St Mary’s celebrates five stars
Warracknabeal’s St Mary’s Catholic Primary School will celebrate a five-star Resourcesmart School award on Saturday.
The award comes after three years of hard work and recognises St Mary’s as a leadership school in environmental sustainability in Victoria. It is one of 12 in regional Victoria.
Grampians Central West Waste and Resource Recovery Group acting executive officer La Vergne Lehmann said the school received a $10,000 energy-efficiency grant in 2014 to start its Resourcesmart journey.
“Since then the school has embraced not only energy efficiency, but water efficiency, waste reduction and improved biodiversity at school,” she said.
Ms Lehmann said St Mary’s had achieved five-star status because it had embraced sustainability across the school.
She said this included teachers adapting curriculum to include sustainability in classroom activities, updating school infrastructure to be as environmentally sustainable as possible and empowering the students to drive change in the school.
Grampians Resourcesmart Schools co-ordinator Paul Lehmann said if children were taught how to be sustainable at school they would take lessons home with them.
Ms Lehmann said for St Mary’s to become a Resourcesmart five-star school was a great achievement and recognition for the leadership of the school community, students, staff and families. She said the student leadership team had led the way by improving classroom recycling, thereby reducing what the school sends to landfill. Other activities included setting up a legacy sensory garden for future students to enjoy, participating in the RACV Energy Breakthrough and after doing an energy audit, replacing inefficient lighting with more efficient lighting.
“Add to that chooks, worm farms and native vegetation on the school grounds and you have a five-star leadership school,” Ms Lehmann said.
Resourcesmart Schools has been running for several years and St Mary’s has now joined an exclusive club.
“Grampians Central West Waste and Resource Recovery Group congratulate St Mary’s on this fantastic achievement,” Ms Lehmann said.
“Not only is it a win for the environment, it is also a win for the school budget as St Mary’s rarely pays an energy or water bill because of its solar-energy generation and water being collected in tanks.”
Celebrations will start at the school at 10am on Saturday and includes morning tea and a tour by students showing off their achievements. • Victorian schools can now enter Sustainability Victoria’s Resourcesmart Schools Awards, open to all Victorian government, independent and Catholic schools. People wanting more information can call Paul Lehmann on 0419 824 618 or visit website www. resourcesmartschools.vic.gov.au.