Over the past few months, Livingstone Primary School has successfully introduced five chickens to our environment. This has been made successful due to the ongoing contributions from our supportive school community, including staff, students, parents, and Bunnings Warehouse.

It has been an exciting inclusion into our school environment for both staff and students. Students have been continually involved throughout the process including being given the opportunity to paint their nails and select and vote for names for the chickens. The winning names being; Browny, Charles, Chocky, Lucy and Violet.

Caring for a flock of chickens is a great way for students to learn about biology, compassionate animal husbandry, where food comes from, as well as encouraging responsibility and sustainable living practices. Chickens make great schoolyard pals for students at any developmental level.

The amazing community spirit of Livingstone was also displayed through our winning entrance in the ‘Back to Earth’ competition; a competition where the school that received the most votes would receive a grant. This was very exciting for our school in helping to fund the creation of a more suitable environment for the chickens, while increasing the size of our veggie garden, which our students are also involved in through growing and maintaining plants and vegetables.

We are extremely lucky to have also had a successful roster implemented for the caring of our chickens during school days, over weekends and throughout school holidays. Each year level is rostered on for one week at a time to ensure that the chickens have enough food and water, and to collect any eggs that might have been laid (this has just started happening). This has also been a useful addition to our school, with some year levels using the chickens within their learning programs.

During weekends and school holidays, we have been lucky enough to have parents enthusiastically offer to care for the chickens, which will assist in ensuring that the chickens are a valuable aspect of the Livingstone Primary School community now and for years to come.