Oz Education has long committed to sustainably managing our centre facilities and play areas, whilst continually engaging our early learners in this endeavour. Our educators and chef focus on reducing our carbon footprint and managing our energy, water, waste, and resources sustainably.
Sustainability Education
Sustainability education is embedded in our Early Learning Curriculum. It enables our early learners to deepen their understanding of the world and how to care for it.
Empowering our young learners with sustainable practices early in a wide range of areas like consumption, health, the environment, and the community gives them early skills to create a brighter future.
Our team of educators teach our early learners about sustainable waste management and how it protects the planet.
Creating Art
Utilising recycled stationery, paper and donated items to make new art for example:
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- Turned milk cartons into hat pockets for each child
- Transformed yoghurt containers and cardboard into creative artwork
- Made flip-flap memory learning chart with recycled lids from baby wipes
- Collected milk bottle caps for early Mathematics – counting and correspondence experiences.
Gardening
The garden beds in our centres used for growing flowers and herbs provide the opportunity for children to learn about plants and nature. Children engage in social sensory play and learn to prepare the soil, plant seeds and care for their garden by weeding and watering their plants regularly.
Composting and worm farming
Most of our centres have set up a composting system to turn leftover, appropriate food scraps into nutrient-rich soil and engage our children in learning about the Science behind composting and worm farming.
Cooking
Centres with larger gardens or access to a plot at a nearby community garden, grow vegetables and fruits which are used for cooking experiences at their centre and recycle the leftovers for stamping art or their compost bins.
Water Conservation
We teaching children about water conservation by:
- encouraging them to press our auto-stop taps once.
- Using the hand dryers in each bathroom to dry their hands help reduce paper wastage.
- Encouraging the children to empty their water bottles at the end of the day in the centre plants or take it home
Sustainability Practices
Our team of educators also teach our children about sustainable practices and role model for our children daily by:
- Saving energy by shutting off lighting and power when not in use
- Sorting rubbish in the correct waste and recycling bins
- Using leftover vegetables and fruits for learning experiences
- Reusing food containers for storing art supplies and resources
- Choosing to purchase toys and furniture made from sustainable materials where possible
- Limiting waste by learning to reuse and recycle
- Buying and preparing the right amount of food to limit food waste
- Using washers at meal times instead of wipes to reduce use of one-off wipes to cut down on the amount of rubbish and wastage.
- Utilising the use of clothes airers, weather permitting, to dry our bibs, washers, sheets etc instead of using the dryer.
- Using washers at meal times instead of wipes to reduce use of one-off wipes to cut down on the amount of rubbish and wastage.
- Utilising the use of clothes airers, weather permitting, to dry our bibs, washers, sheets etc instead of using the dryer.
Going ‘paperless’
We strive to manage our paper consumption with the following initiatives and practices:
- Parents are given online alternatives to sign in through a Kiosk, and they view their child’s daily routines using a mobile App
- Electronic distribution of employee payslips
- Use of online learning Apps Math Seeds and Reading Eggs on iPads
- Use of digital Touch Screen Table to reduce the use of printed worksheets
- Preschool folder with removable covers for worksheets that easy to be recycled
In addition, we recycle IT equipment and toner cartridges, program printers to ‘power saving’ mode when not in use and adopt ‘cloud computing’, reducing onsite infrastructure.
Promoting Sustainability
We also raise awareness of sustainability within our community of families by:
- participating in World Earth Day, National Recycling Week, Clean Up Australia Day and other ‘green’ events.
- inviting our educators, families and friends to share sustainable ideas and contribute to our recycled household item bins and compost bins.
- harvesting the worm juice from our worm farm and donating it to parents and staff.
