Jen from Craigslea State School – Sustainability Project contacted me looking for photos she could use. Jen has gone to a lot of effort with this project, also putting together some great posters for the school and was kind enough to send me some photos and info on the project – below…
Text and photos supplied by Jen – Craigslea State School – Sustainability Project
So this year I got a group of parents together to start a sustainability committee at our school (Craigslea State School in Chermside West). There was already an old greenhouse and a neglected veggie garden there but not much growing and no dedicated project to keep it going.
It was a real community effort from a small group of us and out of this community we discovered that we had a contact who kept native bees and was happy to loan one to the school (and provide maintenance when required!). We also applied for a grant from Woolworths and Junior Landcare (and were lucky enough to receive it!) which meant we had extra money spend on school resources like posters and picture books.
Our sustainability team has also been well supported by our P&C who have contributed to extending the vegetable garden and upgrading old gardening equipment. We’ve also received support from our local Bunnings and local councillor, and complete strangers from the local Buy Nothing Facebook group.
Covid restrictions have made this harder at times, with education department guidelines prohibiting parents from being on school grounds for several weeks at a time and a snap lockdown at the end of July putting a pause on a weekend working bee for about 6 weeks. By the time we rescheduled the working bee the mid-September weather was much warmer and building 5 large raised garden beds and moving 5m² of soil was exhausting work.
The greenhouse and veggie garden are now looking much more inviting as outdoor learning facilities and the recent heavy rain has (thankfully) boosted our plants. We’ve got a mixture of natives and hardy backyard flowers, with most purchased from Kumbartcho nursery or cuttings from our own backyards.
We’ve set up a composting area and a recycling hub at the greenhouse too. There’s quite a lot of kids walking past this area before and after school and I often see students just standing quietly and watching the bees come and go.
I had trouble finding a good informative poster to put near the beehive so decided to make my own. It grew from 1 page to 3 because I had so many wonderful photos and bee facts to choose from (thanks to your amazing photos!) but the students and staff are learning so much more about native bees and how important they are for our environment.
Text and photos supplied by Jen – Craigslea State School – Sustainability Project
