By Parker McKenzie
Students and a teacher at Monbulk Primary School have been nominated as finalists for the 20223 ResourceSmart Schools Awards for their commitment to taking sustainable action.
Danielle Lamport was nominated for Teacher of the Year and last year’s grade 6 students, who have now moved onto high school, were nominated as a Student Action Team.
Ms Lamport said she was inspired by a former principal, who had moved to Monbulk Primary from a “five-star school.”
“she said this is what we used to do, what do you think of this? I said, this would be really great because I’d started and got a grant for the Stephanie Alexander kitchen garden for our school,” she said.
“I established the kitchen garden and it was just a really natural progression from doing that and running those classes as well as regular classroom teaching, to then becoming more sustainable.”
Sustainability Victoria awards schools between one and five stars for completing modules and meeting benchmarks for resource use.
Ms Lamport was nominated for the award by her fellow teacher Emily Tan Sing, who said that Ms Lamport was too humble about the achievement.
“As a school, we’ve gone from one star to nearly getting the fifth star and a lot of that work is really on Danny’s shoulders,” she said.
“She would never really acknowledge that she puts in all this effort, she’d always say it is a team and everyone helps but in reality, it would never have started if she didn’t take that step to think this was something good for our school.”
23 schools and 35 finalists were nominated for an award at Victoria’s largest celebration for primary and secondary school students, teachers and volunteers taking action to promote sustainability.
Ms Lamport said the most rewarding part of the school’s dual nominations was seeing students who were passionate about sustainability taking action on their own accord.
“They took that upon themselves to do that, so they’re thinking what can we do that isn’t guided by Emily or myself?” she said.
“We were on board, backing them all the way and it was really wonderful. They just carried it the whole way, so that’s why they’re shortlisted.”
The winners of the awards will be announced at a ceremony at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 15 June.
Ms Lamport said looking at the monetary value, the school has saved “$60,000 that would have gone to utility bills” since becoming a resource-smart school.
“We’re hoping to mentor other schools, have school students and teachers come in and see what we’re doing and help them to become sustainable schools as well.
“I just wanted to acknowledge the work of quite a few other teachers who have come on board and worked very hard on this as well.”
Ms Tan Sing said Ms Lamport was such a leader that even if she retires or moves school, she wants Monbulk Primary School to continue what she started.
“She wants it to be part of the whole school culture and not something that would live and die with her as well,” she said.
“She is due her honours as well, but I can understand where she’s coming from with it, not wanting to be just to acknowledge the other people who definitely put in.”
More information can be found at sustainability.vic.gov.au/resourcesmart-schools-awards
