Environmetal Education\Sustainable School

Grounds Projects 2003-2007.

Preston East Primary School has worked to develop several grounds projects to improve our environmental sustainability.  We sourced a number of grants to support our projects, so that they were carried out at minimal cost to the school.

In 2004, we set up a Kitchen Garden, which is home to three chooks, and has composting bays, raised garden beds for seasonal veggies, fruit trees, grape, kiwi fruit and passion fruit vines as well as perennial herbs like lavender and rosemary. Some of our delicious produce is cooked at school. Every classroom, the canteen and staffroom, have food scrap buckets as well as paper recycling bins, and the scraps are fed to our chooks.

Children visit our garden groups of four for Monday workshops which are conducted by volunteer parents and supported by staff. We also have a grove of Citrus and Olive Trees in another corner of our school grounds. Adjacent to our olive grove we put in a large Water Tank to supply the garden, and at the same time the tank takes the load of the storm water drain which is prone to flooding in a downpour. As well as our food production/permiculture projects our school has also sought to broaden the biodiversity within our grounds, with a number of indigenous planting projects. One area we call the Butterfly Forest which is planted with butterfly attracting plants.

Another project is a River of Sand.

We definitely thought “outside the square” in terms of a sand pit when we dug a meandering, 15 meter long trench, filled with sand and studded with large rocks. Our River of Sand instead resembles a dry creek bed. We have planted indigenous plants along it’s length, although the drought and a lot of footwear have taken their toll.

Excavated alongside the River of Sand is a large circular depression, designed as a Bog Garden. We hope to develop a damp frog friendly soak. We have diverted the run off from a drinking trough as well as a down pipe, through a pipe imbedded under the ash felt to supply the Bog Garden. Again, the drought has left us disappointed, and we are looking to line our Bog Garden and replant its perimeter with indigenous plants to provide a frog habitat.

We have also sought to sustainably heat and cool our school installing a number of passive measures to improve our energy efficiency. We have installed Sealing Insulation, Shading Blinds for shade and Shade Sails. We have planted trees and broadened a garden bed surrounding the junior school. We also installed Solar Lizards which are a solar powered cross ventilation system, which helps to moderate classroom temperatures. We are hoping to continue our sustainability ethos, with future projects to improve the schools energy efficiency, so that Preston East remains a leader in environmentally friendly education in our area.

Jane Spracklan 22/03/09