A group of years 5 and 6 students from Medowie Christian School are helping kindergartners grow a vegetable patch and running a tin food drive as part of a program that inspires young people to investigate and reflect on global sustainability issues and to act at a local level.
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The students have elected to join the Kreative Koalas program which encourages them to learn about and educate the community on the United Nation's 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development.
The Medowie students involved in the program, which is also a schools competition, have selected one of the 17 goals, Zero Hunger, to focus on.
"It's good learning about what we can improve in the world," Zara Walter, 11, said.
Leila Waters, 10, was part of Medowie Christian School's winning Kreative Koalas team last year. She said she had "a lot of fun" and elected to join again this year.
"I like learning about the things we can do to help the local community and make the world more sustainable," she said.
As part of the program the students are encouraged to engage with their community. While more difficult to do so this year due to COVID-19, after selecting a focus goal the students decided to help kindergarten kids grow a garden and run a tin food drive for the Medowie Assembly of God's Foodway program.
The food drive idea was based on results of a community survey undertaken by the students.
The Kreative Koalas team will collect tinned food from school students until the end of term.
The community can also help the team by donating tinned food to the front office of the school in Waropara Road by Friday, September 25.
The Kreative Koala students have also created flyers and posters about their work and blog throughout the project: mcskreativekoalas2020.com.
The team has also been given a koala statue to decorate in a design that reflects their focus goal and work they have undertaken throughout the year.
Teacher and Kreative Koalas coordinator Martha Atkins said the program was great to run in schools as it tied in really well with the science, history and geography curriculum.
The students part of the 2020 Kreative Koalas team are: Miss Walter and Miss Waters plus Audrey Frost, 11, Ella Driver, 12, Robert Cook, 12, Olivia Soper, 11, Noah Rodgers, 11, Chelsea Morgan, 12, Bethany Daniell, 11, Miriam Serret, 12, Ella Hirschausen, 12, Elouise Levy, 11 (all pictured above), Audrey Atkins, 12, Jaida Micallef, 10, Oliver Lawrence, 11, Bianka Patteson, 12, and Eleanor Thorburn, 11.
