Sustainability Festival

On Thursday 5th September, 10 members from the Green Team travelled by tram to the St Kilda Town Hall to attend the 19th Annual School Sustainability Festival, hosted by the Port Phillip EcoCentre.

They had the opportunity to present their own workshop to other schools about our local birds and how to protect them. They created a 'Bird call Bingo' game to play alongside a 'Vines and Waterfalls' board game, teaching others facts about tree hollows and nesting boxes. Did you know it takes 300 years or more for a tree hollow to form? This is why building nesting boxes is important as many old trees have been removed from our environment. Check out the Green Team notice board for our SKiPPS Bird Gallery. Which birds have you seen in and around our school grounds?

They also experienced a variety of activities from other students and experts learning about…

• Why it’s important to ‘Blow Bubbles instead of Balloons’
• ‘Flesh and Bones’ looking at Fossils found locally
• How to make ‘Seed Balls’ with the Jane Goodall foundation
• Caring for our waterways and making an ‘Ocean in a Bottle’
• How to be ‘Waste Wise’

“I learnt that Port Phillip Bay has more endemic species than the Great Barrier Reef.” - Valentina

“I really enjoyed making the seed balls even though it was really messy, it was super fun!” - Chloe

“I really liked the bubble blowing competition to see who could make their bubble last the longest.” -Rosalie

“I loved playing the fun game with the bubbles at the Zoos Victoria workshop.” - Bea

“The activities were all really well planned.” - Tomi

“I really enjoyed learning about how many prehistoric creatures there were in Victoria.” - Olive

“I really enjoyed making the ocean in the bottle to remind us how to care for our waterways.” - Loie

“I liked running our workshop which was about our local birds.” - Isy

“I participated in a workshop to help identify problems and brainstorm solutions to solve them.” - Scarlett

“I liked listening to other workshops but mostly I liked presenting ours.” - Sienna

A big thank you to Isla for coming along. Also thank you to Nadav for showing the leaders how to build a nesting box for the Eastern Rosella which formed part of their workshop. The Green Team should be really proud of their efforts to continue to make our school and community environmentally sustainable.

Allison Shanahan

Sustainability Leader