Sustainability

Parent Volunteers Needed for Excursion

Romsey Ecotherapy Park and flora and fauna talk with Ecologist Tanya Loos

OnThursday 11 May, NPS has a whole school excursion to the wonderful Romsey Ecotherapy Park and our Andersons Road project site (NE corner of Andersons and Boundary Roads) that we will be revegetating and installing seating at, in partnership with Newham Landcare Group and Woodend Men's Shed. The purpose of the visit to the Ecotherapy Park, is to explore all the spaces, to be inspired with ideas for our own projects, to observe different plant species that have been used, and of course to have fun! At the Andersons Road site, we will be participating in a walk and talk about the fauna that we can attract to the site through plant choice, from Biodiversity Officer, Tanya Loos from Macedon Ranges Shire Council. The Education Coordinator from Earthwatch Australia Kids Teaching Kids, our funding partners, will also visit us at Andersons Road to find out more about about the project.

We have many spaces available on our buses and invite parent volunteers to join us to support our students to explore the park and listen to the informative talk from Tanya Loos.

Tanya Loos

Tanya works at Macedon Ranges Shire Council as their Biodiversity Projects Officer. Her role at Council is to deliver various projects that progress the Macedon Ranges Shire Council Biodiversity Strategy, including the biodiversity monitoring program. . . A mad keen field naturalist and nature writer, Tanya loves sharing her nature knowledge with people of all ages. 

The 5-6 class have been preparing for the Andersons Road project by researching plant species from our planting list and investigating their biodiversity values (eg. food and shelter for animals) and First Nations cultural values. This will provide them with the opportunity to see the direct benefit of the revegetation project.

Planting day at Andersons Road

The whole school planting day of hundreds of tube stock with Newham Landcare Group is on Tuesday 16 May. Please let the office know if you would like to volunteer and participate.

Dressing for the Weather

Even though we are officially in Autumn, we have been experiencing Winter weather. As we are a ResourceSmart school, we aim to be as sustainable as possible. That means that we practise energy conservation by having our heating and cooling set at optimum levels. We encourage students to dress appropriately for the weather with long pants and jackets in cold weather. Heaters are used in classrooms to provide a comfortable ambient temperature but not for heating up chilly legs!

Update on the River Detectives program

Newham PS has been involved in the citizen science Waterwatch program for many, many years, where students sampled and monitored the health of the waterway adjacent to the school. This came to a halt during covid and for various reasons, never got going again. We recently applied for a similar Victorian program run by Catchment Management Authorities, called River Detectives, and were lucky enough to gain one of the limited places available. 

We have registered two sites to sample water from; the tributary to Deep Creek, adjacent to the school and the Five Mile Creek where it runs through Woodend. The sustainability leaders will collect samples from our waterway and Libby Fullard will collect samples from Five Mile Creek. This will provide the students with an opportunity to make comparisons on water quality as they monitor the health of both waterways.

We are still waiting for our monitoring kit so the sustainability leaders can be trained in how to use it. River Detectives also provides us with great resources on topics such as waterbugs which we will explore in the warmer months. River Detectives Resources 

Update on school planting day 

Planting date; 18 May to be confirmed. As you may have observed, the willows were removed from the waterway adjacent to the school as they are considered weeds and impact the health of the waterway. We recently had a biodiversity consultant advise us on management for our planting project so have some preparation works to do. We are still aiming for 18 May but will confirm once we have more information.

Willow colonisation causes environmental impacts on stream and wetland health. The trees have dense root systems that maximize water uptake and form thickets that allow trees to grow across stream beds, as the roots trap more and more sediment. Water movement is slowed and may be diverted around these dense thickets, causing stream bank erosion as water is diverted outside the natural stream channel. Willows are also hybridising, furthering their spread and colonising many large and small river reaches.

From Rivers of Carbon website

The school is being provided with 300 indigenous plant species, including canopy eucalypts and blackwood acacias. All hands on deck for planting would be appreciated. Please let the school office know if you can volunteer.

Fungi Spore Prints

Ruby from 2-3 has been making some amazing fungi spore prints. Nice work Ruby!

MRSC donation of mulch

We thank the Shire Council for their kind donation of mulch to our sustainability work. Quite a few loads have arrived already with more to come.