Smart schools

One of the best ways to stay informed and find out about great ideas to grow your programs, is to talk to like-minded people in your community.

We have compiled some of the best resources and networks available.

Join a local network

The following bring like-minded teachers and educators together around sustainability:

Network for Environment & Sustainability Teachers Hornsby/Ku-ring-gai (NEST) – Teachers from across Sydney are welcome to join. 

Sustainable Schools

Curriculum

Videos/Youtube

Envirotube is Council's own environment, sustainability and wildlife channel. 

Gibberagong Environmental Education Centre has it's own educational Youtube Channel.

Lessons

Sustainability in Schools helps you build a case for sustainability in your school. 

Cool Australia has over 12,000 free lessons.

NSW Government provides a range of lesson plans and resources.

Indigenous Australia

Ku-ring-gai Aboriginal Heritage explores our Indigenous history and how you can get students actively involved.

NSW Government 

Indigenous Weather Knowledge

Share the knowledge passed down through countless generations by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with your children. Explore our local D’harawal Country and language with the Indigenous Weather Knowledge Calendar. It shares the behavior of native wildlife and plants in different seasons and how this guides the eating and living habits of local people.

Biodiversity

The Biodiversity Conservation Trust website is improving the understanding, appreciation and sharing of knowledge when it comes to how to protect our vulnerable plants and animal species. They have resources for primary and secondary schools. Including maps, colouring-in, facts sheets, online games and videos to use in the classroom.

Nature play

Nature play supports teachers and parents to get children outdoors and observe nature at work. 

Bush excursions

Schools excursions at the Ku-ring-gai Wildflower Garden provide curriculum-based bushwalks, workshops and nature investigation for students of all ages.

Passionate about experiential learning, the rangers are keen to encourage children to discover and investigate the bush around them.

There are half and full day programs to support teachers at all stages.

Citizen Science

Get your class or community group involved in helping us spot and record our many wonderful critters.

• Birdlife Australia’s Powerful Owl Project.
• Frog ID Project is run by the Australian Museum and allows students to observe and record local frogs.
• Aussie Backyard Bird Count encourages community members to observe and record local birds annually in October.
• Pollinator Week encourages you to observe and record local bees, bugs and butterflies, annually in November.
• Climate Watch uses community power to understand how changes in temperature and rainfall are affecting our plants and animals.
• Echidna CSI encourages local observation of our spiky friends.

Activities

Host a bag-making workshop

Boomerang Bags is a passionate group powered by volunteers, encouraging others to replace plastic bags with reusables.

They host regular sewing bees to make cloth bags out of recycled fabrics.

Their bags are distributed to various supermarkets and shopping centres for use across Ku-ring-gai.

To host a bag workshop at your school or community group email sustainability@kmc.nsw.gov.au.

Primary

Bath bomb fizzies

Teach kids measurement and following a recipe but also an appreciation for our native flowers. These bath fizzies are all natural and perfect fun for students to take home and use at bathtime.

Recipe

1 cup citric acid

1 cup bicarb soda

½ cup cornstarch

½ cup fractionated coconut oil (for an adult version you can replace with jojoba or sweet almond)

8–10 drops favorite essential oil (try calming lavender, cleansing eucalyptus or refreshing peppermint)

Method

Place citric acid, baking soda, cornstarch, and oil in a bowl. Add essential oils of choice. Mix well with until a soft dough is formed. It should have the consistency of damp sand. If mixture is too wet, add a little more bicarb and cornstarch until consistency is correct. Add food coloring, dried herbs such as lavender flowers, or petals from the garden. Once the mixture holds together in your hand without crumbling put straight into a small muffin tin or silicone molds. Let sit 24 hours before removing, then pop out and store in airtight container for use within 2 weeks. Enjoy in a bath or put in the bottom of the shower!

Leaf rubbing

Grab some crayons or pencils, paper and a hard surface like a clipboard and you are good to go. Head outside and collect leaves of differing sizes. Come together with your students and place the leaf upside down on the clipboard with the paper on top. Draw gently over the top of the leaf, pressing onto the veins of the leaf especially. Explain the role of leaves and how the veins draw nutrients to the plant. Display in your classroom, or create bookmarks and other items.

Red Toadlet

Invite younger students to create their own native animal using origami techniques. Instructions and print out for download below.

Origami folding instructions Red Toadlet kids activity(PDF, 372KB)

Red Toadlet print on A3 paper kids activity(PDF, 340KB)

Grass Heads & Boot Pots

Gardening Australia shows us how to create quirky pots out of old boots and a 'Grass Head'.

Recycled art

Ask students to bring in bottles, boxes, bottle tops and other items to make their own ‘artworks’.

Nature bingo

Head outside into the playground or local park and give each student a nature bingo card (create your own or google and print free online).

Who can spot all of the things on their card? Choose a tall tree, a seed pod, a bush turkey and a ladybird to get your children learning about the world around them and the other wildlife and plants that live there.

Secondary

Create a mini-greenhouse

Instructions here. Use recycled plastic boxes, bottles or egg cartons to grow your own seedlings. 

Bee, Ladybird or Butterfly Hotel

Create a home for your beneficial bugs and insects. A beautiful timber creation for the garden.

Make your own recycled paper

Instructions here. Recycle paper scraps, using them to create colorful handmade paper.

Annual Environment Days

Tailor your activities to specific events through the year:

There are a range of rebates and community grants on offer.

Listed below are both Council supported initiatives as well as external funding opportunities.

Community rebates

These are available for Ku-ring-gai school/pre-school, day care and community education centres.

Make improvements to reduce your bills, manage your waste and educate the community. 

• Solar my School is free, expert support provided by Council. They will assess your solar needs, cost estimates/bill savings and help with sourcing grant funding.
• Water Smart Rebates will help you establish a water-sensitive garden (to manage stormwater run-off) and install rain water tanks or green roofs.
• Compost Revolution provides composting and worm-farming products at a highly discounted rate. Jump online and order today.

Grants and competitions

• Ku-ring-gai Council Environmental Levy Grants
  Our annual grants program supporting environmental works, conservation or waster/energy/water efficiency projects. Applications open April.
• Ku-ring-gai Community Grants
  Our annual grants program to support a broader range of community and arts projects. Applications open April/May.    
• Sustainable Schools NSW
• Funding incentives for your school and community.
• Eco Schools Grants
  Funding for schools to provide hands-on environmental education.

We are making it easier for your primary or secondary school to reduce your energy bills, educate students and reduce your carbon footprint with solar power. At a time when global scientists are demanding rapid changes to reduce carbon emissions, many schools want solar power on their roof but don’t know where to start.

Ku-ring-gai Council is partnering with the award-winning program Solar my School to provide free of charge:

Schools in Ku-ring-gai can now join over 90 Sydney schools that are already generating their own clean, green energy.

Register

For more information please contact the Sustainability Engagement Officer via email sustainability@kmc.nsw.gov.au or phone 9424 0172.

Create edible and native gardens with bees, composting and worm farming. Let the kids get their hands dirty and build your own veggie or flower garden. Attract native wildlife and pollinators and extend their learning in the classroom.

• Visit our food and garden page to find out more about the unique plants that surround our local areas.
• Create a Munch and Crunch Garden to teach kids while they nourish themselves.
• Find out what to plant for every month of the year.
• Find out what weeds to remove and avoid planting.
• Introduce Habitat Stepping Stones to your garden to provide food and shelter for native wildlife.
• Backyard Buddies will help you build a butterfly box, insect hotel or frog pond.
• How to build a Pollinator Garden to attract beneficial bugs and insects.

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation

Find inspiration, information, professional learning and support for educational institutions.

Visit Kitchen Garden Foundation to find the tools to get your school's kitchen garden growing.

Visit Ku-ring-gai composting and worm farming to order a discounted compost or worm farm today.

Composting is an easy, fun and an important way of reducing the volume of materials going to landfill, cutting down on greenhouse gases and returning nutrients back into the soil. Ku-ring-gai schools receive a 25% discount and free delivery of a compost bin or worm farm (including worms) by joining the Compost Revolution program.

Troubleshooting

Having troubles with your worm farm or just getting started? View tips from the experts at Kimbriki House.

Bees are essential members of our ecological communities and their communities are under threat worldwide. These hardworking insects pollinate our gardens and food crops. Australia has over 1,500 species of native bee, and the Sydney region is home to about 200 species.

In Ku-ring-gai, the WildThings Native Bee program has been hugely successful with over 1000 hives distributed to residents. The bees are sting-less and therefore a perfect addition to your garden especially for children to learn about the bee life cycle and pollination.

There are two ways to get a hive:

1. Apply through the annual Environmental Levy Grants in April and if successful receive a hive at no cost; or
2. Purchase a hive at any time for a reduced rate from Ku-ring-gai Council - stocks allowing.

Waste management & recycling

Public schools in NSW are responsible for their own waste management and recycling initiatives. Guidance is provided through the NSW Government website.

Planet Ark offers support through their Schools Recycle Right Guide including conducting a waste audit with your students, finding a recycler and transporting the waste.

Please refer to our Grants & Rebates section for information on how you could apply for support to set up one of these systems in your school.

Schools Recycling Week

Planet Ark has some great tools to start your recycling or organic waste system.

Sustainable Schools Toolkit 

Cool Australia

Great ideas for primary School participation in National Recycling Week. Visit here.

Uniform Exchange

An online marketplace for second hand school uniforms, musical instruments, sports gear, textbooks and more. Visit here.

Bye Bye Plastic

Our Sustainable living pages offer a range of advice on how to inspire your school and students to reduce their plastic use.

Return & Earn

Reduce litter and earn funds for your school. Visit here.

Waste-free lunchboxes

The Planet Ark Waste-free Lunch Box Challenge is a great way to start your school’s journey to sustainability is by engaging the kids through their lunchboxes!

Sustainable Schools NSW offers guides and teacher resources.

Register 

1. Donate refunds to your school

Encourage your school community to collect eligible drink containers at home and take them to a return point for a refund. The refund can then be donated to your school.

2. Become a Donation Partner

You may be able to become a Donation Partner and be featured on your local Reverse Vending Machine. As a Donation Partner, you can receive donated refunds from people returning containers.