GREEN FESTIVAL RED HOT

Students from St Benedict’s Catholic School have celebrated their commitment to ecofriendly practices with the school’s annual Eco Fest.

Principal Penny Collins said the second annual event was a success.

“Eco Fest is an opportunity for our school to showcase the e-projects that we do as a learning and teaching initiative for each year level,” she said.

“It’s also an opportunity for us to invite members of the wider community who are passionate and interested about promoting sustainable habits to come and showcase their projects.”

The students showcased their chicken coop, billabong with live fish, vegetable and herb gardens, and programs such as recycling and composting to friends, family and community members.

Ms Collins said students of all year levels were engaged with the Eco Fest and the concepts of environmental sustainability.

“It tends to be something that’s part of the curriculum,” she said.

“But to be able to do it in a real-life way that’s meaningful to the children, actually having an impact on their immediate community in our school and being able to take on some of those initiatives at their homes, is something that’s of real interest to them,” she said.

“For us at this primary school level, it’s certainly more about that engagement of kids in real-life learning experiences.”

A number of community groups also joined in at the St Benedict’s Eco Fest, including the local beekeeping club, organic and garden stores, boomerang bag makers, Sea Shepherd, James Cook University,

Reef Guard and Landcare, and many more.

“We spoke to a number of the stallholders to see how they were going, and they were talking about how great the kids were at asking lots of questions,” Ms Collins said.

“Many of our stallholders were quite exhausted by the end.”