Category / Kreative Koalas

by Lynne Strong

Keep your “Eyes” on St Catherine’s Catholic School

Students at St Catherines at Singleton celebrate the arrival of their Archie 

COVID-19 has dominated the way we work in 2020, creating challenges and uncertainty; but with it has also come opportunities for new entrants to our in-school programs The Archibull Prize (TAP) and Kreative Koalas (KK).

TAP and KK are operating under a new model this year, which encourages communities of practice across primary, secondary and tertiary education institutions, business and government. One school taking on the challenge for the first time is St Catherine’s Catholic College at Singleton, under the guidance of agriculture teacher Joanna Towers.

“One good thing about this crisis [coronavirus lockdown] is I have had time to study at home and listen to a range of webinars in my own time. It has opened up a whole new world for me – soil health, regenerative agriculture, carbon in soils. At the moment I am into dung beetles and it’s become my goal to get them back to the school farm.” Joanna says

The 35 hectare school farm has previously had all but 4 hectares leased to a third party but this year the lease will revert in entirety to the school.

“How we will manage that land has given me the impetus to put new learnings into place,” Joanna says.

In a normal year the students of St Catherine’s would have pigs and cattle ready for the Sydney Royal Easter Show and its cancellation brought great disappointment to the school.

“I wanted something different and something the students could look forward to.  I had always been aware of The Archibull Prize and always looked at the final products with amazement, but I thought the project was too big. Now we have an art teacher on board to provide creative genius and a new direction for the school farm, and are participating in both The Archies and Kreative Koalas!” Joanna says

St Catherine’s tasted success with PYiA when they joined the Careers Competition in 2019 where one of their students, Hallee Tanzer, won the Years 7 to 10 section. Joanna found this competition, and the resume writing competition that is part of The Archibull Prize , to be a great asset for her students.

“Glencore [mining company] is a major employer in Singleton and recently they advertised 40 positions and got 1800 applicants. The Cultivate your Dream Career Competition will give  the students skills in resume writing to make that important first impression. For example, it’s all very well to say to an employer you are a team player but it’s the concrete evidence of those skills that is important. Students may not realise the skills they learn in school are transferable to the workplace and this competition helped them make that connection.” Joanna says

St Catherine’s will be joined on their 2020 Archibull Prize and their  Kreative Koalas journey by Young Farming Champion Tim Eyes, himself a promoter of sustainable and ethical agriculture, and we look forward to watching their vision for a new school farm evolve.

 

by Lynne Strong

It would be a great honour to support Sir Ken Robinson’s legacy

Sir Ken Robinson (1950 – 2020) was the most watched speaker in TED’s history, with his 2006 talk ‘Do Schools Kill Creativity?’ being viewed online over 60 million times and seen by an estimated 380 million people in 160 countries.

He was named as one of Time/Fortune/CNN’s ‘Principal Voices’; acclaimed by Fast Company magazine as one of ‘the world’s elite thinkers on creativity and innovation’ and ranked in the Thinkers50 list of the world’s top business thinkers. Source

He was a man who will always inspire. His vision to unlock the creative energy of people and organisations inspires the Picture You in Agriculture team

in this video filmed in May 2020 Sir Ken says

Human beings are like the rest of life on earth, we flourish under certain conditions and we wither in other circumstances.

The other parallel is sustainble agricultural systems based on cultivating the soil, this is also true of our communities in our cities, in our neighborhoods, in our schools. That people flourish when the culture is right. Great teachers, great principals, great school systems understand that you don’t make a successful education system based on driving people through pointless systems of tests and output and data driven hurdles.

The way you get people to flourish, is by recognizing their individuality. The great diversity and depth of people’s talents of children from every age are full of boundless possibilities.

You do that by creating a mixed culture in schools. One that values the sciences, the arts, technology, that values individual talent, the driving force of individual passions. In other words, successful schools don’t focus on output, they focus on culture in the same way the sustainable farmers focus on the soil.

You get the culture right, everything else takes care of itself. That  means a culture of compassion, of collaboration, of empathy, and of the value of individuals and the necessity of our social lives thriving through our joint participation.

At Picture You in Agriculture  we are delivering sustainability education programs through the lens of agriculture

The Archibull Prize and Kreative Koalas -Design a Bright Future Challenge are connecting learning to:

  • Real world issues
  • Real world people
  • What young people value

Our programs are linked to all the key learning areas in the Australian curriculum as well as the general capabilities (employability skills) and the three cross curriculum priorities.

The programs also helps deliver the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration goals

In the process we are giving students agency and a voice

and thank you to the ABC  Behind the News for supporting Kreative Koalas Kids at Caragabal Public School to amplify their voices

We agree with Sir Ken. We have found young people love to learn. They have values we can all aspire to, they are deeply curious creatures, highly creative, deeply compassionate, and highly collaborative.

Visit our Kreative Koalas Changemakers page to be inspired

We are showing we can reinvent school, we can revitalize learning, and we can reignite the creative compassion of our communities if we think differently when we try to go back to normal.

COVID19 has been challenging for our funding model and we look forward to coming out on the other side to a joint vision for a bright future. It would be great honour to support Sir Ken Robinson deliver his legacy

by Lynne Strong

Using agriculture to build the confidence of young people to be ready for the future of work

Emma - Life Changing

At Picture You in Agriculture we are a customer focused and people orientated organisation. For our in-school programs our customers are young people and we invite them to tells us how our programs can best support them to thrive in business and life.

They are very generous sharing their thoughts and dreams with us. We collect, track, and analyse the data to understand patterns and trends and make forecasts about what young people are thinking, feeling, talking about and want to act on. We measure to detect what is broken and refine interventions. We experiment to learn what works.

The clarion call in the past few years has been the request to help young people be confident they will be ready for the future of work . As you can see from previous surveys of the students we work with they are telling us they need a lot of support

Employability skills - extremely confident

Had a fantastic conversation with a teacher today. She tells me their school (which is participating in both The Archibull Prize and Kreative Koalas) is taking the opportunity to leverage our in school programs to increase their students employability skills and open their eyes to the depth and breadth of careers in agriculture. Yesterday the students had a presentation from a local agronomist, who shared his career journey and what his day in the workplace looked like .

The teacher was so proud of her students. She said the high level questions to the presenter came thick and fast.

One in a series that the agronomist handled beautifully was:

Student: How many clients do you have?
Agronomist: 85
Student: Isn’t that a conflict of interest?
Agronomist: Took a deep dive into a conversation about confidentiality and ethics

We are looking forward to doubling these young people’s confidence in their employability skills

by Lynne Strong

Students from Carlingford West Public School find out what a farmer in the 21st century looks like

In 2019 when Zoe Stephens, science teacher at Carlingford West Public School, realised she had to teach her students about wool and sustainable fibres, she knew she needed to find an expert who could share real life experiences. So she trawled the internet looking for real-life farmers who may want to connect with her students. After plenty of maybes and half promises she came across Lynne Strong from Picture You in Agriculture and the Young Farming Champions, and Paddock Pen Pals was born.

Paddock Pen Pals beams Young Farming Champions from the paddock directly into classrooms using zoom, and this year six farmers joined the conversation at Carlingford West: Lucy Collingridge, Samantha Wan, Dione Howard, Katherine Bain, Danila Marini and Chloe Dutschke.

“Before we started I sat down with the Year 6 cohort [over 180 students] and asked them what they thought of when they pictured a farmer. You can imagine the comments – someone out in a field sucking on a bit of straw, big hat on and always a male. So then I said ‘next week you’ll actually get to chat with some farmers and they’re all young women’ and their mouths just hung open. It was amazing to have six young women to talk with us, particularly incredible because we are really breaking that stereotype of who is a farmer.”  Zoe says.

With 82% of careers in agriculture supporting farmers to produce food and fibre the stereotype is certainly changing.

All Young Farming Champions work in different parts of the wool industry: Chloe is a contract musterer, Lucy a biosecurity officer, Dione a veterinarian, Katherine a business analyst, Sam a wool broker and Danila a researcher, and all were paired with a separate Year 6 class for a half hour presentation.

“All our farmers had something different to offer and this broadened the students’ understanding of the industry beyond sheep growing wool. Our big question was how are our farming industries implementing sustainable practices and having a dedicated Young Farming Champion for each class meant the students got a very one-on-one conversation with these farmers and I think that gave them more connection with who they were talking with.” Zoe says

Big Question

“The kids were great,” Lucy says. “They had so many exciting questions and we had a great discussion about the sustainability of the wool industry with the kids who all knew about renewable resources and the unsustainable process to make man-made fibres.”

Sam showed the students a range of woollen products.

PPP Sam Refelction

Dione spoke about animal health

PPP Dione Student refelction

Danila described her research into virtual fences

Danila 2

Danila 1

There were lots of questions for Danila

Chloe amazed them with the size of her property (“She had 18,000 sheep,” was one student’s comment. “I thought there would be only around 20 and they would be kept in a big red barn with a little fence!”)

Katherine Bain 1

Katherine “introduced them to her sheepdog Zip and got to show them a video of sheep being moved in the yards which caused a lot of excitement!”

“One of my favourite quotes from the students, which I heard over and over again, was ‘she answered my questions. Afterwards I asked them to reflect and write down what they had learnt and I love the fact not one of them were the same. Everyone has taken away their own understanding from their own perspective.”  Zoe says. 

The students have now created a wool wall in their classroom

Wool Wall

The students will use their new-found perspectives as they create a project around waterway sustainability, and have strengthened their connection with their Young Farming Champions by promising to share with them the final products. Paddock Pen Pals has been an exceptionally effective way of connecting with real-life farmers and diving deep into the Australian wool industry. It will also hold the students in good stead as they tackle the 2020 Kreative Koala challenge.

For the Young Farming Champions, Paddock Pen Pals was another way to give back to the wool industry.

“I grew up only half an hour from Carlingford West – these students were me – and I had no idea about wool at their age,” Sam says. “I was excited to talk to the next generation of wool consumers about the benefits of wool and wool’s importance in Australia and of the career opportunities available. I even got a message from AWTA (the largest wool testing organisation) managing director, Michael Jackson, reminding me he went to Carlingford West, and then had a successful career in the wool industry!”

For Zoe, this was the second year she had participated in Paddock Pen Pals and although she feels she now has a strong understanding of the world of wool,

“there is no comparison between me standing up in front of the students and telling them what I know about wool to having an actual farmer, standing in a field, talk with them.”

For the students, they have had their queries answered by an expert and they now know what a farmer looks like.

 

 

by Lynne Strong

ONE YEAR ON … WHAT STUDENTS AT JAMES ERSKINE PUBLIC SCHOOL LEARNT FROM KREATIVE KOALAS

Prior to joining the Kreative Koalas program in 2019, students from western Sydney’s James Erskine Public School (JEPS) were already on a sustainability trajectory. They had been involved in Clean Up Australia Day and National Tree Day, had established a vegetable garden, a sensory garden and a bee garden, and recycled paper and cardboard weekly.

Then a giant white fibreglass koala landed on their doorstep and sent their environmental awareness into overdrive. They spoke with YFC Anika Molesworth about climate change and its effects on farmers, implemented composting and became part of the Return and Earn scheme by collecting recyclable containers.

“When we looked at what we could see and feel for ourselves – hotter days, longer drought, water restrictions, extreme weather, bags and bags of garbage headed to landfill, rubbish blowing across the playground, abandoned chicken coops and overgrown gardens… It was easy to see the changes that we needed to make. Our concept inspired the individual pictures on our koala and each day she grew. As we learned new things, we added them, it was a work in progress,” the students said in their Kreative Koalas artwork analysis.

But did JEPS maintain this enthusiasm once the project ended for the year?

“Kreative Koalas had a snowball effect on us. Since September last year we have continued the container recycling and returned over 7900 containers, earning the school $790. This has been used to purchase native bee hotels and a worm farm, and to sponsor a koala through World Wildlife Fund. This year we will also look at soft plastic recycling and possibly get chickens for the school.” teacher Taryn Pears says.

Their fibreglass koala, named Climb It, now holds pride of place in a purpose-built garden at the school.

“She’s surrounded by native plants and all the students are excited to see her on display,” Taryn says

And although Covid-19 has meant JEPS will not be taking part in the 2020 Kreative Koalas, the school continues to feed off the KK momentum.

“I was so glad we had the opportunity last year and we’ve had amazing feedback from the parents and the kids and even other schools who have called me up asking for advice. We have joined forces with Cassandra Lindsay [from Oxley Park Public School] and established a Kid’s Kitchen and Garden where the kids can grow edible plants and cook them. It has been wonderful to show the kids that small changes can make big differences.” ” Taryn says.

In 2020 the Kreative Koalas program, in conjunction with The Archibull Prize for secondary schools, has been adapted so it continues to reach students and teachers, even in a global pandemic! The importance of these programs is not lost on those in the wider community and extends to the political realm.

“I was so impressed with the student and school projects that were showcased at last year’s presentation. The children were outstanding in their delivery and the koalas, of course, are both an item of beauty and knowledge.” says Pauline Dunne Team Leader from the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment says.

JEPS exemplifies the ethos of Picture You in Agriculture. Programs such as Kreative Koalas, and The Archibull Prize, are not one off events but rather paths to a sustainable future where our young people can be part of the solution and drivers of the change our world needs.

Taryn and the students from James Erskine Public School with Costa Georgiadis at the Kreative Koalas Awards

 

 

 

 

by Lynne Strong

Celebrating Partnerships with Jane Lloyd-Jones from Hunter Local Land Services

At Action4Agriculture we are dedicated to identifying and nurturing emerging leaders in the agriculture sector. Our mission is to amplify their stories and pride in their chosen career paths.

To achieve this, we grant them access to a network of experts who provide training in communication, presentation skills, and consumer insights.

The cornerstone of our training’s effectiveness is the practical application of learned skills. Facilitating our in-school programs, The Archibull Prize and Kreative Koalas, offers a powerful experience. These programs have reached an impressive milestone, impacting 400 schools and 300,000 students over the past decade.

Our innovative program model not only supports these emerging leaders but also engages teachers, students, and communities in a rich tapestry of intergenerational expertise.

Over recent years, including the challenging pandemic period, our Kreative Koalas program has flourished through collaboration with organisations that foster life-changing opportunities. A prime example is our partnership with Hunter Local Land Services, led by school engagement officer Jane Lloyd-Jones. Jane’s role includes school visits, coordinating excursions, and featuring in educational videos. Today, we explore Jane’s journey into this pivotal role.

Jane Lloyd Jones with students at the Kreative Koalas Awards and Celebration Day

Jane’s environmental passion was kindled in childhood during bushwalks with her family, leading her to earn a Bachelor of Science in Resource and Environmental Management from Macquarie University. Her career began at Sydney Water, where she prepared environmental reviews and statements, and discovered her joy in educating young students about water conservation.

“My appreciation for the environment started at a young age when I spent many weekends going for walks through the local bushland with my family. This love for the environment led me to complete a Bachelor of Science majoring in Resource and Environmental Management at Macquarie University.”  Jane says.

This experience sparked her commitment to community and youth engagement, which she continued at Gosford Council through the implementation of the Stormwater Quality Management Plan and educational programs like Waterwatch.

“Implementation of this plan included many very successful community education and engagement programs, including starting up the Waterwatch program in the Gosford area,” she says.

Furthering her expertise, Jane served as a Coastcare Facilitator in the Mid North Region, supporting environmental rehabilitation projects. After a career break to raise her children, she resumed her professional journey as a Waterwatch assistant at Hunter Central Rivers CMA, a role that evolved significantly over time.

As a school engagement officer, Jane relishes the opportunity to make learning fun and engaging for students, while collaborating with partners including local and state governments, Landcare, and non-profits like Action4Agriculture.

“As school engagement officer, I really enjoy interacting with and helping school students to learn in a fun, engaging way.  I enjoy the close working relationship I have with a number of our partners, including local and state government, Landcare and not for profit organisations such as Action4Agriculture”

A highlight of this collaboration was the 2019 project with Medowie Christian School in Kreative Koalas, focusing on clean water and sanitation, which won the Grand Champion Community Project for Change award.

 

Partnerships like these are the backbone of Action4Agriculture’s success in in-school programs, ensuring the dissemination of essential community messages.

We are excited to continue our collaboration with Jane and Hunter Local Land Services in fostering resilient communities within productive and healthy landscapes

#Action4Agriculture #EmergingLeaders #AgricultureEducation #SustainableFarming #CommunityEngagement #EnvironmentalAwareness #YouthInAgriculture #AgriLeaders #InnovativeEducation #AgriImpact #SchoolPrograms #AgriCareers #EnvironmentalStewardship #ResilientCommunities #AgriCommunications #LearningAndDevelopment #FutureOfFarming #AgriTraining #AgriculturalLeadership #EmpoweringYouth

 

by Lynne Strong

United Nations Leaders and Teen Stars Invite Young People to Reimagine the World. 

We are very excited to be supporting The World’s Largest Lesson to promote the World’s Largest Lesson Live,

Save the date: 16th June

Why are they holding this event and why young people should get involved?

The world is facing enormous challenges right now. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown so many of our lives up in the air while many people continue to experience overwhelming inequality and injustice.

That’s why we’ve partnered with UNICEF to produce World’s Largest Lesson Live,

This 35 minute educational show for teenagers features United Nations leaders including Amina J Mohammed, Deputy Secretary General of the UN. They are joined by teen stars Millie Bobby Brown and Sofia Carson as well as students from across the world. It premieres on YouTube at 11am EST/4pm UK/1AM AEST Sydney on the 16th June and will be available on demand afterwards (French and Spanish subtitles).

We’re asking young people everywhere to help reimagine our societies so they are more fair, just and inclusive for everyone.

Can you ask your students and their families to watch the show and spread the word throughout your networks?  Then use these supporting resources to get everyone talking about the questions it raises:

  • What do we all want education to be like?
  • How can we create a world where everyone is healthy?
  • How can young people help shape what happens next?

Sign up here to be sent a reminder and look out for our social media campaign launching on Wednesday 10th June.

by Lynne Strong

Putting people first and building bridges together

At Picture You in Agriculture we love it when people ask us

“What are you most proud of?”

Our response

 We believe people are our greatest resource. We are proud to be a people centric organisation. We bring people doing great stuff together so they can do more great stuff together.

In our work with schools, we advise them to consider the following questions.

  • What does community mean to you?
  • What resources are there in your school community you could tap into?
  • What are you doing already?
  • What new partnerships could you build?
  • What can you do to build the capacity of your local community?

And our program evaluations are consistently showing the capcity building model is working

We are supporting teachers to empower their students to drive behavoiral change

“This project has been life changing for our school, families and staff! I am now a town coordinator for Kids4Kids! I have changed my recycling habits at home and have helped many staff and family members to do the same. When it’s explained to most people, they are happy to get on board. Kreative Koalas has been a good conversation starter to introduce people who might think it’s all too hard…it’s not! It’s been wonderful working with our local council and schools. It was just what we needed to get the ball rolling. We look forward to our 2020 projects!”

Teacher quotes:

“Knowing that it is possible for a community to change their habits through education we were able to engage our community hub (multicultural group of women) to implement ways of upcycling old clothing. Kreative Koalas also allowed us to value and take advantage of our community stakeholders who hold wonderful expertise .”

“Although we are very close to our other local schools, we don’t tend to associate with them. If we hadn’t participated in the Kreative Koalas project it probably wouldn’t have crossed our mind to include other members of our community. We are glad KK has opened our eyes to including others in our projects!”

 

Teacher comments indicate students were actively changing themselves, their families, and communities:

 

 

“Students were actively talking about the problem and their solutions at home. I had many parents express to me how engaged their children were at home about this project. “

Over 50% of the schools reported partnering with Aboriginal Land Councils resulting in comments like this

Just like our young Aboriginal Girl’s Group, this koala is a young female in an uncertain world. The Worimi girls are traditional custodians and they feel connected to their lands. Mother Earth has always provided for First Nation people a feeling of connection, a sense of belonging to the Earth, to all living things – the animals, the trees, the stars, one another.”

and this 

” Our students were talking about connection to country and development of their understanding as future custodians of Worimi lands. What this responsibility may look like and what they can do to shape the future in positive and caring ways…sustainable ways to ensure the success and care of future custodians like themselves and also of all creatures themselves and importantly, the land to which they inherently belong.”

and this

“Vacy is a country village in the Dungog Shire.  My class 3/4 along with the Aboriginal students from 5/6 looked at how our use of the land in Vacy has changed over time. What do farmers (our families) grow/raise here now? Why? What are we eating for morning tea?( lots of packet food!) Is this good for the land? What did the Wonorua people eat for food? How did they survive and thrive for millions of years sustainably? …..The black shadows [on our koala] are the spirits of the Wonorua people guiding us to live in harmony with the land as they once did”                                                                                                                     

It goes without saying young people are our legacy.

When we give them ownership of the problem, support their teachers with professional learning and surround them with community experts they believe anything is possible and they prove it is

Special shoutout to our funding partners for sharing our ethos of putting people first and investing in their growth and wellbeing

 

by Lynne Strong

Its COVID19 cut through time – Inviting teachers and students to Connect, Collaborate, Communicate and Celebrate their creativity in these challenging times  

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Exciting News

Do we have the perfect COVID19 cut through programs for you and your students?

It is time to combine learning with fun and post COVID career readiness

Expressions of interest are now open for The Archibull Prize and Kreative Koalas- Design a Bright Future Challenge investigating sustainability through an agricultural lens.

We know we are working in unusual times and our schools may feel like they are in chaos and teachers and students are feeling overwhelmed.

Our programs are an opportunity to engage students in an exciting, authentic learning experience supported by industry and educational experts.

Students will learn how to manage projects more efficiently and can take full ownership of their work, reflecting on and celebrating their progress and accomplishments. The model encourages students to find their voice and learn to take pride in their work, boosting their agency and purpose.

To bring some added Koala Karma to your lives our team has gathered all the bright minds in education together to create a portfolio of support materials for your learning journey

How does it work

The  Archibull Prize 2020 sees secondary schools tasked with identifying a local agricultural area of investigation and exploring its challenges and opportunities. The students will be assigned a Young Farming Champion and encouraged to identify specialist educational settings, tertiary, business, and government organisations with whom they can partner in their quest to take ownership of the challenge and share their findings and recommendations.

The Archibull Prize Expressions of Interest brochure can be found here

Secondary schools will also be encouraged to build a partnership with their feeder primary schools for Kreative Koalas – Design a Bright Future Challenge with the opportunity for the secondary school to offer student mentoring, facilitation and specialist support.

Kreative Koalas design a bright future challenge taps into creative minds to connect and inspire young people and the community to work together to act on United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on a local level

Kreative Koalas expression of interest brochure can be found here

Based on the concept of ‘communities of practice’ these partnered learning opportunities between primary, secondary, specialist educational settings and tertiary institutions will enhance the transition of students through their education journey and provide post-school opportunities through other partnerships with industry and government.

The new model is tailored to support schools to encourage teacher and student collaboration using cross curricula learning.  In addition, it will incorporate the development of intergenerational knowledge and skills transfer while continuing to be an exemplary example of student-driven project-based learning.

Extra support will be available for students in rural and regional NSW through our new partnership with the STEM Industry School program

The Archibull Prize and Kreative Koalas provide young people with future focused learning linked to real world issues at both a society and agricultural industry level and fosters the top four skills 21st century employers want: collaborative team players, creative thinking, critical analysis and problem solving and influential communication.

Places are limited we currently have opportunities for 10 secondary schools and 20 partner primary schools to participate in 2020.

Visit our website to chose the progam that matches your school

by Lynne Strong

2019 Kreative Koalas Design a Bright Future Challenge Winners announced

Medowie Christian School and Raymond Terrace Public School have been named Grand Champion Koalas in the 2019 Kreative Koalas – Design a Bright Future Challenge. Kreative Koalas is a ground-breaking project-based learning initiative from Picture You in Agriculture, which this year delivered the sustainability message and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into fifteen primary schools from the Hunter Valley and Penrith Regions.

Young people may only be 20% of the population but they are 100% of the future. Through Kreative Koalas we are giving them a voice in designing and creating that future. This year students have investigated local issues and worked with the community to give a voice to our Koalas and threatened species, our waterways and our farmers. The students have said ‘Together we can’

Medowie Christian School was awarded the Grand Champion Community Project for Change after collaboration with Hunter Local Land Services to raise the importance of healthy waterways for clean water and sanitation. The students developed six easy-to-follow methods for protecting waterways and made these into a pamphlet, which was distributed to the school community. The students also visited their local Gramhamstown Dam to examine the health of the water through temperature, turbidity, salinity and pH testing and presented their findings at a school assembly. Learn more about the winning project here and here

Grand Champion Community Project.jpg

Students from Medowie Christian School with Chair of Hunter Local Land Services Lindy Hyam ( right) and teacher Martha Atkins ( left)

Raymond Terrace Public School was awarded Grand Champion Koala for their vibrantly decorated, life-sized fibreglass koala named Mitjigan Guula, which means girl koala in Worimi language. In collaboration with their Aboriginal Girl’s Group they incorporated indigenous designs on their artwork to look at the effects of climate change on koala populations. And, in what has unfortunately proved to be timely, the koala portrays how inaction on climate change can lead to devastating bushfires. The students have donated their prize money and their Koala to the Port Stephens Koala Hospital. See story here

Students from Raymond Terrace Public School with Costa Georgiadis

In other awards Penrith schools Ropes Crossing Public School and Colyton Public School  were recognised for their artwork and community project for change respectively.

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Four students were acknowledged as eco-warriors. These students were Zoe Bonifacio from Colyton Public School, Keeley Haywood from James Erskine Public School,Tayla Weeks from Medowie Christian School and Josie Hodges from Gresford Public School.

All schools received their awards at a ceremony held at Tocal Agricultural College on Thursday November 28, attended by sponsors and supporters and emceed by celebrity gardener Costa Georgiadis.

Photos from the awards day can be found here and a big shout out to our supporting partners empowering young people to solve tomorrows problems today

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