Susan+Dang

Year 9 Japanese

St Leonards

St Leonards Cornish Campus is a school that is dedicated towards educating students how to live sustainable. It uses a policy consisting of 4 rings, each representing a different aspect of sustainability.

Personal Sustainability Urban/Technology Sustainability Social Culture Sustainability Natural Sustainability

All learning in the school matches up with at least one of these rings. It was said that if a teacher requested a excursion, they would have to state how this linked back to one of the four rings.

Since for the excursion we were focusing more on the environmental side of sustainability we were shown around the school and informed by the way that they helped the environment.

The absolute first thing we noticed after a helf an hour to an hour trip to the school was the wide open spaces that the school was set in and the many windows. Even the actual buildings were open and spaced out making it look like a much more friendlier evironment.

There were mant trees and plants I and around the school especially sice it was so far away from the city as well. there was also a vedgie garden that the students grew and did use. The school also had a few animals.

Bins, were also a really obvious way of helping the environment. Unlike St Columba's they had 3 different bins all for different types of rubbish and the kids actually put it all in the bin. The three types of bins: Food scraps Landfill and Recycling

There were quite a few solar panels on the roofs of the buildings creating all the energy needed for the school.

A Large wind turbine costing $20,000 to install created more elctricity that gave back to the mai power grid in Melbourne.

We were shown a building that was made to be completley susatinable. It was made out of Polystyrene and which uses corragated carboard pressed closely together to create cooler air. Water was passed through the carboard, creating this affect. Windows were placed in particular places so it warmed the concrete floor creatig a heated surface. Blinds were also put in for summer when it's ot needed. Hot air could be funelled out in revolving air vents.

**CERES** What did you learn? Although I have been to CERES before it was what seemed like quite a while ago so alot of the information was new to me. The first fact that I found really interesting was that the 10 acres CERES ia made up of used to be a Landfill sight.

How did this experience help you make connections with your research into sustaiablity in Japanese schools?

What could we as a school do to be more sustainable in light if what you saw yesterday? To be Honest I don't think St Columba's is doing a good job in being sustainable. Although is has slightly improved over the past few years I have been here, I think it's still not enough. St Columba's still has very little recycling bins, loads of rubbish and


 * Sustainability in Japan **

How do japanese schools save electricity? - Turn off lights - Pull out plugs when not in use - They use energy saving light bulbs

How do Japanese schools save water? - They don't use too much water - They turn off taps

How do Japanese schools recycle waste (including paper) - They use recycled paper - They have recycling bins

How are Japanese schools cleaned (including graffiti and rubbish removal)? - They clean for 10 minutes everyday - Every class helps - Every Friday they wash the floor with towels - Clean blackboards