Kitchen and Garden & Sustainability News

Food Scrap Fridays

Food Scrap Friday's will be continuing through the school holidays, our food scrap team will be in the garden at 9am on Fridays to collect your fruit & veg scraps.

You can use any bucket, but if you would like one of ours, 

come by and we can give yuou one.

Well done to all the families and classrooms for your massive effort so far

This is Big News. How big???

About as big as two grand pianos or 10 grizzly bears or an adult hippopotamus.

2,079kg (to date),to be exact.

That's how much food waste our families and classrooms have saved from landfill and instead composted for use in our garden, here at school, so far this year.

2021 - 301.7kg

2022 - 1,316kg

2023 - 2,482k

What's Accepted:

Fresh and cooked fruit and veg scraps

What's Not Accepted:

Meat, dairy, plastics, including sticketrs, tea bags, bread, citrus and onions

Garden News

Year 4s got to work turning compost, planting, raking, weeding, looking after the chickens and much more. Here are some fun shots of them busy at work :)

Some of our Garden Club members helping harvest a delicious carrot.

Creative crew

Our Creative Crew team have had a busy time planting some pollinator plants for our bees and birds in the indigenous garden. I chatted about how plants grow and the conditions they need to thrive then selected positions in the garden that suited.

Surfside MasterChef

Our Grade 6 MasterChef is coming up next week and we can't wait to see what our clever students create in their final cook for the year.  Our theme is indigenous ingredients and it has been a fun experience exploring different ingredients and deciding what dishes each group cooks.  Our judging panel has been set and the Golden Spoon has come off the shelf, awaiting our winning group.  Look out for our Grade 6 chefs and their creations in our next newsletter and the Ocean Grove Voice.

Learning about Indigenous cooking and ingredients

In the kitchen last fortnight, we discovered the wonderful flavours of Australian Indigenous foods. We sampled warrigul grees, lemon myrtle, anise myrtle, wattle seed, pepperberry, salt bush and strawberry gum. It was a great opportunity to start to understand the flavours and a lead into Year 6 Masterchef competition next week.

Recycling Station

Our Environment club and Sustainability captains are keen to get our recycling program up and running again.  In the past we have recycled lots of different things including bottle lids, bread tags, batteries, shoes etc.  As families have left the school, we no longer have people to help out with redirecting these collections and are now looking for some new families to help out.  We would really appreciate it if families could help out with one recycling item i.e. oral care items to be taken to the dentist for disposal at least once monthly.  It would be hugely appreciated if we could share this load and have an efficient system in place as our students are quite eager to re commence reducing our community waste as a whole.  We would also like to work towards getting our Resource Smart Schools Waste Star so this will be a great step towards it.  

Please email Clancey or Fleur if you would like to help out with recycling an item.

fleur.kilpatrick@education.vic.gov.au  

clancey.mckenzie2@education.vic.gov.au

Recyclable items:

• Milk bottle lids  - Coles (Ocean Grove)
• Bread Tags  -  Bakers Delight (Belmont)
• Blister packs - Chemist Warehouse (Malop st Geelong)
• Zip Lock Bags/Cling Wrap (Clancey)
• Oral care (toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss packs) – Parade Dental Ocean Grove.
• Mobile Phones & accessories- Telstra store (Leopold)
• Batteries *to be in kitchen for safety issue – Ocean Grove Librar

Plant Sale

Our plant sale stand is back up and running at the entrance to the school. Pop past and get yourself a lovely potted succulent or bargin clivia! The clivias are only $10, a lot cheaper than the local nursery which you would expect to pay $30!!

Jam and Chutney Crew

We would love to start up a Preserving team who is available to come in a couple of times a term to whip up some jam or chutney at times of high harvest. 

If you are interested in being part of this group, we would love to hear from you!

Please emailfleur.kilpatrick@education.vic.gov.au or clancey.mckenzie2@education.vic.gov.au

Seedling Foster Program

Our seedlings have started coming in and we are busy planting our next crop. Thank you to those who have nurtured their seedlings. If you are still looking after some sedlings, you can bring them in on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursdays.

What is a seedling foster program you ask??!! Well, it is where the a class plants up some seeds during a garden session or lunch club and we ask school families to take these seed punnets home and 'foster' them, nurturing them until they are ready to bring back to school to plant.The best part is that your child doesnt have to be participating in the garden program to take advantage of this program, so that means even our foundation families can help out in the garden by 'fostering' some seedlings :)

We have developed an instruction and data sheet that will help you with looking after them and the children can also participate in the growing by documenting the plants growth and taking photos.I have attached a copy of the fostering form so that you can see how it all works and what is expected.It is such a fun way to continue learning at home for our students and you're also helping us to grow successful seedlings to plant out in The Patch.If you are interested in joining this fabulous new program, please come and see my in the garden or email me at clancey.mckenzie2@education.vic.gov.au

No experience in growing is necessary!  If you are not sure, please please please reach out and I will help you through the process!!

Thanks for your support of the Kitchen & Garden Program

GARDEN WATERING HELP NEEDED

We are in need of some garden helpers please. You dont need to be a gardener you just need to want to help and have a spare hour or half hour to help. The weather has encourged the weeds to grow and also patches of the garden are a little dry where the sprinklers don't quite reach.

Please contact me if you can help in any way! 

 clancey.mckenzie2@education.vic.gov .au 

Volunteer Information

We would love more volunteers in our classes.  It is such a help as it greatly assists our students in their Kitchen Garden experience.  Please view our Term 2 Timetable if you are free and would love to come along. Check out our Volunteer Info below.  Thanks.

We would love some more volunteers in our program to assist in our classes.  Your assistance is so wonderful as it enhances our students experience in our kitchen and garden.  Either email Fleur (kitchen) or Clancey (garden) or just show up on the day.  

There are a few things that need to be ticked off before volunteering:

• Have your Working With Children Check  https://www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au/individuals/applicants/how-to-apply-1
• Complete a quick induction at the office prior to starting (around 5 mins) https://www.workingwithchildren.vic.gov.au/individuals/applicants/how-to-apply-1
• Please read our Child Safety Induction for Volunteers and attachments (either email Fleur or Clancey for these documents or have a look over on the day).