By Tyler Wright
A Monbulk Primary School teacher has taken out the Teacher of the Year (Primary) award at the ResourceSmart Schools Awards on Thursday 15 June.
Grade two teacher Danielle Lamport received the accolade at Sustainability Victoria’s ceremony for her work assisting the school in achieving a four-star sustainability rating.
Ms Lamport has created a staff sustainability team, introduced sustainability captains, supported environmental national days and spearheaded new infrastructure such as solar panels, water tanks, LED lights, and a kitchen garden.
“It felt really satisfying because we were starting to see changes in behaviour with students and with their families as well, through bringing in rubbish-free lunch and behaving in more sustainable ways, which was the aim,” Ms Lamport said.
“We had recycling…and [we were] managing our waste, so we weren’t throwing out so much food, we were composting in the garden, we weren’t bringing in as much rubbish because people were having rubbish free lunch…to see all that was just very satisfying and a good way for everybody to start getting involved immediately.”
Ms Lamport started improving sustainability at Monbulk Primary School in 2010, receiving a grant from Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation.
In conjunction with regular classroom teaching, Ms Lamport took garden classes for students from grade three through to grade six.
“Naturally, as part of that, you start to follow some sustainable practises just by creating a vegetable garden at school,” Ms Lamport said.
“Then one of our former principals, Lynn Ordish, came to me and said, ‘I come from a five-star rated sustainable school. I’d love to do that here. Would you like to spearhead that?’ and I said ‘that sounds like the perfect natural progression from what we’re doing.’”
Ms Lamport is now currently working with the school on obtaining a their five-star sustainability rating.
Ms Lamport said she was “shocked” and “humbled” receiving the Teacher of the Year award.
“Probably a little bit overwhelmed and then excited, so an array of emotions one after the other in a short space of time,” she said.
“I quoted a former principal Ray Yates on his retirement: He said ‘you’re only as good as the people around you,’ and I said that in my acceptance speech because it’s really something that we did as a group.”
Sustainability Victoria’s Interim CEO Matt Genever said he applauds the passion Ms Lamport has shown at Monbulk Primary School.
“She is achieving great things in sustainability and showing outstanding leadership,” Mr Genever said.
“You are a tremendous role model and I know your work will inspire other teachers to take action.”
The ResourceSmart Schools program supports all Victorian primary and secondary schools to embed sustainability across school facilities, community and curriculum.
Over the past 15 years, more than 1,400 schools have participated in the program, saving more than $41 million on bills, reducing more than 118,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases through energy, water and waste efficiencies, diverting 194,000 cubic metres of waste from landfill, and planting more than five million trees.
Fore more information on this year’s winners, visit https://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/resourcesmart-schools-awards-2023-winners
