CLEAN UP AUSTRALIA DAY

Clean Up Australia Limited is a not-for-profit Australian environmental conservation organisation founded by Australians, Ian Kiernan and Kim McKay in 1989. It works to foster relationships between the community, businesses and governments to address the environmental issues of waste, water, and climate change.

As this event is part of our school calendar of activities, we again elected to be involved in this challenge of cleaning up both our school environment and a small area of our Shepparton community. The junior grades focused on our immediate school grounds and the senior classes travelled to Kalinga Park.

Seniors

Students met some River Connect and Parks Victoria staff at the corner of Lincoln Drive and Hassett Street, Shepparton. They gathered for the welcoming talk, the traditional acknowledgement of the first people of this area and the overview of the Clean Up Australia program by Allison (RiverConnect). A safety talk on how to pick up rubbish and being mindful of safety issues was presented by Hilary (Waste Education).

Students then went into groups with teachers and the environmental specialists and groups were spread out in different directions. The specialists moved amongst the groups and monitored progress. Students returned to the meeting point and talked about what was found and where and if there was anything odd. Other concerns addressed were what should be recycled and how littering can be prevented.

Juniors

On Tuesday, March 6th, the Foundation to Grade 2 students took a session off from their timetable to clean up an area in the school. Each class adopted an area to clean. Wearing cleaning gloves and having helpful hands, they picked up rubbish and unwanted items which were found around the school yard.

Students also watched a video on the effects of littering on aquatic animals. They discussed the importance of a clean and healthy environment and identified ways in which, as a school community, they could make a difference starting with keeping our school yard clean by bringing litter free lunches.

Clean Up Australia Day is always a fun and engaging way for us to teach our students about the responsible disposal of rubbish and the repercussions of rubbish dumped irresponsibly in the local environment.