schools for wildlife
The Schools for Wildlife Program guides students to design and create a fully planted, wildlife-friendly garden at your school.
PROGRAM DETAILS
YEAR LEVELS
Years 3-10, Staff
(Group of 30 students)
cost
Funded program for eligible schools.
delivery
– Site assessment
– 1 x Teacher PD (online)
– 1 x Student Incursion (online)
– 2 x Student Incursions (in-person)
location
At your school, and via an online platform
A CERES educator guides up to 30 students to learn about Australian biodiversity, and to plan and grow a wildlife-friendly garden at school.
For State schools in or near metropolitan Melbourne, CERES can deliver the program for free to student cohorts who are disengaged, or at risk of being disengaged, disadvantaged, culturally or linguistically diverse, disabled, Koorie or from low SES backgrounds.
The Schools for Wildlife Program engages students and staff in learning about the importance of biodiversity and creating a wildlife-friendly garden on school grounds.
The program has five elements:
- Activity 1: Site assessment by CERES educator
- Activity 2: 1 hour online overview for participating teacher/s
- Activity 3: Online student engagement incursion
- Activity 4: In-person design and planning incursion
- Activity 5: Plant your wildlife friendly garden
The program combines online sessions and direct, hands-on experiences to foster a comprehensive understanding of environmental stewardship and Australian biodiversity. This initiative creates a living classroom, offering diverse learning opportunities in sustainability and ecology, tailored to different learning ages and styles.
For schools in the ResourceSmart Schools program, taking part in Schools for Wildlife can also tick off plenty of actions in the RSS biodiversity module. Check out our handy checklist of actions you can tick off here.
schools for wildlife program incursions
A CERES educator will work with your school to participate in this exciting new program, engaging your students in the outdoors and positively influence their behaviours towards the natural environment.
learning about biodiversity
- 1 x one-hour online session
- Students explore the importance of biodiversity, how living things are interconnected and why wildlife species are disappearing in urban areas to consider ways to protect ecosystems
- Students engage in a habitat survey to determine what habitat is already available for local wildlife at their school (post-incursion activity)
wildlife gardens & habitats
- 1 - 2 x 45 minute sessions (in person)
- Students explore how wildlife gardens are structured to provide habitat for lots of different wildlife species
- Students are introduced to various indigenous plants that provide habitat for local wildlife species
- Students engage in soil tests to check the soil pH, type and water absorption prior to planting
- Students are supported to create a to scale design of their garden space
gardening tools &planting seedlingS
- 1 - 2 x 45 minute sessions (in person)
- Students learn about gardening tools and how to use them safely
- Students plant indigenous seedlings to create the wildlife garden
- Students learn about about the needs of a newly planted garden and make a plan for how to ensure the garden is able to establish and flourish
- Students consider ‘future additions’ to their garden to continue to increase the biodiversity of their school and improve habitat for wildlife