Living Justice
Sustainability
The Sustainability Team have been meeting regularly to develop their plans for this year. We now have representatives from each year level and it’s wonderful to have enthusiastic and passionate environmental advocates here at the College.
Last week, we placed our signs around the bathrooms encouraging staff and students to be water-wise. Year 12 Sustainability Leader, Skye Zhu-Maguire, designed these for us and her design skills are helping the team develop attractive and interesting posters and signs to raise awareness around the school.
The amount of rubbish in our landfill bins from student lunches and snacks is an ongoing issue for our team. We will commence a campaign next week to encourage students to reduce or remove rubbish from their lunches and snacks brought to school by holding 'Nude Food Days' each Wednesday. We will provide ideas for alternatives to disposable wrapping and packets, as well as run competitions and activities to encourage a more sustainable approach to school lunches.
Some ideas are:
- use a food thermos to bring leftovers or soup
- buy a big bag of chips (pretzels etc) and use a small reusable container each day. This reduces overall rubbish produced and it's cheaper!
- use beeswax wraps or containers instead of cling film
- label all containers! So many are sitting in lost property and can’t be returned as they are not labeled.
Our vegie garden is productive, with the Garden Club running every second Wednesday during lunchtime. Currently the broad beans, lettuce, herbs and spinach are growing well. We are waiting for the snow peas to germinate and have planted more seeds to grow in the greenhouse.
Sarah Avitabile
Sustainability Leader
Living Justice
On Friday 21 May, the FIRE Carriers travelled to Marian College, West Sunshine. We participated in a seminar designed to inform us about Indigenous Australian culture in the lead up to Reconciliation Week - Thursday 27 May to Thursday 3 June. Reconciliation Week is a significant week in Australia, beginning on an important date in our history, which marks the day when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were recognised as Australian citizens and included in the census.
Reconciliation Week finishes on Thursday 3 June which marks Mabo Day. Mabo Day was when the decision was made in the High Court that meant Indigenous Australians gained rights to land.
Guest speaker on the day, Sherry Balcombe from the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry, shared a bit about her own family history and her own story as an Indigenous Australian. Sherry educated us on the true history of Indigenous Australians and the stolen generation.
We also had the opportunity to participate in workshops with students from other schools, further educating us about the importance of Reconciliation Week, what it means to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and about racism in Australia. Everyone discussed ideas about how we can integrate awareness of Indigenous Australian history and Indigenous perspectives of issues that we face in Australia into our school lives. We learned many important things that will aid us in our role as FIRE Carriers. It was an enjoyable day and a great opportunity to be a part of.
Jade Exell and Olivia Davies
Year 10