SUSTAINABILITY

Our vision for sustainability
To provide an educational space which encourages the development of intrinsically motivated behaviour so that students develop and implement sustainable ways of thinking and acting.

Our Sustainability Team

Lachlan Hurrell, Sustainability Coordinator

BS - Conservation and Wildlife Biology, Diploma of Sustainability

A lifelong interest, educational and professional background in Environmental Science has instilled a reverence for the natural world, as well as a responsibility to continually integrate these lessons into pedagogical approaches. These learning experiences provide children with the opportunity to cultivate the vast and widely documented intellectual, physical and psychological benefits of environmental education.

Our sustainability program helps children to see that their actions can make a difference. Students have many opportunities to work on hands-on projects of practical benefit to the school environment and wider community.

Bellbrae Primary Schools Commitment to Sustainability Education is visible in the following outcomes

• Development and maintenance of a beautiful interactive outdoor educational and play spaces. These include indigenous biodiversity plantings, rotational kitchen garden crops in the edible garden and a wide variety of fruit trees in the schoolground orchards.
• Waste streams in every classroom which include composting, soft plastics, paper and cardboard and polystyrene recycling.
• Onsite composting
• Weekly working bees as an extra-curricular activity for 50 CORE and B.E.S.T (Bellbrae Environment and Sustainability Team) students during lunchtimes.
• Strong community relationships to support our schoolground environment through donations and community input
• Ongoing staff liaison for the integration of cross-curricular opportunities for sustainability education
• Local excursions program encouraging students understanding and stewardship for the unique ecological values of the Victorian surf coast
• Nude Food - Litter free lunch boxes are an easy way to improve the school environment. This initiative has reduced waste to landfill and saved money for the school
• Student lead fundraising which contributes to global conservation initiatives
• Annual Tree planting days at school and in the wider community

Staff and students at Bellbrae are constantly on the lookout for sustainable solutions and opportunities that arise within the wider community.