BHCS ENVIRONMENTAL UNITY

Mud, dirty hands, splinters, fresh blossom, hammering stakes, laughter, big smiles! Here are some things we see and hear regularly planting with classes down at the creek. It's an experience at BHCS that doesn’t get old. Time again, I ask myself, “Will my students be bored this time with planting?” The answer comes quickly… not today.

Why is such a simple task so engaging? A few reasons come to mind… we as people love being outside, it is where we were created to be, our screens and digital life can only ever provide us with a mere imitation of the reality of ‘the outdoor life’, we are drawn to it, we feel at home when we immerse ourselves in the created world. There is much more to it than this though. This semester I was privileged to work with the Year 9 program and some of my Prep and Year 2 Environmental Studies students as they planted alongside one another. Seeing the joy of Year 9s as they were buddied with prep students made me realise that ‘community’ is incredibly key to these planting lessons. 

Without each other, we would have no one to smile with.

The Year 9s had a smaller person to work with and direct in planting, an act for both planters that provides life for their future selves, bolster habitats for small native animals and grow plants to add to the worlds air supply. A life-giving act.

As a community this year we have planted over 2400 native and indigenous shrubs and grasses, we have partaken in extensive weed removal and we have continued our Microbat project. This semester has seen installation of 13 microbat nesting boxes, these were built by Year 2 in 2023, painted by Year 4 in early 2024, installed by the maintenance crew and are now being monitored by the current Year 2 through the use of Go Pro cameras attached to an extension pole. These boxes provide valuable nesting locations for these important pollinators. Our Year 9 Robotics class are trying to fit motion-sensing cameras into one of these boxes.

Finally, one of the projects that has been monumental in creating environmental awareness among students, inspired by Monbulk Creek, was the Year 6 ‘Marsupials and Mammals’ book. The whole of Year 6 developed a written piece about an Australian animal under the guidance of their year-level teacher. They also learned to draw their animal in art, their drawings are also displayed in this book. You can access our online copy through our library on the link below.

https://tinyurl.com/Marsupials2024  (it’s a big file so you will need to download it)

With all this said, maintaining and caring for our stretch of Monbulk Creek is a community effort. It is the unity of our students, staff and parents that make our conservation efforts successful. Without ‘unity’ we would have achieved nothing. As I think of the Year 9 student smiling and laughing with the Preppy I think of Jesus praying at the last supper for his people to be ‘one’. In the same way my prayer for our school is, “Jesus, help us continue to do more as one, so your goodness is continued to be seen in our school.”