Students at Sebastopol’s St James’ Parish School have had the opportunity to showcase their sustainability ideas in front of an expert panel, as part of a pilot project for young people designed to drive environmental thinking and encourage effecting social change.
The Grade 5 and 6 students have just completed the youth-led Sustainable Solutions project, which is run by the City of Ballarat with the support of Resource Smart Schools, the Eureka Centre and VicHealth.
The project saw the students participate in eight workshops throughout terms 2 and 3, which provided education and deliberation around key sustainability topics including waste, water, energy, circular economy and biodiversity.
From these sessions, students formed working groups to develop a solution to a local problem.
The project culminated in Wednesday’s presentation of their unique sustainability projects to the panel consisting of City of Ballarat Mayor Cr Des Hudson and Cr Belinda Coates; Member for Wendouree Juliana Addison, Sustainability Victoria’s Matt Genever and VicHealth’s Claire Taylor.
The pitches were conducted at the Eureka Centre, where the students participated in a number of workshops throughout the project.
Cr Hudson said the ideas presented showed an incredible amount of thought and knowledge from the St James students.
“Children are our leaders of today and not just of the future,” he said.
“Through this project, students were provided opportunities to create a sense of belonging by connecting to local environmental groups, understanding current issues and co-designing solutions to these issues.
“It’s important that young people have opportunities to become active and engaged citizens and share their unique views with their communities.”
The project pitches included:
- A board game to be distributed to Ballarat Primary Schools to teach our young people about how they can conserve water and reduce water waste.
- A bee conservation project, partnering with local nurseries to teach locals about bee friendly plants and the impact the loss of bees would have on our ecosystem.
- A battery recycling project, encouraging schools to collect and recycle batteries to keep precious resources out of landfill.
- A professionally recorded song promoting ‘nude food’, teaching Ballarat Primary Schools about reducing waste on the playground.
The school will now be awarded $2000 as part of the project, to enable them to turn the students’ ideas into action.
The implementation of the project aligns with multiple City of Ballarat plans and strategies, including the Municipal Health and Wellbeing Plan 2021-2031, the Youth Strategy and the Early Years Strategy.
