Harvest Time!

Tomatoes are ready!

Students at the ready!

"We need to fill this bucket!"

"Look at the size of this one!"

The Spinach is ready too!

 

The yellow St Patrick Rose blooms outside Rose Cottage!

When the work is done the garden will have a rest, under the watchful care of St Francis, St Patrick (the rose!) the Scarecrow and it looks like even the Police are on hand to ensure that all is peaceful and harmonious!

Let's Make Pesto and Strawberry Jam!

Look what we have been doing at our school! We planted basil and strawberries so that we can make yummy pesto and jam.We also found websites to get little jars to put our pesto and jam in. Some group members advertised the pesto and jam. We took photos of our group planting basil and looking after the strawberries.The strawberries and basil have been growing great lately! The Jam Group have started finding labels and jars to make them look neat and saleable.The Pesto Group wrote a recipe and made it look presentable! We used persuasive text on our advertisements to make you excited about them! We had so many big plans and ideas we needed a large sheet of paper to write on!

Recipes for Literacy!

For children learning to read with step-by-step recipes

From Generations of Strathcona Families: Child-friendly recipes from former and current students

Straightforward recipes featuring lunchbox ideas

Produced byWallington Primary School

Part diary with seasonal recipes designed specifically for kids!

A Rainbow of Fruit and Vegetables!





 

What a healthy and fun initiative! 

In the Bin!

Students from St Bernadette's Primary Lalor Park were visited by Marc, from EnviroMentors which is run by Keep Australia Beautiful NSW and they now have plenty of ideas of what to do with their school garden scraps!







 

For more information:



Sustainable Living Project at Parramatta Marist High

Parramatta Marist are using Pinterest to document their Sustainable Living Project - a sustainable garden.
Photos are taken at each stage of the process and then pinned to the Pinterest board along with a description and a number.
The number provides the teachers and students with a quick guide to the order of the garden process and a way for the teacher to focus the students on particular images quickly.
Students can then use the images to reflect and respond to in class.

Food Revolution Day!

Students in Year 3 and 4 from St Bernadette's Primary, Lalor Park were lucky enough to participate in a cooking lesson with Jamie Oliver via video link as part of the celebrity chef’s Food Revolution Day.

Students are currently learning about healthy eating habits and the lesson was a fantastic opportunity for students to participate in an event to raise awareness of how simple it is to eat well.

  Students begun the day with an interactive iPad lesson relating to the vegetables that they were going to cook with throughout the day.

Jamie gave step-by-step instructions via Skype about the recipe and the cooking method for some healthy ‘rainbow’ wraps. Following the lesson, students enjoyed their creations for lunch.

Teacher Miss Rosanne Agostino said she enjoyed seeing the students enthusiastically getting involved in the session.

‘It was wonderful to see the students having a go and trying something new,’ she said. ‘The knowledge and skills that they took away from the experience was phenomenal and they are all asking when they will get the opportunity to learn how to cook something else,’ said Rosanne.

Students thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and the chance to see Jamie Oliver.

‘It was fun making the Jamie Oliver rainbow wrap because we were spending quality time with our friends and teachers,’ said Year 4 student Nicola Ciocca.

‘It was really fun how each person got a turn at grating the different veggies,’ said Year 4 student Isabella Hucman. ‘Jamie Oliver helped us learn different techniques that we can use in the kitchen at home. We also learnt how to mix lots of different veggies and how to make a really good dressing,’ said Isabella

Year 4 student Elizabeth Justin said it was fun because it wasn’t a test.

‘We didn’t need help because it was easy and we could make it all by ourselves,’ said Elizabeth. ‘It helped us learn about what we can do in the kitchen at home. I think I have found a new hobby. I really like cooking!’

Year 3 student Daniel Raad said it was really fun to learn about Jamie Oliver’s recipe and how he wanted to get lots of kids making healthy food on Food Revolution Day.

‘It was really fun working as a team to make our own wraps,’ said Daniel.

Launch of Proposal!

Proposal to CEDP System Leadership Team

PREAMBLE

The 2014 implementation of the national curriculum through the NSW Board of Studies syllabi (English, History, Mathematics and Science  - Yrs 7 and 9; English K- 6) sees three cross curriculum priorities providing the potential for enhancing the breadth and depth of students’ learning in ways that have not systematically occurred in recent times.  One of these priorities, Sustainability, offers teachers and students exciting opportunities to

“…develop the knowledge, skills, values and world views necessary for them to act in ways that contribute to more sustainable patterns of living...The Sustainability priority is futures-oriented, focusing on protecting environments and creating a more ecologically and socially just world through informed action.”¹

A real strength of the national curriculum naming this priority is that teachers and students can engage in learning about sustainability formally through the curriculum in all KLA areas instead of it being left to chance in one or two KLAs or through extra curricular activities.

Authentically responding to this priority also provides teachers and students with opportunities to discuss, reflect and act on the messages Pope Francis has conveyed to us about our stewardship of environmental and human ecology. In a speech broadcast earlier this year Pope Francis reminded us

“…When we talk about the environment, about creation, my thoughts turn to …  the Book of Genesis, which states that God placed man and woman on earth to cultivate and care for it (cf. 2:15).  And the question comes to my mind: What does cultivating and caring for the earth mean?  Are we truly cultivating and caring for creation?  Or are we exploiting & neglecting it? And he concluded the broadcast with, “So I would like us all to make a serious commitment to respect and protect creation, to be attentive to every person, to counter the culture of waste and disposable, to promote a culture of solidarity and of encounter.”²

PROPOSAL

We request the diocesan System Leadership Team endorses an annual initiative whereby schools are encouraged and supported to respond to a sustainability issue. It would be an issue experienced by the school or the local community, by participation in the following project:

                          How can our school or local community demonstrate greater stewardship of

                                                         ………………………?   (name the resource*) 
*Resources – Water, Energy, Food, Recyclable Rubbish, Natural Environment, Transport etc.)

If approved the Executive Director would issue an invitation to our diocesan Early Learning Centres, Primary and Secondary schools to develop a project that responds to a sustainability issue is of concern to their school or local community.

The project would include:

·     Compiling a situational analysis and  developing and implementing some solutions or series of actions that demonstrate greater stewardship of their nominated sustainability issue.

Schools would be encouraged to use the PBL or CBL project processes and submit a project report documenting what they have done, the results of implementing one or several of their solutions and how the actions are sustainable as well as showing its links to one or more KLA curriculum areas.

Each year, at a pre-determined date, a panel of teachers and system personnel together with a few community members would evaluate the submitted project reports and make recommendations to the Executive Director and Head of System Learning about which schools should be acknowledged with the

·         3 x Executive Director Sustainability and Stewardship Awards for Early Learning Centres, Primary schools and Secondary schools.  ($1000 each and other schools in each category receiving Highly Commended Awards.

Each school that has submitted a report would have it published on a site within OSCAR (or another suitable forum) with the winning schools report published in UPDATE.  The Sustainability PLC would make recommendations about which projects could be submitted to the national /international community forums that showcase school /community sustainability initiatives.

Members of the diocesan Sustainability PLC would use their meetings to identify and provide resource lists and advice where possible to teachers and students willing to be involved.

1.      http://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/cross_curriculum_priorities.html

2.      http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=22695  

The 16th gathering of the Parramatta Learning Community for Sustainability saw the above proposal launched and the race is now on for educators to prepare a sustainable project, suited to their school's environment in an attempt to win an award of $1000 or a High Recommendation ...  

'From Little Things Big Things Grow'