Reflections from an award-winning student action team

by the Franciscan Action Team at Our Lady of the Nativity, Aberfeldie:

Ana Coviello, Lily Cavallaro, Mia Horan, Ornella Marvilla and Xavier Fitzgerald 

In Term 1, 2022, we entered the ResourceSmart Sustainability Competition. We worked very hard with our Sustainability Coordinator, Miss Lappin to achieve our sustainability goals.

Our main biodiversity goal was to improve the habitats for pollinators for birds, bees and butterflies at our school. 

We were delighted to find out that we came 2nd in the competition and our prize was to work with B and B Highway to educate our students at what pollinators were and the homes that they live in.

Miss Lappin looked into what units students were studying in class and the Year 2 students were doing their Sharing the Planet unit and they were inquiring into:

Central Idea: Our Actions can impact the Earth.

An inquiry into:

●     Personal actions that have a positive and negative effect on the environment.

●     How the earth's resources sustain us.

●     Everyday changes that can help care for our environment.

Therefore, the Year 2 cohort was chosen to participate in the four sessions by B and B Highway. The sessions involved two presentations, planting native plants purchased from the Victorian Indigenous Nurseries Co-op, making bee hotels and planting some seedlings as well as using iPads for Citizen Science to upload some data onto iNaturalist.

Antonia Biscione, 2B “ Making the bee homes was my favourite part, I had fun using the clay to make them.Making the bee homes wasn’t too hard for me.Doing this again would be fun because we didn’t have many sessions”.

Leo Carra, 2G “ The gardening was my favourite part because I don't do much gardening at home.Doing it again would be a good experience.I planted this native grass plant because I knew I was doing something good for God’s creation and my school”.

Planting with Preps and Year 1s

In November, the Franciscan Action decided to encourage other year levels to also think about how they can contribute to biodiversity at our school. They organised some seeds to be planted by all of the Prep and Year 1 students. We have housed these in the new greenhouse that Miss Lappin bought for the school. We have already seen some germinate and have leaves.

It was so much fun organising this and carrying it out with our younger students.

Jessica Hyndman, 1G “I really enjoyed the planting the thing I enjoyed most was watering the soil and watching it expand. If I got the chance I would love to do it again.”

Taylor Cittarelli, 1B “I enjoyed watering the plants, and watching it grow. If I got the chance I would like to do it again.”

We also decided to give some tips for home that went into the school newsletter that you can see below:

Biodiversity tips for home:

●        Encourage students to stop and notice the natural world when you are out walking

●        Talk about what the plants and trees are in your local area

●        Engage with some gardening activities like weeding or planting

●        Inquire into the wildlife that inhabit your local area

●        Show the students the green bin for food waste and talk about what happens to it

Overall, we feel that we have really helped our knowledge about biodiversity at our school for our community.