A lot’s
been achieved in the five years since Mangere Bridge School created the role of
Environmental Educator. Deputy Principal
Jan Bills, a long-time advocate for sustainability within the school, saw the
need for a dedicated staff member to have this responsibility and passed the
mantel to teacher Don Biltcliff. He’s
tasked with role modelling sustainability, spearheading new initiatives and
considering the bigger picture of where they might go in the future as a
sustainable school.
Back in
2010, Don’s first action was to implement the school’s commitment to the Council’s
WasteWise Schools programme. This initiative provides mentoring and hands on
support to schools with sorting out their waste systems and incorporating waste
reduction into the school’s processes and curriculum. Also in 2010, children studying ecology visited
the Visy recycling centre in Onehunga to find out what happens to rubbish after
it’s picked up from the kerbside. “At
that time, the Caretaker took the rubbish away before children got to school.
The children didn’t understand the process”, says Don. A waste audit was conducted of the rubbish
being produced at school and they discovered that a lot of things were being
thrown out that could be reduced, reused or recycled. The children analysed the data and presented
their findings at a school-wide expo at the end of the term.
As a
result of their work, lots of changes were made around the school. “Turn It Over” bins were set up in every
class for scrap paper. Food waste and recycling bins were put in the classrooms. Worm farms were revived. Assembly items and staff training was run,
building knowledge on how to reuse and reduce rubbish. And a system of
incentives was created across the school, to reward classes and individual
students who made a special effort to reduce waste. As a result, children started to show a
general thoughtfulness about where rubbish goes. Don remembers that this increased awareness
and behaviour change “made a significant impact on how much went to landfill”
from the school.
Don
believes the secret to the success of these measures was that they were done
primarily “through the children”. Don’s
class, for instance, is responsible for inspecting rubbish bins across the
school to look for “contamination”. The
children give classes rankings depending on the state of their bins, bestow
WasteWise certificates on classes with well-sorted rubbish and award the sort-after
“Tidy Kiwi” to a star class each fortnight.
Some children are even reaching out into the community with their
passion for waste reduction, providing helpful suggestions to the on-site preschool
on how they might reduce waste as well. “All of this has been quite empowering for the
kids”, says Don. “Certain kids really pick up on this and become leaders.”
Families
have also benefitted from their children learning about waste reduction at
school. In his own class, parents have reported seeing their children turn into
“waste champions” at home, ensuring that everyone knows which bin to put things
in and educating family members on how much rubbish gets thrown away in
Auckland each year. The school is keen
to keep encouraging families to provide “litterless lunchboxes” for their
children and is looking at ways to support this further. “Even if 10% of our
kids become passionate WasteWise Warriors out there we’re off to a good start!”
believes Don. “That’s 10% more than before.”
For
other schools keen to embark on a similar journey, Don would highly recommend
finding ways to build WasteWise thinking into everyday learning in an authentic
way and to make it part of what teachers already do in classrooms rather than
an add-on. “Getting people to believe it
is important, and also the biggest challenge- management, teachers, parents and
children. Ideally everyone would see the purpose and want to take part.” Using local resources and building
relationships with people in the community with knowledge, expertise and time was
invaluable. Don makes special mention of
school parent, Ambury Farm Ranger and Friends of the Farm member Janine Nillesen,
who’s provided hands-on support for the school at shared lunches and gala days.
“If only every school could have a
Janine!” he says.
Mangere
Bridge School has now officially graduated from the WasteWise Schools programme
and wants to tackle other areas of sustainability. Energy and water are next on the list, with
dreams of using solar power and collecting rain water. A fruit tree orchard is being developed. Don is eyeing up the berm on Taylor Rd as a
potential planting spot for edibles. His
enthusiasm and energy is infectious and it’s not hard to see how he’s managed
to achieve such impressive results in such a short space of time. “The future of the
planet lies in the hands of the kids I teach today”, believes Don. “How we live
is ultimately unsustainable, we have to make some changes, and as I tell the
kids, if we think global but act local we WILL make a difference.”
By Justine Skilling
