Sustainability Update
Full House at ESWG Meeting
While it may be quiet on the ground at Fairfield this month, the Building and Grounds teams and the Environmental Sustainability Working Group (ESWG) have been far from quiet. Both groups met online to discuss full agendas during the week to progress some exciting projects for Fairfield Primary School.
The elephant in the Zoom room was first on item the agenda; where is Milkshake and how is she doing?! The ESWG is pleased to announce that a team of experts and concerned individuals have rallied around the injured bovine and restored her to better than full health. A huge thank you to Di Edwards and Martin Caves for transporting her to the cow hospital and returning her heard to the correct end of her body. While Milkshake was up on blocks, she also had some ‘hoof work’ done to make sure she is even more robust once she returns to her meadow location overlooking Fairfield Rd. Beautification work was completed by Elena Paladino.
Speaking of gardens, the Junior Landcare grant money has been put to good use with Di and Martin continuing to plant new trees all around the oval to improve the onsite biodiversity. We can’t wait for students to be back at school so they can create some interpretive signage to help communicate the significance of the habitat corridor developing along Wingrove Street.
...And doesn’t the Wingrove St fence look fantastic!? Thanks very much to Damian Cullen for leading a team of parents to install a retaining wall under the new and improved cyclone wire fence from the east boundary down to the netball court. The Buildings committee have a post-COVID plan to roll out the upgrade of the fences all around the school site, replicating the black fence look uniformly. The next phase is to install a new gate next to the music room that will allow foot traffic to and from the senior campus, which opens in 2021.
Did we mention that that building project is all going to schedule? It’s hard to miss as you travel along Wingrove Street. The new building looks like it has the perfect orientation to make use of lots of natural northern light and with a 5kW solar array to boot, should mean that it generates enough power to run itself!
While the new campus development is obvious to see, building upgrades on the main building are also happening. The library and Year 3D classroom are being upgraded, and a whole new toilet block is being installed. The ESWG are very pleased to announce that at the completion of this project, all the toilets onsite will be connected to rainwater, so our students will be returning to a more biodiverse, energy efficient and water-wise campus!
But what about toilet paper I hear you ask? Well who gives a thought about the trees? We do! The ESWG have been working away over the past six months on the FPS green purchasing policy that will see a commitment to buy recycled toilet paper and office paper. A lot of work by staff and parents have gone into this policy, ensuring that our actions around resource use as a community reflect the core values of FPS. A huge thankyou to everyone involved.
The final project we would like to share with you is the detailed application lodged on Friday for the School Shade Grants program, which will hopefully result in an attractive counter levered shade structure to the north of the netball court that will be useful to a wide number of community members. Thanks especially to Danielle Pullin and Di Edwards for all their hard work on this application.
~ Andrew Vance, on behalf of the ESWG and Buildings and Grounds Committees
Solar Our Schools!
Some FPS families have signed the Australian Parents for Climate Action's open letter to show their support for the Federal government to fund solar panels and batteries for every school, childcare centre and preschool in Australia.
While FPS does have solar panels, around 42% of primary and secondary schools DO NOT have this energy saving equipment. Installing solar and batteries would cut school energy bills by $114,000 for a large school and $12,700 for a small school each year – just think how that money could be used to fund learning resources!
If you would also like to sign and share the open letter, please do. Not only do schools benefit in the reduction of energy bills, but we are investing in a greener future for our children.
To sign, please follow the link.