In line with the Catholic Education WA vision and the Laudato Si’ Action Plan for 2025 –2030, Catholic schools across Australia are pursuing ecological action through student Environmental Ministry teams.
Leschenault Catholic Primary school has a very passionate group of Year 5/6 students this year who have begun their 2025 stewardship journey with a WasteSorted Schools grant supporting use and uptake of the new waste diversion bin systems.
The ministry team plays the vital role of mentoring their peers about correct use and daily actions include monitoring the bins at recess and lunch - a particularly popular action with the Year 1s who happily seek their advice.
WasteSorted Schools ran a waste sorting relay to support the mentoring actions of this team at the beginning of Term 1, and the team’s hopeful actions are certainly being felt across the whole school.
Every fortnight the team report how the school is progressing at an assembly ‘lineup’ including both the grim and the good news. This serves to keep the bin sorting processes they wish to maintain.
Each year the ministry team select an environmental awareness day to support as a whole school event, and in 2024 planted over 300 native trees around their school for National Tree Day.
For 2025 students are keen to support either Plastic Free July or World Oceans Day – both great opportunities to address the issues of plastic waste on our environment.
The school’s edible garden beds are also a great demonstration of partnership processes in action. The school’s canteen manager, Mrs Taylor, loves her veggie patches and uses the pumpkins, zucchini and sweet potatoes regularly in her menu offerings.
The nutrients used to help these gardens thrive, come from the Pre-Primary worm farms which they maintain by feeding the worms ‘crunch and sip’ fruit and veggie scraps.
The Environmental Ministry team provide the link by harvesting the ‘worm wizz’ weekly and putting it on the veggie beds.
As part of Containers for Change, the school has partnered with local business Cash For Cans who come and collect the Containers for Change bins when the Environmental team lets them know they are full.
Every 10c collected per container goes towards environmental activities within the school, including buying organic bin liners for each of the classrooms.
Well done Leschenault Primary school on your great waste reduction efforts so far!