Grove Gazette

 Eco Club

We are very excited to announce that OGPS is a recipient of a 2021 Coastcare Grant! 

The Coastcare Victoria Community Grants program supports community organisations to protect and enhance the coastal and near-shore marine environment. The 2021 grants program is funded by the Victorian Government’s Sustainability Fund and the Victorian Great Outdoors Initiative, which seek to build community capacity, support community adaptation and improve ecosystem resilience to climate change.

Our funded project will focus ocean plastic pollution education and prevention strategies. The project will start in 2022 and includes:

  • Four incursions focussing on ocean pollution, plastic pollution prevention strategies including waste management and waste repurposing; and 
  • an onsite recycling collection station.

 

WELL DONE ECO TEAM!! 

 

Lids 4 Kids and Bread Tags for Wheelchairs

Starting from Tuesday next week (2nd November) we will be placing tubs at each entry point for the school weekly, for you to bring in your plastic lids and bread tags to be recycled. These will be available on a weekly basis on a Tuesday morning from 8.30 - 9.15.

Lids4Kids is a nationwide 100 percent volunteer project to rescue plastic bottle lids from landfill to benefit the environment and kids. Bread Tags for WheelChairs collect bread tags nationally in Australia. The tags are recycled locally, raising funds to buy wheelchairs for disadvantaged people, mainly in South Africa.

RULES FOR DROPPING OFF LIDS AND BREAD TAGS

  • Lids that are accepted are from milk, water and soft drink bottles. Look for the recycling numbers 2 and 4 under the lid. 
  • All lids must be clean and dry.

 

 

A Word on Smart Meters from Victorian Schools Building Association

As a participant of the VSBA’s Greener Government School Buildings (GGSB) program to have solar installed, Ocean Grove Primary School was selected to participate in a case study implementing electricity, gas and water smart meters at the school. The smart meters allow detailed logging of utility consumption, which provides an informative approach towards managing the emissions and consumption of utilities with the school. One of the main benefits of smart meters is that it can alert or notify users of potential issues or leaks, thus providing an early risk mitigation approach and help save the school money in identifying gas or water leaks or spikes in electricity consumption.

 

An example of an electricity spike might be that a spike in electricity usage is found at 4am every day when nobody is at the school, further investigation could find that air conditioning is starting at 4am. Action is then taken to ensure that the air conditioning either doesn’t start until later in the morning is manually operated – this small change can have a big impact over the course of the lifetime of the devices and could save thousands of dollars in utility costs.

 

Smart meters are just one of the many ways the VSBA is exploring sustainability and energy management in order to provide better asset management. The information gathered during the smart meter rollout will be used to help inform future programs or initiatives, so we appreciate Ocean Grove Primary School’s support in pioneering these initiatives.

 

We are also excited to announce some more great steps OGPS is taking to achieve our sustainability goals this term! 

  • Using only recycled paper for all our printing needs!
  • Continuing with the Nude Food program. Look out for a special “Nude Food Day” coming up!
  • Composting all our food waste. Have a chat to your child about how it works in the classroom. A big thank you to our Grade 6 monitors who are making sure the system runs smoothly. 
  • Getting the final instalment of solar panels on the gym roof! The 20.48kW solar power system as part of the Barwon Solar Schools project with funding from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning New Energy Jobs Fund will be finalised this term.
  • Starting our planning for the Ocean Plastic Pollution Education and Prevention Strategies project funded by a 2021 Coastcare Grant!

Emma Powell, our amazing Sustainability Teacher’s Group leader will be stepping back from her role this term. The Sustainability Sub-Com would like to send a HUGE thank you to Emma for the amazing commitment, effort, support and inspiration she has brought to the Sustainability group this year. Emma has been instrumental in getting the ResourceSmart Schools Program at OGPS off the ground and establishing the Sustainability Teacher’s Group. Emma’s work on the Waste module has seen the students partake in a waste audit, champion Nude Food and initiate our fabulous new composting system. Thank you so much Emma, we love your work!