At the beginning of 2024, twelve-year-old Matthew Jones attended the University of Tasmania’s Sustainability Leaders Youth Climate Conference. ‘They taught us more about climate change and what we could do to fix it,’ said Matthew, who is one of ten Grade 6 Sustainability Leaders at Corpus Christi Catholic School in Bellerive. ‘At the end of the conference, they asked us to go back to our schools and take some sort of action.’
Local students leading the Clarence climate campaign
Matthew and his fellow Grade 6 leaders decided to have a Sustainability Day for the whole school. They made posters and paper hats to spread awareness of climate change to the other grades, and helped to organise a number of activities including bush art, musical instruments and games made from recycled materials.
They ran a waste audit to see how the school could reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfill. ‘We emptied all the school bins onto a tarpaulin,’ said Matthew, ‘to see how much was plastic and organic food scraps.’
And Gina Loewen from Hydro Tasmania spoke to the students about different types of renewable energy. ‘There were stations where you could make electrical circuits, windmills and solar panels,’ said Matthew. ‘And there was a bike that displayed lights when you pedalled really hard.’
Corpus Christi’s broader sustainability program is in its second year, guided by teacher Luch Brighella. About once a term, each class picks vegetables from the school garden and makes burritos, pumpkin pies, muffins and soups for the students and for donating to Loui’s Van, which provides food and support for the homeless and hungry.
The Grade 6s do a mini ‘Vinnie’s fashion parade’, using op shop clothes to spread awareness of the environmental impact of fast fashion. And each Friday, a group of students waters and mulches the school gardens, plants and harvests, makes compost from garden waste, and collects reusable plastics from around the school.
Matthew believes that the program has brought about behavioural change in Corpus Christi parents, as well as the students. ‘A lot of parents pack nude food lunchboxes now, which means reusable containers and no single use plastics. And they’ve donated cardboard and milk cartons for the classes to make things out of.’
The school’s next step is to get a worm farm and compost bins for food scraps, and to continue reducing plastic waste. ‘It’s the little things,’ said Matthew, ‘that help the environment.’
Matthew Jones and his fellow Sustainability Leaders at Corpus Christi have been chosen by community group Clarence Climate Action as this month’s Climate Champions.
Eastern Shore Sun, November 2024, page 3