EHSS Sustainability Projects

At the end of last year our school Environment team members entered a competition organised by the University of Southern Queensland.  The challenge was for children to identify an environmental problem and to document the work done on that particular area.

We entered four posters outlining some projects we had been working on during the year.

1. Rainforest planting           2.  Litterless Lunch

3. Garden Weeding                 4.  The Eco Kids Awards                     

 We were fortunate enough to win the competition.  The prize was a cheque for $500 which we will use to continue working on environment projects for our school.  Well done Team!  

Sandie O’Reilly – Environment Team

Our school has been successful in obtaining funding from the Australian Government’s National Solar Schools Program. We will be using this to install additional solar panels. Over 2,000 schools submitted an application in the 2010-11 funding round and approximately 1,200 schools were successful. Applications were competitively assessed against three criteria: value for money, environmental benefit and educational benefit. The grant will give our school a boost in its initiatives to conserve Australia’s precious non-renewable resources.

The school is currently involved in a number of projects which focus on energy saving, water saving and conservation.

Eatons Hill State School is establishing itself as a smart and green school.  

Through several key projects, it is trying to offer a progressive curriculum which engages children and has a futures orientation.  Underpinning the curriculum are its ten core virtues of Respect, Responsibility, Courage, Diligence, Integrity, Conservation, Empathy, Fairness, Honesty and Citizenship.

Through its learning environment and first hand projects, the school is trying to encourage Eco-Citizenship, where children are given opportunities to

• Understand the interconnectedness of the natural and physical world;
• Be able to critically evaluate decisions that effect the balance of earth systems;
• Understand the complex relationships between humans and the environment:
• Make informed choices about the sustainable use of resources;
• Understand stewardship for the natural environment; and
• Work towards taking action to conserve the Earth for present and future generations.

Having these projects on school premises has enabled the school and its community to develop teaching scenarios and learning experiences which are very real and engaging.