Christmas 07 Newsletter
>Enviroschools
Simon Williams
Education for Sustainability Facilitator
It's been a very busy few months for me stepping into the role of the Enviroschools facilitator for schools in the QLDC district. Among the highlights this year have been Glenorchy school receiving a silver award, and a team from Hawea Flat school being the youngest winners of a national film competition.
Glenorchy
Congratulations to Glenorchy who have recently been awarded their Silver Enviroschools award, well done to all the children, staff, parents and community who have all worked together to make this possible.Glenorchy dedicated their inquiry learning for term 4 towards Enviroschools and education for sustainability. I paid them a visit early on in term 4 to spend the morning discussing zero waste. We explored what we knew about waste, where it came from and where it went to. Finishing up with the ultimate grotty experience of a waste audit. Always dreaded but always enjoyed at the end, this really is the way to see what waste is being produced by school.
Being a small school, all of the children are part of their envirogroup. They have created five sub-groups who all have different projects. One team is furthering the work of 'Bag the Habit', the plastic bag free campaign, by making their own reusable bags that they are selling at the Sunday markets. Another team is full steam ahead on the memorial gardens. 'Georgia', 'Tomboy' and 'TomTom' roses and Lavender are the main choices. A fantastic tunnel house has been donated to the school. One group will be responsible for planting in here.
Arrowtown
Most of the Enviroschools work at Arrowtown has been happening behind the scenes. We now have four lead enviro-teachers, and their presence at the Central Otago workshops has really kick-started them. We are currently planning Zero Waste for term 1 next year. They now have a Bokashi bucket and one class has made some fantastic clothes from old plastic bags. What a fantastic way to get everyone thinking about the waste we generate.Hawea Flat
Congratulations to Hank Bilous, Hugo Ayre and Noel Bisson who were recently whisked off to Auckland for the 'Outlook for Someday' film challenge prize giving. This project, backed by Enviroschools, invited anyone below the age of 20 to make a short movie about what their future life would look like through the lens of sustainability.
This trio made a fantastic animation about 3 penguins and the melting ice caps. Pop on over to their page on the Outlook for Someday website to check out their film and cast your vote. They won themselves a laptop, which was presented to them by Helen Clark at the prizegiving in Auckland.
The Hawea Flat envirogroup is gathering speed again. They have been working on revamping their vision map using a slightly different method. The children decided to use photographs taken of school and then placed onto a large-scale map of school. This is great preparation for term 1 next year.
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