The Sustainability and Environment Team engaged the 2022 Year 7 cohort during their Orientation Program. The “Sustainability at Whitefriars” presentation began with an address from Joshua Adams, the 2022 Environment Captain.
“My role as a student leader is to voice concerns on behalf of you, the student body, on issues relating to school life, and to act as a role model for the rest of the school by upholding the mission and values of the College. As Environment Captain, I am committed for the welfare of our environment, and will use the privilege of student voice to inspire and support you the students, staff as well as the wider community through knowledge and sustainable actions.
At Whitefriars, we are fortunate enough to be situated on 19 hectares of native bushland and are a local community facility for Manningham and surrounding areas. Therefore, it is our duty as students, to be aware and responsible for our own actions, to be sustainable.
You can do this simply by bringing rubbish free lunch, remembering to turn off lights and running taps, to respect the school gardens and nature reserves, bring reusable drink bottles to school and many other sustainable actions.
We also have an amazing Sustainability and Environment Team, who run student activities during lunchtimes. These activities are a great way make new friends and partake in exclusive hands-on projects down at the Mullum Mullum Creek and around our College grounds. Such as the “Water Bug Blitz”, “Rock and Soil Analysis”, the “Friars Hivers Beekeeping Club” and many more!
And, if you have any ideas or suggestions about the environment or being more sustainable at Whitefriars, I readily welcome emails or queries in person, I would love to hear what your thoughts are!
As stated in Genesis 1:26-28, human beings are the crowning achievement of the act of creation and are therefore entrusted by God to be caretakers of the natural world; I hope you can join me on this journey of stewardship, together.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity today to introduce myself, and what we the Sustainability and Environment Team aim to achieve this year. I wish the fellow Year 7s, the next generation of students here at Whitefriars, a smooth and joyous transition into the “high-school life” and their academic studies in the near future.”
The Year 7s learnt why a Carmelite Catholic College cares for the environment and what waste, water, energy and biodiversity action the College completes. Students participated in a Sustainability Scavenger Hunt around the College to find evidence of biodiversity, energy, water and waste reduction actions. A couple of groups had a special tour of the Food Technologies room where Mrs Ciavarella explained how Food Tech manage their resources sustainably. House groups were invited to discuss what their primary schools did for the environment and propose new ideas that Whitefriars College could consider. The team liked the following suggestions: “more veggie patches”, “waterslide onto oval to feed it water” (Trinity), “build a flying fox into the bushland” (Avila), “more recycling” (Soreth), “have a student soft plastics bin”, “have goats to eat grass and make goats cheese” (Corsini), “upgrade solar panels”, “emu bobs” (Lisieux), “increase energy rating appliances”, “Nude Food Dudes” (Mantua), “plant more native plants” (Brandsma), “wind turbines and water power and sustainability incursions” (Stein). The Sustainability and Environment Team look forward to involving, engaging and supporting the 2022 Year 7s on their Whitefriars Sustainability journey.
Ms Jo Menzies
Sustainability and Environment Team Facilitator
