Sustainability

Term 4 is always a super-duper busy time for everyone at schools, so it is no wonder Ms Lim forgot to hit ‘send’ on not only our October, but also our November newsletter submissions! To make up for it, this jam-packed December edition is going to be a three-for-one special, outlining some of the things we’ve been up to over Term 4.

FIGHTING EXTINCTION SCHOOLS CERTIFICATION

October was a month full of competitions and invitations. Lilydale Heights College received our Fighting Extinction School Certification, which saw us receiving a certificate from Zoos Victoria, confirming our status as a Fighting Extinction School, and allows us the right to use these images on our socials and newsletters:

This has been a long process, involving fundraising and conservation work that started several years ago. Recognition must go to the former giants of the LHC Sustainability Team on whose shoulders we stand to receive this acknowledgement.

CONTAINER DEPOSIT SCHEME BINS

In October, we rolled out our Victoria Container Deposit Scheme (CDS) bins. These modified, blue wheelie bins have been hand-painted with one of the 27 most endangered faunal species in Victoria including the Mountain Pygmy Possum, Alpine She-Oak Skink, and Eastern barred Bandicoot. Shown here are just some of the CDS bins from around the school.

These bins are for empty, eligible 10c containers only. Please do not put anything other than empty, eligible 10c containers into these bins as they do not get emptied regularly and rotting material in them will become a health hazard. Thank you for helping us to keep plastic waste out of landfill! All funds raised from the container deposit scheme will be donated to Zoos Victoria Fighting Extinction Program. Find out more here.

CDS PROMOTION WINNERS

We had run a few competitions to promote our CDS bins. The winners of these competitions received a whole wheelie bin full of worms! See below our Sustainability Captains presenting our winners with their prizes.

COMPETITION CALL OUTS

Our unpublished October newsletter was filled with call outs for students to participate in several competitions, including the Wheen Bee Foundation Schools Pollinator Art. The Schools Pollinator Art Competition invited students across Australia to celebrate pollinators through art. Students could submit original artworks in any medium, including drawing, painting, digital, collage or mixed media. Prizes would be awarded for the best artwork inspired by pollinators – remember this for later!

YARRA RANGES COUNCIL VISIT

The Sus Club was very fortunate to have Tim Brown, Yarra Ranges Council’s Biodiversity Extension Officer, come to our school to provide a personalised incursion for them. Tim asked about the Carbon Sink Project, and gave the Sus Club some handy hints and tips on how we can better rehabilitate the Sink to return the grounds to as close the condition they would have been before settlement.

Our school grounds’ Ecological Vegetation Class (EVC) is Yellow Box Valley Grassy Forest Community, so we have ordered plants belonging to this community to plant during the next Waring (wombat) season (Autumn-Winter).

EVCs help scientists and land managers understand and protect biodiversity by identifying areas with similar ecological functions and conservation needs. If you’re planting at home, or thinking about rehabilitating your garden, you can look up your EVC by going to the NatureKit website and following the prompts there.

SUSTAINABILITY OP SHOP

The end of October saw us crazily preparing for our Sustainability Op Shop. Look at us go!

November started with our Sustainability Op Shop at both our VIP shopping day at school on Halloween, and at the Rotary Lilydale Craft and Produce Markets on the Cup Day weekend. It was so fun to see so many students putting together some outrageous outfits for the Trick-or-Treating costumes!    The market day itself was beautifully warm, and we were able to rehome quite a few donated items. We thank everyone who brought in donations, and everyone who supported our efforts. A few pictures from the day:

COLES PLANET ARK SUSTAINABLE SCHOOL WINNERS

One of the most exciting pieces of news we received this term was the announcement that Lilydale Heights College was one of just 20 schools Australia-wide, who won a share of the Coles Planet Ark Sustainable Schools Competition. We received a beautiful trophy and certificate, shown here by Ms Keenan, along with $5,000 to help us complete our Carbon Sink Project. Check it out next time you’re at our lovely, new front-reception area, and you can read more about the competition at either the Coles or Planet Ark websites.

FIGHTING EXTINCTION SCHOOLS SHOWCASE

We were invited to exhibit our work for wildlife conservation at Zoos Victoria’s Fighting Extinction Schools (FES) Showcase held at Melbourne Zoo on Friday 14 November. It was an opportunity for us to celebrate and share with other schools, the work that we had done at LHC for wildlife conservation.    Joining us on the day was former Sustainability Club leader, Lachlan Hudak, and future Sus Club member, Alex W. Together, we presented a ‘past, present, and future’ approach to wildlife conservation through sustainability education at LHC.    Highlights of the event included meeting with, and talking to Zoos Victoria’s CEO, Dr Jenny Gray, as well as other key scientists, partners and stakeholders in conservation work; and being asked to feature on the Zoos Victoria FES website as an exemplar. One of our Sustainability Captains, Ella, did a great job summarising our works on the spot. Check the video out here:

WINNER, WINNER!

Remember the Wheen Bee Foundation Schools Pollinator Art Competition we mentioned earlier? Guess what? LHC’s own Breanna T. won the competition! Check out her amazing entry here and on the Wheen Bee Foundation website: 

Breanna takes home A Bees Are Amazing gift hamper and certificate valued at more than $100, as well as a $500 Centre for Bee Education voucher, which Breanna has kindly donated to the Sustainability Club.    Creating artwork and participating in competitions as Breanna has done provides funding for conservation projects, raises awareness in the community, encourages student creativity and advocacy, builds partnerships with local organisations and increases motivation and school pride. All of this leads to long-term, positive change for sustainability. Congratulations Breanna and thank you for your efforts!

YARRA RANGES COUNCIL CELEBRATING YOUTH AWARDS

LHC’s Sustainability Club were nominated in two categories as part of the Yarra Ranges Councils' Celebrating YOUth Awards and received an honourable mention for the ‘passionate advocate’. Sustainability Captains Ella D. and Gracie S. attended the awards ceremony evening on behalf of the team and received a framed certificate and prize pack each. Former student Jol Scobie was also nominated for an award, and we took the opportunity to take a photo and catch up. 

CARBON SINK PROJECT

The Carbon Sink Project saw the last of our trees planted for the year. A massive thank you to students from our Schoolyard Blitz days, who, under the supervision of Mr Stewart and Ms Lange, helped us to weed, mulch and set up our drip irrigation water bottles in time for the holiday. We cannot wait for our new students to add their own touch to the Carbon Sink when we plant up big next Warung season.

SUSTAINABILITY VICTORIA AND RESOURCESMART SCHOOLS

In some very sad news, it has been announced that Sustainability Victoria and all its functions, will be abolished in 2026 as part of the Victorian Government’s public sector reforms. You can read more about it here.

At this stage, we do not know what this will mean for Sustainability Victoria’s ResourceSmart Schools (RSS) program that LHC has been heavily invested in. Our Eastern Alliance for Sustainable Learning (EASL) colleagues and RSS facilitators have informed us that everything will be ‘business as usual’ until we are informed otherwise. We do know that, whatever the outcome, we, as a school will continue to embed sustainability into our curriculum areas of the Victorian Curriculum as a cross-curriculum priority.    The RSS program is already gearing up for 2026 with its annual mid-year awards ceremony to be held at the MCG in June. 2026’s theme is "Our Sustainable Community," and we look forward to submitting our entries to celebrate our student-led sustainability efforts in energy, water, waste, and biodiversity at LHC.

Until next year, that's.........