Our school is very lucky to be in a location which has established trees, parks, waterways and bushland areas. We have strived, as a community, to enhance our school’s role in maintaining this ecosystem by embarking on many environmental initiatives over the years.

The school has been using solar power from installed rooftop panels for many years now to help reduce our environmental footprint. The students are continually being taught the importance of the ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ system and every classroom reuses and recycles their paper products which senior students collect from the rooms weekly.

Our grounds have been regenerated with native plants by students and community members on many occasions over the years, making the most of environmental grants we have received and the annual School Tree Planting Day initiative. We also have an outdoor learning area, also thanks to a council grant, with benches made from recycled ink cartridges, complete with a birdbath which the local birds certainly enjoy!

In 2008 we regenerated our garden beds on School’s Tree Planting Day, July 25th and will continue to do so this year on Friday 31st July. We are hoping many parents and friends will be able to volunteer some of their time to help us dig the holes ready for our student planters.

In 2008 we applied for and were awarded a rainwater tank through BlueScope Steel. This required students to complete an on-line water-saving quiz and play interactive games which further developed their knowledge about rainwater harvesting and water conservation. The tank has been plumbed into the boys’ toilet block allowing for the toilets and urinals to be flushed with rainwater and also enabling water access for garden maintenance. This will help take the pressure off the mains water system whilst reducing the school’s water bill.

Students were involved in the Schools Clean up Australia Day earlier this year. As well as picking up rubbish, piles of mulch were also spread over the garden beds and large sticks cleared from the playground. This was a job keenly taken on by the students and will assist the plant growth.

Forestville has an active ‘Go Greens’ student environment team which has representatives from each year 1 – 6 class. These students have regular meetings which have involved activities such as re-stencilling the school stormwater drains, painting posters for Earth Hour, and planning for future environmental events. They are required to share class suggestions with the team and take the meeting focus back to their classes and share ideas with their peers.
2009 will also see some parent working bees occurring on the weekends which will focus on the maintenance of our lovely environment. Please keep your eyes open for the dates and help us out by volunteering. I know we have some very enthusiastic P & C members working on this!

Katherine Turner
Environmental Co-ordinator