Environmental Studies

Environment Program

Montpellier Primary School takes pride in its strong environment initiatives. For the past six years we have been strongly developing our environmental program throughout the school.

Led by Cameron Loftus and the Environment committee, and supported by the whole school community, Montpellier Primary School has implemented a Reduce, Reuse & Recycle program with the aim of influencing the actions of students and staff both at school and in their own homes.

We aim to be a school where strong environmental goals and sustainable programs form a part not just of the curriculum, but all decision-making.

At Montpellier Primary School, we recycle paper, cardboard, aluminium, metal and plastics. We have worm farms to compost the students' food scraps and use the worm castings on our vegetable garden. The worm farms are housed in a Vegetable garden enclosure which also is home to 3 existing Veggie garden beds with 3 more in the planning stage. Our huge cardboard container are in the Waste Wise shed that was established 3 years ago with a grant from Alcoa, Geelong.

The school has set up Environment initiatives so that when a child passes from Prep to Year 6, they will have had the opportunity to have experienced all programs. Year levels rotate from class to class on a term by term basis in order to achieve this. There is an Environment coordinator at each year level in order to lead the initiative and all teachers are very supportive. We have developed an environment policy which outlines a whole-school approach to waste minimisation

In 2009 we installed water tanks to catch the water from our roofs. This water is also used functionally to operate the toilets in our school. Two 25,000 litre tanks, a 30,000 litre tank, and a smaller 1,500 litre tank to ensure that we are utilising the rain water when it does fall. Further tanks will be installed when our new Gymnasium is completed in 2010. A school water audit conducted by the "Our Water our Future" program found that Montpellier was one of the most efficient schools they had audited.

With the children's input, our future includes Energy reduction program (similar to our Rubbish Free program - see Nude Food below) herb gardens, potatoes, fruit trees, linking Veggie garden to food programs and a big display of the processes that occurs within each individual program in order to further motivate and educate.

Installing solar water heating and eventually solar panels to reduce power consumption are in our future.

We're really proud of our efforts at Montpellier Primary School. Much of our program is funded through the support of the PROJECT ECHIDNA fundraising initiative, whereby children collect 5c pieces to donate towards identified school projects.

Free Fruit Day

As part of the "Go For Your Life - Health Food" campaign, this Victorian Government initiative aims to increase the consumption of fruit and vegetables for all Victorian government school students in Prep - Year 2 by providing them with a variety of high quality, seasonal produce.

Fresh fruit and vegetables are a vital part of every child's life. There are many reasons to enjoy a wide variety of fruit and vegetables, including the provision of important vitamins and the prevention of disease.

Montpellier is proudly a participant in this program and provides free fruit on a Wednesday to all Children in Prep - Year 2.

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Nude Food Program tab

The Montpellier Environment Committee mission is to educate all students about the impact of their daily activities on the environment and to encourage actions that would sustainably reduce this impact.

On 17th June, 2003, Montpellier Primary School conducted their very first Rubbish Free Lunch Day. Families were asked to seek alternative means of keeping their lunches fresh. They were also asked to look at the nutritional value of what they were eating and note how the supplying companies had wrapped the items. The Junior School Council also marketed an emphasis on ‘nude' food; fruit and vegetables, within the advertising campaign for this particular event.

The rubbish recorded previously from classrooms and outside bins on ‘Reference Day', suggested that students had managed to successfully reduce their rubbish/litter by 84% on Rubbish Free Lunch Day.

This commitment led to the establishment of a permanent Nude Food Program, where the students are encouraged to bring a rubbish free lunch to school at least once a week. Every Wednesday, teachers record the number of children from their class who have brought their food in reusable containers and results are tallied across the school. At Friday Assembly, a certificate or box of fresh fruit is awarded to the grade with the highest percentage of participants.