by Gabriella Vukman
Tecoma Primary School has been announced as one of the three finalists of the ResourceSmart Schools awards.
On Tuesday May 4, Tecoma Primary will attend an awards ceremony at the MCG and discover whether or not they will be the winners of a $2000 cheque dedicated towards sustainability at the school.
Teacher and Sustainability Leader Deborah Langford said, “If we win, this money will definitely help us towards building our yarning circle.”
“Our yarning circle is an Indigenous talking circle that will be like an outdoor classroom space,” Mrs Langford said.
“I’m actually really proud that a lot of the action has come from the kids. They come up with the ideas so I’m really happy that there’s a lot of action and student involvement.”
There are five modules for schools to complete in the ResourceSmart Schools program. These modules address energy usage, wastage, water management and biodiversity. Schools receive stars for completing each module.
So far, Tecoma Primary has completed the core module.
Mrs Langford said, “We’ve done all of our baseline data which is how we got our first star, and we have implemented a sustainability policy and a green purchasing policy. As a part of obtaining this first star, we have also done an action plan.”
“The next star is reducing waste, then reduction in water usage, via tanks and things and then the next one is reducing our energy which hopefully we’ll be able to get some solar panels into the school,” Mrs Langford said.
“The last one is our yarning circle and Indigenous garden will help us achieve biodiversity which is building up the native fauna of the area by planting native plants.”
Achieving its first star was a two-year process for Tecoma Primary School.
Ms Langford said, “We had to do an assessment of what we currently have and what we currently do and how much landfill we produce and how much water and energy we use. There was an audit in each of those areas and from there we brainstormed ways that we can better those areas.”
“Biodiversity and sustainability and climate change is built into a part of our curriculum,” Mrs Langford said.
“In term two, sustainability is the overarching theme across the whole school. Each year level focuses on a different element of sustainability,” Mrs Langford said.
“At the moment, the preps are looking at animals and habitat and the ones and twos are looking at reducing, reusing, and recycling.”
“The threes and fours, their topic is called ‘paddock to plate’ so they’re looking at farm sustainability and food sources and the fives and sixes are looking at renewable energies,” Mrs Langford said.
The ResourceSmart Schools program is free for all schools and is offered by Sustainability Victoria.
Mrs Langford said, “Carbon neutral is the ultimate goal but how achievable that is in the short-term I don’t know. If we carry on year in, year out then we should be able to get to that.”
“I do think this stuff is super important. It’s our future, isn’t it? What we leave behind is our children’s future so we need to lead by example.”
