SUSTAINABILITY

 
 

Kyneton Primary School is committed to  a sustainable future and is an active participant in the ResourceSmart Schools program - a Victorian Government initiative that helps schools benefit from embedding sustainability in everything they do.

Gardening and Sustainability group:

Each semester, one student from each class in Years 3 to 6 is elected to join the school Gardening and Sustainability group. This group meets weekly and works together to implement sustainability-related programs and initiatives across the school, including:

  • educating the school on waste reduction, for example, by reducing the plastic waste in lunchboxes

  • educating the school on how to sort garbage into recycling, compost, soft plastic and landfill

  • organising whole school clean ups to reduce litter in the yard and promote awareness of the environmental issues associated with litter

  • caring for the chickens and collecting their eggs

  • growing vegetables and herbs in the school garden

  • cooking with the eggs, herbs and vegetables produced at the school,

  • Garden maintenance

  • organising National Tree planting days and National Clean-Up the School/Australia days

  • organising fundraising for purchasing more plants for the school garden,

  • making insect hotels

  • educating the school on Indigenous plants through the soon to be developed Bush Tucker Garden

  • participating in the River Detectives program.

ResourceSmart Schools:

We re-joined the program in mid 2020 and have started to take actions to minimise waste, save energy and water, promote biodiversity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This will help us not only reduce costs, but also to enhance the school environment and provide students with the opportunity to learn about sustainability in a tangible and realistic environment. In addition to the benefits to the school, the focus and education on a sustainable approach will help improve the school and wider community by equipping students with the knowledge and tools to implement change in their homes and families.

The ResourceSmart Schools program consists of five sustainability themed modules of Core, Biodiversity, Energy, Water and Waste. These modules require the school to measure, develop and implement sustainable changes to meet the program criteria.

We have taken the first steps in defining a baseline of our existing school operations, including energy and water use and biodiversity in the school grounds, to help set targets and measure our progress towards these targets.

We are very fortunate with a new school build that we already incorporate a number of sustainable features within the school, including

  • solar panels – which have also recently been expanded as part of the Greener Government Buildings initiative and we now have 23kw of panels

  • building lights are on motion sensors and turn off automatically

  • rainwater is collected for toilet flushing

  • tinted windows with blinds

  • warm air is purged overnight during summer to bring in cooler fresh air for the morning.

 

Current and upcoming events and initiatives:

We have undertaken a number of initiatives across the school, including

  • student led Gardening and Sustainability Group within the school,

  • Walk to School Day

  • Clean Up Australia Day, where students removed litter throughout the school grounds

  • baseline usage of energy, water and biodiversity audits

  • joined the River Detectives program to test the water quality of the Campaspe River each month

  • Plastic Free July, where students endeavoured to reduce or eliminate single use plastic in their lunchboxes. They were encouraged to take home any plastic they did use to be recycled with their household soft plastic.