About AuSSI

In Tasmania the Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative (AuSSI-Tas) began in 2007. AuSSI is a partnership between the Australian Government and the States and Territories. The AuSSI vision is for all Australian schools and their communities to be sustainable. There are more than 3,000 schools Australia wide participating in the sustainable schools initiative. More information about the imitative Australia wide can be found at: http://www.environment.gov.au/education/aussi/ and http://www.environment.gov.au/education/aussi/publications/pubs/aussi-factsheet.pdf

AuSSI schools adopt:

• a whole of school approach to bring about improvement in a school’s management of resources and grounds, including energy, waste, water, biodiversity, landscape design, products and materials.
• creation of a whole school plan -School Environmental Management Plan (SEMP)
• integration of teaching and learning program through sustainability activities
• student’s participate in action learning
• opportunities for student voice/ student leadership
• an inclusive approach to involve the whole community – parents, community groups, business and industry
• a leading role in reducing the school’s environmental footprint and challenges of climate change

In Tasmania there are now 113 schools involved in AuSSI-Tas. These schools include catholic, independent and government schools from King Island to Bruny Island and Zeehan to Levendale. Snapshots from some of these schools can be viewed at:

http://aussietas.com/assets/aussitas_showcase_2010_part1.pdf Albuera St Primary -Devonport Primary

http://aussietas.com/assets/aussitas_showcase_2010_part2.pdf Gagebrook Primary - Lenah Valley Primary

http://aussietas.com/assets/aussitas_showcase_2010_part3.pdf Levendale Primary - Rosetta Primary

It is exciting to see the further expansion of the initiative into the Early Years with Child Care linking with AuSSI-Tas and creating environmental management plans to become more sustainable. For example, see Bungawitta’s snapshot in the 2010 AuSSI-Tas Showcase Booklet. 

Most AuSSI-Tas schools have within their biodiversity focus the creation and development of a school kitchen garden. For many students the gardens are their first experience of hands on learning and understandings around life cycles, interdependence, continuity and change, and cause and effect. Students are also developing social skills around working cooperatively, taking responsibility, developing resilience and resourcefulness. The gardens are proving to be a very positive way to involve parents and community members. Some AuSSI schools have developed reciprocal partnerships with aged care facilities where the students and residents work together propagating, planting and caring for a shared garden space. From this initial interaction, more opportunities for the schools and aged care facilities to work together have often developed. School’s sustainability teams have begun initiating gardens as part of their teaching and learning program and as a way to support hands on science experiments, student health and wellbeing and positive behaviour support programs. In some communities it has been the parents who have driven the inclusion of a garden in the school’s program.

International research by Bell and Dyment (2008) and Blair (2009) provides strong evidence to show that activities in school grounds including gardening, habitat restoration, tree planting, etc. contribute to young people’s learning, environmental awareness, social behaviour, and relationships. This research further shows that, if grounds are designed and used with a view to improving the quality of children’s
play and learning experiences, benefits accrue for young people’s physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being therefore contributing to healthy schools initiatives. 

Schools also engage with programs to manage effectively their waste, energy usage, biodiversity and water usage.

The development of the Australian Curriculum provides another support for educating for sustainability. In addition to the core areas of English, mathematics, science and history – sustainability is positioned as one of the three cross-curricula priorities, i.e. Indigenous history and culture, Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia, and sustainability. By 2013 most schools are expected to be implementing the Australian Curriculum.

Evidence from the 2010 Evaluation of AuSSI-Tas by independent evaluators, Renshaw, Hitchen and Associates records the impact of school kitchen gardens on students. Some of the student comments were: 

• I like to take care of it.....
• My broad beans are growing really well.
• It makes me feel good about myself
• I used to only eat potatoes. I now like bok choy and rainbow chard.
• I like it when Dad comes to help in the garden.
• I am waiting to do some cooking
• What I have learnt has helped at home with our garden

AuSSI-Tas is supported by two project officers:

Jenny Dudgeon in the south/statewide

Jayne Lewis in the North and North West.

More information about AuSSI-Tas can be found at http://www.sustainableschools.tas.edu.au/

Both project officers work part time in their AuSSI role.

Jenny - Monday, Tuesday and Friday.

Jayne - Monday and Wednesday.

The project officers can be contacted on:
Jenny.dudgeon@education.tas.gov.au  and Jayne.lewis@education.tas.gov.au

References:

1. Evidence of Impacts of Sustainable Schools (2010) Department for Children,
Schools and Families UK or at: www.teachernet.gov.uk/publications

2. Blair D (2009) The Child in the Garden: an evaluative
review of the benefits of school gardening. Journal of Environmental Education, 40(2) 15-30

3. Bell AC & Dyment JE (2008) Grounds for Health: the intersection between green school grounds and health-promoting schools. Environmental Education Research, 14(1) 77-90