Project Profile

Summary

All of the students attending Binya Public School are from our local farming community. This is the industry in which their parents work and many of them are likely to work in the future. With this in mind, we would like to undertake the BFA Organic School Gardening Program. The funding has allowed us to set up the area for the organic garden and undertake the lessons outlined in this program.

While the school has attempted to introduce vegetable gardens in the past they have not been sustainable due to the lack of funds available to invest in setting them up properly with a view to making them an ongoing part of the school program. Due to this project we now have a vegetable garden that is easily maintained and sustainable. This allows us to spend more time on curriculum linked to the garden and the specific outcomes we have identified as a priority. Maintaining the garden is still embedded in our school timetable but the time required is both minimal and practical. The worm farm and compost tumblers we established with this project have also allowed us to use organic fertiliser and recycle our waste within the school.

Other stakeholders involved in this project include our local Binya community. We drew on local expertise, especially that of a local resident, George Turner, throughout the project (and still do) to teach and train the students in the more practical aspects of the garden. He still enjoys dropping in to check its progress and offer advice and we consider this an ongoing relationship. In the future, we would like to broaden the stakeholders involved in our project to include local businesses and consultants in the gardening and cooking industries.

Students have:
•    learnt about the environment;
•    developed skills to investigate and solve issues in the environment;
•    acquired attitudes of care and concern for the environment;
•    adopted behaviours and practices which protect the environment; and
•    understood the principles of ecologically sustainable development.

A message from Binya Public School: “We would like to thank Coles and Landcare for giving us the means and opportunity to embark on this program that has now become an integral part of our school culture. The extra funds available through this program have ensured that this is not a brief project or unit that we have undertaken, but rather we have developed a sustainable and practical resource that will provide continued and ongoing opportunities for learning”.

Photography

George Turner showing the students how to plant Vegetables.

Students soil testing.