability, to participate in some fun activities and to focus on one aspect of sustainability across the school that is important.

The theme of this year is “Less Screen More Green Time.” 

Research evidence supports the Australian daily screen time guidelines for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and school-aged children (85). They are: 

https://www.natureplaywa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Literature-Review.pdf

As part of our activities, we will be conducting a survey to see how much time our students spend on green time and screen time in their recreation time.  Students will be given a “Free time Tracker’ to take home next Monday.  Over the week they will tally up the amount of time spent on a screen and the amount of time doing something ‘green’. E.g reading, cooking, walking, playing games, riding a bike etc.  This tracker will be returned the following Monday in Week 4 and will be their ticket to enter a free raffle. 

During the week there will be daily lunch club activities with a green focus run by our Sustainability leaders and staff. Details to follow.

There will be a screen free day across the school and brain breaks for the week will have a nature outdoor focus. Teachers will have a lesson discussing the pros and cons of both screen time and green time and come up with some ideas to promote appropriate use and for students to reflect on how they are spending their time and to be aware of the pros and cons of screen time and green time.

Thank you for your support in what we are doing at SMDP to promote Sustainability across our school and please support your child in completing the ‘Free Time Tracker’.                  

Julie Barbey 

Sustainability Leader