By Anna Patty Education Editor
Sydney Morning Herald December 10th 2007
THERE was a time, not so long ago, when the children
at Barnier Public School would have said the supermarket
was the place where fruit and vegetables come from. But now they are in no doubt about what it takes to
grow them from scratch. The school is one of 550 in NSW teaching students how
they can contribute to better management of the environment. The State Government will today announce a plan to set
carbon emission reduction targets at individual schools. The Minister for Education, John Della Bosca, will release
an energy and sustainability audit of 229 schools in
the Sydney metropolitan region. The audit has identified the top eco-friendly schools
as Five Dock, South Coogee, Menai, La Perouse, Eastlakes,
Cronulla South, Blakehurst and Loftus primary schools,
and Menai and Tempe high schools. Mr Della Bosca said it was clear from the audit that
primary school pupils were more environmentally aware
than their high school counterparts. "An analysis of each school's water and energy
use has already revealed how much each school is consuming," Mr
Della Bosca said. "Once the audit of schools and a database of environmental
projects have been completed, schools will be encouraged
to set yearly emission reduction targets." La Perouse Public School has installed automatic controls
on water bubblers as part of its water-conservation program. At Barnier Public School in Quakers Hill, the principal,
Rod Gibbs, said children had taken responsibility for
the school environment and were becoming role models
for their parents. More than 100 children from kindergarten
to year 6 have joined the school's gardening club, which
meets three times a week at lunchtime. A year 2 teacher, Jon Coburn, supervises the children,
who have grown corn, carrots, lettuce, peas, beans, watermelon,
tomatoes and strawberries in the school garden. They
have also planted a herb garden and an orchard of oranges,
apples, lemons, limes and peaches, as well as grapes,
cumquats and a coffee plant. A hothouse and greenhouse adjoin the garden, which is
fed with compost from one of the school's four compost
bins. "Each class has a compost bucket where they recycle
organic materials from recess and lunch," Mr Gibbs
said. "Before we started the project we would ask
where do vegetables come from and the kids would say,
'Coles'."
Green thumbs … Left to right:
Nathan Maguire, Jamie Fox and Zac Eastman in the school
garden.
''Reproduced with Permission from Sydney
Morning Herald  '
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