Quality Improvement Plan for Sustainability for our Centre
- Reduce Waste
- Increase Recycling
- Reduce Consumption
- Reuse, Rejuvenate, Reinvigorate
- Improve The Environmental Performance of the Centre
- Promote Environmental responsibility and sustainability
- Incorporate This into our policies, programs and activities
- Make Connections with community, parents, families, businesses
Our centre has began to educate the children about sustainability and what we can all do to look after our environment. Some of the changes we have made, are the introduction of buckets at meal times, one for grey water and one for the worm farm, compost and chickens (The centre cook has chickens at home which the children are happy to share there left overs with). The children also take the grey water outside to water the plants and food scrap into the compose or worm farm depending on the scraps.
Community Garden
We have been lucky enough to receive a sustainability grant from Hobson’s Bay to get our community garden started.Firstly the children all participate in veggie gardens in there own yards. From there we have
Our Worm Farm
We started a worm farm. We bought 1500 worms.
We needed newspaper, soil, the worms and some water. Rachael showed us how to assemble the farm.
The worms will eat a lot of our food scraps and we will get some nice rich fertiliser to put on the plants to help them grow.
The worms can eat fruit and vegetable scraps, wet cardboard and shredded paper, lint and fluff and a little bit of coffee grinds.
The worms cannot eat, any citrus fruit, fish or meat and bones and no corn cobs or fruit stones.
Stop and Go signs
To help minimize the use of the heater and air-conditioner, the educators have introduced to the children a Stop and Go system. If there is a Green circle on the door the children are allowed to go outside but the doors stays closed, if there is a Red circle on the door than the children are not allowed outside. Having the doors open loses the heat or the cool air.
Centre Products
Our centre does its best to source products that are better for the environment.
Sustainability Person and policy
We have a member of staff who is in charge of sustainability, helping to educate the staff and working on a Policy that will further our centre in the care of the enviroment.
Activities
Some of the activities the educators have been developing with the children are :
- Paper making
- Reusing cardboard for art work
- Making birthday charts out of lids
- Small gardens out of bottles
- Using glass jars for paint
- Making wind chimes out of tins
- Participating in the vegie garden and planting fruit trees.
- Community Garden
Incursions
We are very excited to have the Mud monsters come to our centre.
Mud Monsters is a gardening program aimed at teaching children about seeds, growing fruit and vegetables, composting, worm farms and the natural cycles of life, all with an emphasis on sustainable living.
Sustainable living is achievable by instilling a love and respect of nature and the outdoors in children . We encourage children to nurture the world they live in.
Other areas of interest
- Water tanks for the gardens
- Half flush toilets
- Educators visit reverse garbage
- Compose on site
- Worm farm
- When able using what we grow in our menu
- Veggie patch/ Community Garden