Environment and Sustainability news at MPW!
"What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make." - Jane Goodall
Bottle caps update! – Ending collecting this term (on Wednesday 18 September)
Thank you to all who have donated so far and we now have so many bottle caps! We will stop collecting from Wednesday of Term 3 (18 September 2019).
We have reached our goal of 10,000 and in fact beaten it which is fantastic! Final numbers are still being counted and the figure will be announced at assembly on Friday. We thank Jenny and her students for bringing this Action from our Inquiry unit to MPW, it has been great to see so many classes participate.
https://envision.org.au/envision-hands/
City West Water trees
"What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make."- Jane Goodall.
The native trees along Athol Street are beginning to grow! Thank you to our soccer players for respectfully staying away, enabling the trees to flourish, and thank you to our students for watering them as they are going home. The Environment and Sustainability Sub-committee received 50 free native trees from City West Water. City West Water provided bamboo and cardboard guards for the trees and the trees were in tiny tubes.
Nude Food
Thank you to Helen, for reminding us at Assembly we all have a role in improving waste management, including avoidance, reduction and recycling both on a day to day basis and at school related events; students are asked to consider their waste in the lunch boxes, to choose food without excess packaging. This reduces the amount of 'stuff' that needs to go in bins to be sent to landfill. Durable, reusable containers are a great way to bring food, as they may last from pre-school through to high school and beyond, providing long term cost savings and environmental benefits.
Green Team
A big thank-you to the incredible Lisa and Jess at Green Team, and to all of the terrific students who volunteer their time for their ongoing, tremendous, and green efforts. Green team explores and puts forward amazing, sustainable ideas, and this year Green Team have also been lucky enough to work with Sara and Bec of the Environment Sub-Committee, to work together on the whole school focus on sustainability, initiatives and projects. This year's key focus is whole school events, such as Show Day; where each class was provided with outlines on reducing waste, e.g. rather than making and laminating posters students could use chalk to advertise their stalls. A big shout out to those students who used the opportunity to illuminate environmental issues and human impact, there were short films showcased in Room 17, a petition as created by 5/6 students in Room 9, and 'Rubbish Races' by many students outside. Thanks Green Team for your communications and engagement with the school community; Go Green Team!
Resource Smart Schools
Moonee Ponds West hosted a successful whole day workshop in June, thank you to Emily, Amelia and Aidan of Green Team, for touring members of the network and highlighting sustainable projects and foci. The Resource Smart sub-section of the Environment Committee was inspired to progress our Action Plan. We are excited to be working on RSS modules this year, with some inclusive activities planned and some exciting initiatives on the way. Together, we are on our way to becoming a greener, more sustainable school!
They’re Calling on You campaign – Melbourne Zoo update
Last year students at MPW collected phones for the Melbourne Zoo campaign and if you have any phones that you don’t use anymore, you can place in the box at the office. An update from Melbourne Zoo:
Eastern Lowland Gorillas are on the brink of extinction. You can help protect gorillas in Africa simply by donating your mobile phone.
So far, we've recycled and re-purposed more than 171,000 devices donated by individuals, schools and workplaces. But what's the connection between mobile phones and gorillas?
View the website for more!