Last year we introduced the concept of sustainability into our school. Our enthusiastic Envirogroup girls and four staff members meet each Thursday at lunchtime to discuss issues regarding our school environment. Their vision this year is to make the school and our community more aware of what they are trying to achieve and to encourage more interaction and involvement.

 

The Envirogroup aims to:

·      act as role models and lead the school in creating a sustainable community

·      ensure the ‘voice’ of the students is heard

·      attend regular meetings

·      co-ordinate and promote projects and initiatives

 

 

As a result of the efforts of the envirogroup we are striving to reduce the amount of packaging we use. The girls are expected to take home all of their lunch rubbish, as we are not able to recycle large amounts of food waste and plastic at school.

 

We have recycle bins for paper in each classroom and once a week they are collected and emptied into the big yellow bins that go out at the gate for kerbside collection by the council each fortnight.

 

Yvonne, our chef, has established a very successful worm farm, which uses all the food waste from the Boarding House.

 

Many of our girls are passionate about caring for the environment.

 

“I use little clip on plastic containers in my lunch so I don’t have to use gladwrap. We buy these at the supermarket. If we didn’t use these my gladwrap would go into the landfill and stay there forever on end.”

Zelle Logan

Year 3

 

“I have lots of little bags and containers in my lunchbox so that there is no wrapping. If I don’t want to eat all of something I just put the lid back on and it is kept fresh for later. I put my yoghurt rubbish in a plastic bag to take home and all of my other rubbish is put back into the container it came from. This helps me because all the waste is safe in my lunchbox.”

Lucy Johnston

Year 2

 

“I talked with my Mum about trying not to bring so much rubbish into school. She said that she would go out and buy some plastic containers with lids. Now instead of putting my biscuits into gladwrap, they get put into a plastic container.”

Katie Caldwell

Year 8

 

Why focus on education for sustainability?

 

·      It helps the girls to become informed decision makers

·      provides a context that enables meaningful connections between learning areas, learner profile and values

·      offers ways for the girls to contribute to the social, cultural, economic and environmental well-being of New Zealand. A sustainable school prepares young people for a lifetime of sustainable living, through its teaching, its culture and its day-to-day practices

·      provides opportunities for students to engage in genuine learning in their communities and take action

·      uses authentic learning to develop creative and critical thinking for a sustainable future

·      Our school becomes a place where students and their community work together willingly to reduce their impact on the planet for future generations to enjoy the diverse and beautiful world we live in.

 

We do appreciate your support in helping us make our school environmentally friendly. Some parents have asked why we don’t have the red, green and yellow bins. We have approached the Council but, as we don’t pay rates, we are not entitled to use these bins.

 Kindest regards

Jane Lapthorn

 

Your Board in Action:

Welcome to our new school year. Our focus over the holidays and the first few weeks of this term has been completing building our Boarding House. We are very pleased with the progress and are happy to report that building is on schedule and our boarders will be moving into their new home on March 8.  We plan to have the official opening on Friday, March 19 during the school picnic and you will have the opportunity that evening to walk through the boarding house.

 

Kind regards

Richard Bowman

Chairman Trust Board