NEST News
NEST hosts the first Regional School’s Environment Summit at Nossal High School
Guest speaker, Tammy Logan from Gippsland Unwrapped showing the students her waste to landfill for the whole of 2016 to date
Some of the wonderful NEST facilitators who helped the day run smoothly - Beulah, Samantha, Rao, Jessie, Deepthi, Angelyna, Nihara, Randini, Isuri, John, Millie, Hanisha, Kajol & Michelle
Students from the various schools, including Jeff Philip from Nossal High School, were rewarded for their outstanding contribution on the day with Chapter One books written by Daniel Flynn from Thank You Water.
Students from Suzanne Cory High School and Nossal High School participating in the CERES Mobile Energy Classroom workshop
Students decorated their own reusable shopping bags in a workshop ran by Abbie Lane from the City of Casey
Guest speaker, Tammy Logan from Gippsland Unwrapped showing the students her waste to landfill for the whole of 2016 to date
Some of the wonderful NEST facilitators who helped the day run smoothly - Beulah, Samantha, Rao, Jessie, Deepthi, Angelyna, Nihara, Randini, Isuri, John, Millie, Hanisha, Kajol & Michelle
Students from the various schools, including Jeff Philip from Nossal High School, were rewarded for their outstanding contribution on the day with Chapter One books written by Daniel Flynn from Thank You Water.
Students from Suzanne Cory High School and Nossal High School participating in the CERES Mobile Energy Classroom workshop
Students decorated their own reusable shopping bags in a workshop ran by Abbie Lane from the City of Casey
On Friday September 9, the Nossal Environmental Sustainability Team (NEST) hosted their first Regional Schools Environment Summit. NEST have been working towards hosting such a summit for a number of years so it was a very joyous moment to finally have it off the ground. It was kindly supported by a Biodiversity Grant from the City of Casey. The theme of the summit was ‘Empowering You to Lead Change’. We had 60 students from 10 visiting schools*, from around the state, 30 Nossal students and 10 visiting staff participate in the day.
The day began with some ice breaker activities and an inspiring talk from Tammy Logan from Gippsland Unwrapped. Tammy spoke to the students about how her family is working towards creating zero waste. She even brought her cookie jar that contained her waste for the whole year so far…and that’s it! Tammy gave the students practical and realistic ideas about things they can change in their everyday lives to generate less waste. If you are interested in learning more about Tammy Logan see www.gippslandunwrapped.com or follow Gippsland Unwrapped on Facebook.
We took a short break for recess where all the food was generously supplied by a number of sponsors including popcorn from COBS popcorn, an abundance of fresh fruit from Woolworths Produce department in Berwick and water bottles from Thank You water. AlterEco Chocolates also donated a significant number of organic and fairtrade chocolates which were used as thank you gifts and prizes.
Our series of workshops began after recess and were cycled through the day. We had Penny from the CERES mobile energy classroom run a workshop, Abbie Lane from the City of Casey helped the students to decorate their own reusable shopping bags and Stephen Alderton ran an activity based on the CluckAR app looking at the true meaning of ‘free range’ on egg carton. Additionally, the NEST student facilitators ran a discussion workshop with the aim of sharing ideas amongst all the different schools.
One of the huge achievements for the day was the minimal amount of waste to landfill that was created. Even with catering for 100 people for morning tea and a make your own burger lunch we only half filled a 75L plastic rubbish bin with waste to landfill. We had compostable plates and serviettes for lunch which all went straight into the school compost bins and the majority of students took their water bottles home to be reused.
Overall, the Nossal students had a wonderful day and demonstrated a broad array of leadership skills. Special mention to the Year 12 Environmental Leaders, Millie Chen and Hanisha Sehjal, for their smooth running of the days events. The feedback from the visiting students was extremely positive and they are all hoping we run the event again next year!
* Thanks Gleneagles Secondary College, Scoresby Secondary College, Waverly Christian College, Suzanne Cory High School, Fountain Gate Secondary College, Koo Wee Rup Secondary College, Cranbourne East Secondary College, Kambrya College and the Homeschool Network for attending.
Mrs Jessica Ball
Sustainability Coordinator