School: Thuringowa State High School (QLD)
Partner: Creekwatch and Conservation Volunteers Australia
Thuringowa State High School has an enrolment of 560 students from a range of social, cultural and economic backgrounds, and is in a low socio-economic area with a large population of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. The school is situated within the northern catchment area of the Great Barrier Reef, and adheres to the belief that real-life learning and connections to the community beyond school, is the key to providing an engaging curriculum.
The student mission statement at the school includes a commitment to being key planners and managers of change resulting in better environmental practices, and an active involvement in fulfilling responsibilities as global citizens. With this in mind, a group of students established the ‘Eco-Warriors’ group in February 2008. These students are engaged in activities that promote the values of responsibility and integrity of action through school-wide change.
To realise this vision the Eco-Warriors have partnered with a number of organisations from the local area. For example, the Coastal Dry Tropics Landcare/Conservation Volunteers Australia Nursery will be approached to assist with the supply of native seedlings and to provide stable soils in and around the school, in an effort to provide more suitable habitat for local wildlife. Participation in Coastal Dry Tropics Landcare’s regular land/river/creek clean ups will also be conducted, and the school has adopted a landcare site along a local river to monitor its health and wellbeing. Further participation in revegetation and water quality testing has also been undertaken with Conservation Volunteers Australia and the Creekwatch group, to help manage landcare and river health. A number of other groups are also affiliated with the school, including the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville City Council, the Department of Environment and Natural Resource Management, ABC Radio, the ‘Firestarter’ environmental organisation, and other cluster schools.
School staff members have also participated in professional development activities provided by community partners, and through the use of energy, litter and water audits of the school grounds the school is in the process of developing a School Environment Management Plan.
Through these partnerships and programs the school hopes to develop active and informed citizens with strong leadership and decision-making skills that will flow on through to the wider community. Relationships with partner organisations will allow students to directly contribute to a sustainable way of living and allow them to encourage the wider school community to do the same.
Funding from the Schools First Awards will go towards the monitoring of water and revegetation programs already established with the school’s partner organisations and to further develop these projects with the various partners.
