By – Georgia Davies and Olivia Gastin

Hi my name is Georgia and Sustainability leadership this year has been such a great opportunity for me!

Every fortnight all the classes at our school have a gardening lesson with our teacher and we have been two of the key Gardening team members..

When in season, the students harvest produce from the garden which we display in a wheelbarrow and present the items at the weekly assembly. Parents and teachers can then buy the produce for their families to eat.

This year, I introduced a colouring competition for the whole school to raise money for our garden so that Anna could buy more seeds and equipment.

We also used the competition to promote the sorting of organic waste and the recycling program at our school to encourage the students to look after their bins better and put the right things in the Eco Bins. This year we started an initiative of having a “best bin” competition which we announced each week at the whole school assembly. The class with the best bins at the end of the term received a class prize and a certificate.

Each week the sustainability team pitches in and helps out with sorting the mixed recycling and organic bins, as well as the paper bins.

The parents who attend the weekly assemblies also learn about sustainability, our garden, the produce and the ways we look after it.

Hi my name is Olivia. This year and last year I was a chicken monitor.

This year, I took on the role of organising the year 3 and 4 chicken monitors to ensure that the chickens were properly looked after by feeding, giving them fresh water, clean straw, checking on them and letting them free range in the garden when supervised.

As well as a chicken monitor, I have been part of the Sustainability team for 2 years – last year I was on the Mixed Recycling team and this year I am in charge of the Organic team.

I also looked after the plants by watering the seedlings in the greenhouse.

Both of these roles have made me realise how much waste there really is in the world, making me try to create as little amount of waste as possible. I think all of these roles were a great way to learn and help the younger students. I definitely think that everyone should participate in them.

Overall, we had such a great experience working around the school and helping out with our garden!