The GREEN Page

NARANGA'S WASTE JOURNEY 

This year our school has focused on making improvements to reduce food waste. Classes across the school make weekly collections of food waste for composting. Through sustainability classes, Students are developing familiarity with consistent recycling language and shown responsibility for following visual instructions to understand which bins to place recycled items. We had to replace signage to outside bins a few times due to the occasional student having a meltdown however our students are very proactive and make an effort to put things right.

 Our school was involved in the Planet Ark Recycle Right campaign and we successfully completed an art activity and recycling display. Our participation certificate can be seen from the office window. Staff and students are regularly involved in recycling paper and cardboard, food scraps, plastic items tags and caps, pencil shavings, batteries, printer cartridges and coffee capsules. We now have an extra bin for composting to alternate between bins and allow one bin to develop prior to emptying on the garden beds. We also purchased a cone to compost other food waste from the Trade kitchen and Home Economics areas which means staff don’t have to continually bag waste in green bags and take home to put into their green bins.

At the Naranga Active Day we put out Events policy into action. The school community responded well to the signage on bins and recycled materials were used for serving food. We also used containers and dishes from the Trade kitchen and Home Economics rooms that were washed and reused. 

Each week classes follow a roster that nominates students from two House groups: (Safe, Respectful, Responsible and Learner) Junior students used to sit on the decking outside to eat at lunchtime but now have lunch in a nominated classroom so food waste is reduced in the outside yard bins. Students have been regularly reminded about Nude Food Fridays. More students are bringing their food in lunchboxes with compartments and this helps to reduce the amount of plastic coming to school and being emptied into bins. Each week at our school assembly, students and classes are recognized and celebrated for their achievements in sustainability with the Sustainability Star Award. Details also go into the school newsletter. 

We surveyed parents to find out about recycling practices at home and how involved families are. Push notifications were sent out to remind parents when to complete the surveys. Results were okay but in the future the survey could be extended to allow more parents to participate. 

Yesterday our Waste module was submitted to Sustainability Victoria to review. We hope to successfully meet the requirements to secure another star rating as a Resource Smart School. We will know by the end of the year or into early term 1 next year.