Twelve CESA schools came together at St Pius X school to participate in the Green-Day out on 20 May as part of Catholic Education Week celebrations.
Six students from each of the schools in the north-east of Adelaide enthusiastically participated in an action packed day. The students, champions of sustainability in their communities, are in Yr 4, 5 and 6. They came from St Pius X, Windsor Gardens; St Brigid’s, Kilburn; Our Lady of Hope, Greenwith; St Monica’s, Walkerville; St David’s, Tea Tree Gully; Blackfriars, Prospect; St Francis Xavier Regional, Wynn Vale; Rosary, Prospect; St Gabriel’s, Enfield; St Paul’s, Gillies Plains and St Dominic’s, North Adelaide and St Martin’s, Greenacres.
Also making valuable contributions to the sustainability/ responsibility theme on the day were KESAB, Natural Resources Management (NRM) and Julian Kluge from the Religious Education Team, Catholic Education SA.
Each school group set up its own station related to each school’s particular environmental interests and expertise. While a couple of students from each school explained and demonstrated their ‘green theme’ students and teaches visited the other stations.
Station features included: keeping our oceans and waterways clean; composting, wiping out waste; planting suitable vegetation; taking responsibility; creative and nature play spaces and making cubbies from natural materials; getting the best out of raised garden beds; saving water; frog and fish ponds; native, exotic and endemic plant species; food club; landfill; selling vegetable seeds to raise funds for both replenishing and for charity.
The students learned more about ‘Laudato Si’, Pope Francis message: Taking care of our common home.
A student from St Brigid’s school spoke about their Stephanie Alexander Garden and food preparation:
“We make delicious food from the fresh produce from our garden” she said. In harmony with Pope Francis she also posed the question: ’How can we contribute to our common home?”
The young people enjoyed a team challenge: they were given an egg and some materials and were asked to protect the egg and then drop it. They repeated the exercise with the invitation to spend a while planning what to do to best protect the egg. This required working together and listening to each other. Generally the eggs were better protected when the team members took time to plan together.
This was the second green day out in this region and all agreed there are great benefits to schools coming together to share and inspire.
World Teachers Day, celebrated in Australia this year on October 25, offered a chance to thank all teachers with the ‘Hats Off’ theme, acknowledging the invaluable contributions they make to our communities.
As part of the annual World Teachers’ Day celebrations, Educators SA hosted a gala awards evening to recognise and celebrate the achievements of our state’s outstanding educators.
This year's Educators SA Awards ceremony was held at the Adelaide Oval and attended by more than 300 invited guests, with awards presented by Blair Boyer MP, Minister for Education, Training and Skills and Martin Westwell, Chief Executive of the Department for Education.
