Swayneville State School enjoys a partnership with Landcare, and is also a Reef Guardian School. Working with local community groups is an enjoyable part of enriching the curriculum offerings for our children, while at the same time teaching them about their own community.
We have many ways that our children are engaged in learning about sustainable practises.
Battery Recycling: Swayneville School is a depot for battery collection, particularly large batteries such as car batteries, & batteries from farm machinery. These batteries are then on-sold and funds raised support our other projects.
Landcare: Working with Sarina Landcare, our school is accessing opportunities to learn from experts. The school gardens are being planted with largely native plants, and we are working together to manage erosion.
Garden Club: Nothing beats hands on, experiential learning. Our children are given opportunities to grow their own plants and flowers, taking the time to learn about soils, mini-beasts, water usage etc. Nothing beats taking home the plant or food that you grew yourself.
Orchard: Our orchard, consisting of mandarin and orange trees fruit annually. Students, largely unconscious of how special it is, are able to access the trees and eat the fruit during lunch breaks, and before or after school.
Hydroponics: The older students learning about water usage and closed water systems. A hydroponic system has been set up away from the play area, to see if we can produce our own food using these methodologies too.
Pot recycling: The school is now acting as a depot for the recycling of plant pots. These are collected and sent to a local nursery or Landcare.
Rainforest: Already mentioned, the far western ends of the school grounds have been planted in a rainforest style. Plans are afoot to work to make this into a 'future' forest so that the layers of a rainforest are more distinct.