Blog 1.2: Sustainability in Foundation Year.

Hi parents/carers.

We are very excited about our current focus on sustainability. We have started to introduce the topic through everyday conversations relating to how to care for familiar places: our home, our parks and our school. Students are building their awareness of the importance they can make in their home and in their community by caring for them in different ways.

We hope that the following information gives you a guide as to what your child is learning throughout HASS (Sustainability cross-curriculum priority) this year and provides options to deepen this learning at home where possible.

What will my child be learning?

The Foundation Year curriculum focuses on students exploring the place they live in and discuss why it is important to them and what makes this place special. This provides opportunities for students to then reflect on their learning to discuss and suggest ways they can care for a familiar place. We have started to discuss food packaging in student’s lunch boxes and the ways in which it impacts on our environment. Where does it go? How does it get there? What would happen if we didn’t dispose of it properly? We are including some new words that our students are becoming familiar with. These include: recycle, biodegradable, environment, waste, landfill, organic, dispose and compost.

How will this be taught?

We have introduced the topic by asking students to think about a place they enjoyed visiting, we then asked them to give thought to how they can care for this place. What does this place need to stay clean/looked after? Our students came up with some fantastic responses:

I like to go to my Pops and I can care for this place by helping him water his garden


I like to go to the beach and we don’t leave our rubbish there


Students gave visual representations of their ideas and they were SUPER!

Why is this important?

The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (MCEETYA 2008), acknowledges that all young Australians should be supported to become “successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens of the 21st century".


This includes participation (through learning and through doing) the ways in which students can develop more sustainable ways of living.


In addition to this, learning about their own heritage and their own place contributes to students’ sense of identity and belonging, beginning the idea of active citizenship.

How am I able to be included in the learning process?

We have found some fantastic resources to support student learning and are asking that in the coming weeks, students chose one book to take home. Please feel free to borrow more than once.

    

                                                                

To further develop student understanding, we would like to take our class on an excursion to our local recycling depot. This authentic learning opportunity will extend their knowledge further as students will be able to witness first hand the process behind recovering valuable resources from everyday waste.


The recycle depot are committed to “increasing awareness of sustainable waste management practices through education” and have a fantastic range of worksheets available online that promote education on recycling and caring for the environment. The link is below.




If you would like to join us on our excursion, please do!


http://www.sita.com.au/community-education/site-tours-education/