Middle School students participating in a waste audit
Leaders of change EMMA WATTERS, LEADER OF LEARNING YEARS 4-8
Students at Middle School have the opportunity to participate in multiple leadership opportunities throughout their time with us. One such way that our students can get involved is by signing up to represent their peers as part of the Student Representative Council (SRC). Recently, Will Johnson and I sat down with some members of the SRC Enviro group, who represent the sustainability and environment pursuits of our school to learn about their thinking, and their hopes for the future. During our discussions, it was clear that the students are aware that there are many issues and problems relating to sustainability in our wider community, but in the end it’s the little things that when done enough times end up building up to a bigger problem.
28 Ad Astra Issue No 141
Their main concern is that each individual person in our community needs to be conscious of their actions. “…An example is: dropping a bit of plastic rubbish may not seem that harmful at the time, but it will lead to a problem if we’re all doing it and nothing changes. Eventually it feeds into a larger problem of plastic waste.” “…Just using things once and then throwing it away has got to stop. We need to stop using plastic cups and bottles and so on that get thrown out after we use them once. We need to fix this. I’d like to see plastics that can
break down and bin liners and so on that are biodegradable.” “We were recently looking at fast fashion in class and I believe that fast fashion is something that needs our attention. We don’t really think about the resources and time that go into making something simple like a plain cotton shirt. It takes thousands and thousands of litres of water to grow a cotton tree, and then all these pesticides are used, then all this effort and energy goes into making the cheap t-shirt which may then be worn a few times and then thrown out. There’s too much waste. When
