SCHOOL NEWS
NATIONAL RECYCLING WEEK
November 9-15 was National Recycling week and without hesitation the Environment Council at McKinnon took it on board as an opportunity to spread awareness to students throughout the school and to also get people involved. There were several recycling bins out around the school for students to recycle with ease.
On Thursday there was a trivia held at lunch where students could bring their lunch, some friends and enjoy chilling on the grass with music while answering questions. The quiz master was Ethan Stubbs, assisted by Ms Griffingham in running this event. Students who partook in this event clearly enjoyed their time and learnt a few new facts about recycling in Australia!
Even though Recycling week may be over you can still recycle pens, batteries and phones!! Just bring them to school and find one of our designated bins.
Ethan Stubbs
Year 10 Student
Now the all important prize winners! We had eight winners from the Recycling Week Trivia, they all received a brand new McKinnon reusable cup, metal straw and reusable shopping bag.
Congratulations to the following:
1st: Ori Landau (8A)
2nd: Mai Sawaki (8G), Susana O’Leary (7D) and Mr Sandy Law
3rd: Gemma Milner (10I), Isabel Eriksen (8A)
4th: Nicole Christiansen (10C), Katelyn Chan
The central themes for Recycling Week this year were Packaging, Food waste and E-waste.
Did you know that 5.4 BILLION kilograms of plastic packaging is used in Australia each year?! And in Australia, only 16% of plastic packaging is recycled, which still leaves nearly a billion tonnes of packaging going to landfill.
Did you know that there are an estimated 5 MILLION unused mobile phones lying around Australian homes?!
Did you know that batteries in your kerbside bins or in landfill are very hazardous and can cause fires?!
The Environment Council has a few ongoing recycling initiatives at McKinnon, so you can do something to help!
Soft Plastics - there are three soft plastic recycling bins around the school, one on the MERC deck, one near the canteen and one upstairs in A-block. Read the signs carefully to make sure you’re putting the right plastics in there!
Batteries - any household batteries can be recycled in bins located at all Aldi stores, or you can drop them off in our collection bins in the staff photocopy room or the library.
Mobile phones - (until the end of the year only), McKinnon is collecting phones as part of MobileMuster, the collection point is at the IT office.
Pens - writing implements, whiteout, mechanical pencils, textas, highlighters can all be recycled through TerraCycle, you can find collection boxes in the library, MERC, Year 12 common room, T-block and staff photocopy room.
Emma Griffingham
Environment Council Co-ordinator/Maths Teacher
MBMUN
After having lost all opportunities for a Model UN Conference in 2020, I was approached by MBMUN, Munbank's flagship programme, to encourage students to participate in this programme.
This is an international biannual online Model United Nations (MUN) conference for youth from across the globe to interact and debate on internationally-pressing issues, acting as delegates and representing the national interests of various countries in debates.
Students researched on a specific global issue, wrote a position paper, debated and came up with solutions in the form of draft resolutions.
A group of very enthusiastic Year 8 students, Helen Chen, Mischa Kong, Gisele Hennequin, Isabella Di Lecce, Ananya Jha, Ruhani Sabnani and Ella Ruze committed to this program and worked enthusiastically preparing themselves for this event.
Students will participate in a virtual conference on the coming weekend and we wish all participants the best of luck. Congratulations on this amazing effort at the end of this year!
Andrea Fowler
Model UN Co-ordinator