St James’ Anglican School

ST JAMES’ ANGLICAN SCHOOL

SUSTAINING THE FUTURE

Creating new traditions with a strong focus on sustainability is part of St James’ Anglican School’s efforts to be sustainable, reduce their carbon footprint and ensure a better future for all students.

In the Junior School, students have been given the tools to create and maintain a sustainable fruit and vegetable garden with a greenhouse. The veggie garden being only one aspect of the School’s overall vision of developing an educational experience which embraces the natural environment, outdoor activities and developing an appreciation for sustainability. As students are encouraged to participate in the veggie garden during morning fitness time, they learn while they get their hands dirty completing tasks such as weeding, planting, harvesting and monitoring insects and witnessing the cycle of life.

Parent volunteers have been pivotal in getting the veggie garden underway and Pre-Primary parent Nina Dorieux said it had been a highly positive experience for students.

“It is heart-warming to see and hear the students express interest, joy and amazement as they take a share in the planting and growing of vegetables, and, taking the time to exercise sustainable practices,” she said. The students’ goal is to produce enough produce to sell at the St James’ Family Fun Fair in September, where the emphasis will be on market stalls offering home grown, organic, bespoke and locally sourced products.

The Senior School students are also focussed on opportunities to recycle and renew. Hospitality students have been looking at food wastage and ways to create by-products. In the student-run St James’ Café, the team have created a herb garden to enable access to organically grown, fresh herbs to use in their cooking. They have also put the used coffee grounds to good use as a fertiliser in the herb garden, along with composting food scraps to reduce wastage within the Café.

“We love doing our little bit of good, with the coffee grinds, food recycler and chicken scraps, it’s those little bits of good, that make us feel we are doing our bit to save our environment,” share Year 11 Hospitality Certificate students.

Also in Senior School this term the Science Department has set up an aquaponics system for the Year 12 students where students create a sustainable ecosystem for 15 rainbow trout whose waste will go towards growing crops including lettuce, carrots, coriander and cabbage.