Environment & Sustainability 

News from the Chicken Coop

Chicken Roster-URGENT!!

 

Volunteers are urgently required for the school holidays. All dates are available from Saturday 25 June right through until Sunday 10 July. 

You can choose how many days you would like to do, 3 or 4 days in a row would be ideal. Chicken Duty involves letting the chooks out of their coop in the mornings and putting them away in the evenings, checking that they have enough water each day and feeding them as needed. Occasional cleaning out of chicken manure will also be required. Your reward is wonderful fresh eggs. You will be sent an information sheet with all the details you need.  Please email Melinda Kerwin mkerwin@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au with your preferred dates if you are interested in being added to the roster.

 

Egg Lotto

The next draw will be on the last day of term, Friday 24 June. There will be several dozen eggs available to win so get your $1 raffle ticket soon. The Environment Team will be out in front of the school on Wednesday afternoons from 3:15-3:30pm to sell tickets to parents. Students can also buy tickets in the Passive Play Area most mornings or ask someone in the 5/6 rooms. All money from raffle ticket sales goes directly into the upkeep of our chickens.

 

Fun Fact

The average chicken can drink up to 500ml of water a day. It’s important for chickens to stay well hydrated – hens in particular are more sensitive to water deficiency than food deficiency. It can even affect how well they lay eggs!

Gardening

Composting

The Environment Team is still hoping to acquire free or low cost compost tumblers to expand our classroom composting program. We would love to hear from anyone who knows of tumblers that are no longer being used and can be repurposed at school.

Our preference is for compost tumblers as they break food waste down faster, they are easier for the students to empty and most importantly they don't tend to attract rodents as the waste isn't in direct contact with the ground.

 

Wicking Beds

Polystyrene can’t be recycled in your kerbside recycling bin. If you put it in your rubbish bin it takes up space in landfill and doesn’t break down. Instead of throwing these polystyrene boxes out we decided to repurpose them. Some senior students have been busy decorating the boxes and helping to convert them into wicking beds to grow vegetables in. Wicking beds use less water as plants are watered from below the soil which also encourages deeper root growth. We are growing spring onions, garlic, honey snap peas, cos and iceberg lettuce. Depending on how our trial goes we hope to sell the vegetables next term and create more wicking beds on a larger scale. Stay tuned!

Wonder Recycling Rewards Program

We almost have one box to send off!

Please continue to send in your plastic bread bags for the Wonder Recycling Rewards Program. Any brand of plastic bread bags are acceptable and please remember to shake the crumbs out before sending them to school. There is a collection box in the office area to drop them into.

Every kilo of plastic bags we collect goes towards redeeming free sports equipment for our school.

 

Thanks for your support,

The Environment Team