TravelSmart EatSmart: The World Is IN our HANDS!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

The World Is IN our HANDS!

Students from Vasse PS and Dunsborough PS took part in the TravelSmart EatSmart program to have a say about their world. Students had great ideas about how they could help make their world a better place. Ideas included planting more trees, recycling,starting wormfarms and walking and riding to school.

Students looked at how we used resources and ways young people could make practical action change.

The students will run a campaign back at their school so watch the blog for more information.

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School Case Studies

O'Connor Primary School, Kalgoorlie-Boulder

Sandi Fielder, Deputy Principal
Our school has an interest in incorporating sustainability issues into a range of curriculum areas so we were really interested in taking part in the TravelSmart Sustainability Roadshow. We had already been involved in a Millennium Kids program so we were happy for our young leaders to participate in this. In fact we set up a Student Sustainability Leadership team who went to the event and then ran the activities afterwards. It was great to have the Roadshow in Kalgoorlie as our students don’t have the opportunity to attend many programs like this.

The MK Ten Step Inquiry process is all about student engagement in the decision making process and this was of a real benefit to our students as it gave them a deeper understanding of the issues.

The open ended process at the planning stage of the Roadshow let our school develop a process that suited our school. We ran a number of events under the TravelSmart banner throughout the year. We trialled Walk to School Days and encouraged students to ride their bikes to school.

We have used the MK Ten Step Methodology in other aspects of sustainability decision making with our students and it has become a core feature of the process we use with the Sustainability Ambassadors. We will continue to promote the TravelSmart philosophy and trial other initiatives in 2010.

Penrhos College Junior School
Kerry Jenke - Year 5 Teacher

Penrhos College Junior School has participated in the Sustainability Roadshow to provide the students attending, the opportunity to develop a broad and enduring understanding of the importance of sustainable living practices in our everyday lives.

The Roadshow empowered students by allowing them to participate in a forum which provides a conduit to having their opinions heard and considered by government agencies.

It gave students the opportunity to actively engage in activities that uphold one of the key principles of the Curriculum Framework; namely - 'an explicit acknowledgement of core values', in particular:

social and civic responsibility, resulting in a commitment to exploring and promoting the common good; meeting individual needs in ways which do not infringe the rights of others; participating in democratic processes; social justice and cultural diversity; and environmental responsibility, resulting in a respect and concern for the natural and cultural environments and a commitment to regenerative and sustainable resource use.

The benefits of attending included the development of knowledge and exposure to practices that allowed students to feel confident that a change they made to their practices contributed significantly to promoting more sustainable practices in the wider community.

Students became the educators and role models for their peers and family members in regard to how they can alter their daily lives to reduce carbon emissions.

Many students, with the support of their parents, explored the use of public transport. Throughout the year the number of Year 5 students using public transport grew significantly.

After the Roadshow students creating posters, Collected travel data and graphed and analysed their results. We ran a TravelSmart Week and had a guest speaker from Millennium Kids in to talk to our parents about the philosophy behind TravelSmart and the benefits of promoting walking riding, car pooling and using public transport.

Teachers became role models in this regard with the development of a leader board which rewards not only a contribution to the environment but also to personal well-being. Many teachers started looking at their own habits and started walking and riding to school.

The school plans to hold an ECPD (Empty Car Park Day) and will send out a request for parent involvement in “Walk to School Day”.

South Perth Primary School
A long term TravelSmart School
South Perth Primary School is very keen to participate in sustainability programs in order to improve our environment, educate students (which will impact upon parents) and reduce our eco our footprint.

Empowering students through the Sustainability Roadshow has a significant impact upon achieving these goals. Student leaders participate in the Roadshow and become committed leaders helping staff and the community achieve sustainability goals. Our team also reports to the City of South Perth on a monthly basis through the City of South Perth Sustainability Ambassadors so they also help report outcomes and define sustainability projects for other schools. Through this they become skilled young leaders and representatives of our school community.

Through this process students meet and develop sustainability projects for the whole school and TravelSmart to School is one of our key projects.

Our school has worked really hard to actively promote sustainable, green transport. We participate in special cycle and walk to school days. We also have Walk to School Wednesdays and an Awesome Walksome trophy which is presented at each assembly. We also have walking school bus programs and we have lifted sustainable travel to and from school from 33% two years ago to approximately 55% this year.

It is also helpful that some teachers model sustainable travel behaviour. Some staff ride bikes to school, walk and car pool to school. We even had a Principal who caught a train, then the ferry and then walked to the school from the jetty. This helped to reinforce that TravelSmart was for everyone.

From Sustainability Roadshow to TravelSmart
St Hilda’s Junior School - Julie Quansing Rowlands, Head of Junior School

St Hilda’s Junior School participated in the Sustainability Roadshow as part of our sustainability focus and priority – for student ownership, knowledge and supporting teachers in their endeavours to develop a class and whole school approach to sustainability. Having an external consultant with expertise in the area is often a better motivator for change.

The Roadshow helped our school develop a strategic plan, scope and sequence for Sustainability.

The Roadshow allowed our students to develop the concept that to become sustainable we had to consider how we lived and how we impact on the local and global environment. Students developed a framework of their concerns and mapped ways to address these through practical action and the curriculum. This student directed approach had students raise issues and opportunities such as indigenous culture, food gardens, water security, river health and how we travelled to school as well as how we impact on our local environment. The process allowed students to see the connectedness of issues. Outcome projects included a food garden, an indigenous celebration on Harmony Day, adoption of a local piece of vegetation and a partnership with a school in South Africa. As students were also concerned about traffic congestion, high car use and greenhouse emissions we could build onto the school focus of sustainable travel.

Our school has developed a walk to school bus which runs every Monday , Tuesday and Friday. We started small and added to the process as parents became interested.

We have held a walk, bike and bus to school day and healthy snack days during the term to encourage all students to break the habit of travelling to school by car, hosted by a parent and some helpers. Our school has encouraged bike riders by including bike courses as part of co-curricular programs.

We have also awarded students House points and credit points with a Walking Bus ticket and given prizes out at Assembly. As part of our communication to parents this is stated as part of our sustainability focus and a way to reduce drive thru and parking difficulties.

From Roadshow to Sustainability Committee to Action through Leadership - Penny Crane St Marys

Our school used the Sustainability Roadshow to encourage student leadership and empower students to respond to the challenges of environmental issues. This process promoted well-being for students who have a high level of concern for environmental and community issues.

The Roadshow encourages thinking at a deep level, empowers students in realising that they can make a difference in response to their concerns Encourages children to work collaboratively and discuss relevant issues that matter to them *The Roadshow kicks off a group of students who learn the 10 step plan process that can then be applied to many challenges in the future.

Our school used the Roadshow to develop a range of Sustainability initiatives including the Travel smart programme. We undertook Walk to School Day that went right through the year. Our students developed Winter Wednesday where we turned all our heaters off. We developed a tree planting project at Metricup to carbon offset a Year 6/7 school trip to Canberra. We purchased a water tank to provide a planting area in Junior School.

The regular meetings held each week strengthened the Millennium Kid group in the Junior School with representation eventually coming from Year 5 to Year 9. Each new Year 5 group began with 10 new students for the Roadshow who ran the TravelSmart programme. Each year the team who attended the Roadshow was chosen after interested students filled in an application form. After the TravelSmart project was completed the students stayed on to work on subsequent programmes in the year, joining forces with those from previous years.

The ideas were driven with my help from the Millennium Kids team at our school. We had several parent meetings and a lot of assistance from the Travel Smart Officer. We were supported by both the Junior School Head and the School Principal.

In deciding our vision for the school I felt very pleased it included the word environment. Over time the Environment became more of a focus in people’s minds.

Most of the initiatives came from the students, HOPE in the Senior School and the Millennium Kids in the Junior School. In my final year at the school we had a day when all students K-12 made an Environmental pledge and as a symbol of their commitment put a finger print onto a tree sculpture. This served a reminder in the school of our commitment and the importance of caring for the environment.

TravelSmart EatSmart Schools

Kalgoorlie:
O'Connor Primary School
West Kambalda District High School
John Paul College
Kalgoorlie-Boulder Community High School
Goldfields Baptist College
North Kalgoorlie Primary School
St Mary's Primary School
Boulder Primary School
Hannan's Primary School
St Joseph's Primary School

Bunbury-Busselton:
Australind Primary School
Glen Huon Primary School
Australind Christian School
Grace Christian School
Whithers Primary School
Bunbury Primary School
Vasse Primary School
Dunsborough Primary School

Kwinana:
Calista Primary School

Metro:
St Hilda's Anglican School for Girls
Scotch College
Penrhos College
Lathlain Primary School
Wesley College
Belmont City College
St Stephens Junior School
South Perth Primary
Rossmoyne Primary
North Cottesloe
Curtin Primary School
Manning Primary School
Bullsbrook District High School
St Mary's Junior School
Sevenoaks Senior College

Albany:
Albany Senior High School
North Albany Senior High School
Denmark Senior High School
Katanning Senior High School
Great Southern Grammar
Albany Primary School
Woodbury Boston Primary School
Mount Many Peaks School
Wellstead Primary School
Yakamia Primary School
Kojonup Senior High School

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

The World Is IN our HANDS!

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