The 2017 Small Environmental School Grants will fund initiatives including garden bed planting, weed eradication, new bike racks, worm farms and even establishing a garden using recycled coffee cups.
“This grant program supports projects that promote behaviour change, whole of school engagement and the ability to participate in achieving environmental outcomes,” City of Canada Bay Mayor Helen McCaffrey said.
“They not only enhance the environment, but develop skills for our young people,” she said.“When I visit schools in the City of Canada Bay that have benefited from these grants, I am always so impressed by the innovative and creative environmental projects achieved and enjoy hearing from students about what they have learnt and how they will use this knowledge into the future.”
The 2017 Small Environmental School Grants recipients are as follows:
: To purchase a smart planter trough which will be filled with vegetables and provide a natural barricade. Some of the grant will also be used to install a number of new bike racks.
Planting a variety of trees, bushes and grasses to revegetate the wildlife corridor along the Crane Street border.
To promote greater awareness of the school’s Dirt to Dish project, which provides real-life learning opportunities for the students through hands-on involvement and complements what is learnt in the classroom.
Teaching students about the Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest (STIF) Environment, a rare and endangered ecological community of plants and animals in the Sydney region. As part of this project, local native plants will be housed in an outdoor learning area that can be used by the entire school.
On World Environment Day students will be encouraged to wear a splash of green and either ride or walk to school and undertake a range of activities. These include setting up a garden nursery using disposable coffee cups, creating habitats for insects and frogs, investigating solar power, identifying macroinvertebrates as bio-indicators for clean water, making mini worm farms, and reusing plastic bottles creatively.
To purchase new plants, tools and supplies for the existing vegetable gardens. Some of the grant will also be used to purchase and install storage racks for bikes and scooters to encourage children to continue cycling and scootering to school.