2022 Climate Choices Schools Award winners

The Awards celebrate excellence in sustainable management of resources across the Sustainable Schools Program focus areas – energy, water, biodiversity, waste, transport and curriculum integration.

In 2022, 11 awards were presented across five award categories.

Student Leadership – Primary: Tharun Kumar

Year 6 student, Tharun, is a sustainability champion at Kaleen Primary School. He leads the school’s Green Team and has spearheaded several school-wide initiatives such as the Native Bird Feeder competition, where students created bird feeders from recycled materials to encourage more native birds to visit.

Tharun has shown great dedication to sustainability and has inspired and motivated others through his leadership.

Student Leadership – Secondary: Colette Paterson

Year 12 Merici student, Colette, is the school’s Sustainability Captain and a leader in the student-run Sustainability at Merici (SAM) group. She helped organise a biodiversity restoration project, promoted awareness days such as Earth Hour and World Environment Day, and spoke at the school about climate action.

By modelling sustainable choices and inspiring younger students, Colette is paving the way for ongoing sustainability and climate action initiatives at the school.

Staff Leadership – Primary: Aurore Severac

Sustainability and protecting our planet are core values for Aurore and, through her work, she demonstrates how we can all make a difference through the everyday choices that we make.

Aurore dedicates her time and energy to building, improving, and maintaining Telopea Park School’s sustainability programs, and shares her passion for gardening and biodiversity with the school community.

Staff Leadership – Secondary: Felicity Maher

Felicity mentors the student sustainability leaders at Merici College and has initiated various sustainability projects including, recently, a biodiversity restoration project. Felicity shares news and insights on biodiversity, waste, energy, and water in the weekly ‘Green Tips’ that she sends out to her school and community.

With great dedication and passion, Felicity works tirelessly to inspire others and improve sustainability at her school.

Primary Team – Amaroo Student Representative Council

In 2022, the student-led Amaroo Primary Student Representative Council focused on biodiversity and waste initiatives. They planted a bush tucker garden, started a ‘waste warriors’ team, purchased paper recycling bins and provided education on their use, and made self-watering planters out of re-used milk bottles.

Their leadership has led to improved biodiversity at Amaroo School, opportunities for students to connect to Indigenous culture, and whole school participation in sustainability practices.

Secondary Team – Sustainability at Merici (SAM)

The SAM team is a well-established group of students who are dedicated to all areas of sustainability. This year the SAM team have focused on rewilding and biodiversity, sustainable consumption, and waste diversion from landfill. The SAM team has also provided a place where older students can mentor younger students, creating a lasting legacy.

Primary Project – Rewilding North Ainslie Primary School: National Tree Day Extravaganza

The students, staff, and P&C at North Ainslie Primary School set their minds to increasing biodiversity at their school in 2022. The school worked with local sustainability experts to boost habitat and food source availability for native fauna by planting native bushes and grasses.

To ensure that the project was successful, the school also integrated lessons about the importance of rewilding into its classes.

Secondary Project – Merici College Biodiversity Restoration and Rewilding Project

Merici College used 2022 to primarily focus on this wonderful project, partnering with ACT Urban Woodland Rescue. The biodiversity restoration and rewilding project works to build habitats for native fauna, track and measure ecosystem growth, and model the importance of sustainability to other schools and the wider community. Students are able to make real world connections between what they learn in science classes by recognising how they can change what they do in their school, parks and suburban gardens to protect and increase the biodiversity value of the environment.

Leaps and Bounds – Canberra Montessori School

Canberra Montessori School hit the ground running in 2022, making immense leaps in sustainability progress. This year alone they have created a reconciliation food garden, worked to reduce landfill and recycle plastic to help wildlife, and created the ‘GaGa for Gang Gangs’ project where students wrote postcards to government officials, media, and conservation groups, raised money for bird baths, and planted trees to increase habitat.

Leaps and Bounds – Canberra Grammar School

In 2022, Canberra Grammar students and staff became active changemakers and took climate action starting their mission to become a zero-waste school. They launched the ‘Green Project’ which began with a student Green Team and waste audit and progressed to the implementation of Re-collect bins, compost bins, stationery recycling, and a ‘Sharing the Planet’ program. This has already led to school-wide behaviour change and community engagement.

School of the Year – Majura Primary School

Majura Primary School is an example of whole school sustainability in action. They have built on the programs already established to grow their sustainability program exponentially in 2022. Majura Primary School demonstrated excellence across water, biodiversity, waste, energy, and transport.

Additionally, Majura Primary School has implemented a whole school sustainability curriculum which has led to behaviour changes in students, staff, and the community. They have a productive kitchen garden, which is used as a Stephanie Alexander demonstrator school for the ACT. They participated in ‘National Water Week’, planted habitats for endangered bird species, created several insect hotels, established soft plastic recycling bins, promoted Earth Hour and added ‘National Ride 2 School Day’ to their calendar, just to name a few!