Students at Sacred Heart Catholic School at Mona Vale have been responding to Pope Francis’s call in Laudato Si to “care for our common home” by introducing several environment initiatives for World Environment Day.
The Student Representative Council have been promoting Waste Free Wednesday with the aim that children will bring little or no packaging from home in their lunchboxes.
Children have also been recycling soft plastic, collecting containers and taking part in the Return and Earn programme to enhance Waste Management Systems.
Year 1 celebrated World Environment Day by planting seedlings in old recycled boots.
Students in Years 5 and 6 undertook a Challenge-Based Learning unit to understand sustainable and biodiverse practices, designing a successful gardening model to promote school composting, worm farming, sustainable crops that support the school canteen, use of rainwater tank systems and general enrichment of local bee and bird populations.
Mrs Garey, the Principal at Sacred Heart, said that the project “provided an authentic learning context for a real world challenge.”
She said that “it has multiple wellbeing benefits, as well as strengthening home-school connections.”
Students will present their work on sustainable and biodiverse practices as part of a STEM Fair held in collaboration with Northern Beaches Catholic Schools.