Youth Environment Leadership Program (YELP)
This year, our twelve student leaders on the STEM Committee and the Citizenship Committee are also participating in the Youth Environmental Leadership Program (YELP) run by Green Adelaide. The YELP Team will lead positive environmental change within our school and community by working on an environmental project/s of the group’s design during 2024, with support from Mrs Doull.
On Tuesday in Week 2, eight members of the YELP Team participated in a full day Student Forum on the environment run by Green Adelaide. We met with eight other school groups in the main pavilion at Belair National Park, to engage in activities focused on the improvement of sustainability practices in our schools and understanding and caring for our natural environment. We had perfect weather and enjoyed participating in a number of sessions. Belair National Park was enchanting, with a variety of trees scattered around the park.
We highly enjoyed getting to brainstorm our project for this year. The kind people of Green Adelaide had set up a "growing a project" system to get us to think about the roots (group values), the trunk (our goals), the branches (what we need), the leaves (our actions), the fruit (our impact) and the sun (support and community). Using this unique method the eight of us determined that the best project for us to start investigating would be around adding more greenery to spaces around our school's grounds, using native and helpful plants. While this is not guaranteed it seems to be the most popular direction so far. Watch this space!
Another activity we enjoyed was the Sensory Walk. Usually our eyes dominate the rest of our senses but this was an activity designed to contradict this. We put blindfolds over our eyes as our partner from another school led us around the small part of the park we had to explore. Our partners could get us to feel, hear, smell or even taste the nature around us (luckily none of our partners got us to taste anything!). The main point of this activity was to appreciate the beauty and biodiversity of the park.
Craig Baulderstone from the Friends of Belair National Park group told us about the bush care activities that Friends groups undertake in the park. Belair National Park was established in 1891 as only the second National Park in the whole of Australia, and its 832 hectares protects a unique and healthy ecosystem supporting biodiversity and many rare species.
We also created a "Bird Real Estate" pitch, where we tried to "sell" an assigned an area of natural habitat by identifying the positive qualities this area provided to support life for a range of animals, including birds, insects and reptiles. The "Marvellous Minibeast Mansion" was sold brilliantly by the Mitcham YELP Team!
The day ended with some reflection in nature, with Nature Journaling. We ventured outside to find a space to sit quietly by ourselves and be creative in response to the environment. Students drew pictures, wrote poems and descriptions, and enjoyed the experience of focussing attention on the environment around us.
Thank you to Green Adelaide for this opportunity to improve our school and experience.
Esme L & Elanor J for the Year 6 YELP Team, and Mrs Doull
Science Teaching Award
Congratulations to our upper primary Science Teacher, Miriam Doull, who was awarded the Credit Union SA Outstanding Contribution to the Teaching of Science Primary Years Award 2024, given by the South Australian Science Teacher's Association (SASTA). Thank you to SASTA and Credit Union SA for recognising Miriam's achievements. This Award recognises Miriam's contributions to the education of students in science, her association with SASTA and dedication to profssional learning to improve her skills and student outcomes. The award was presented at the SASTA Annual Conference in the April school holidays.
