Join us for Clean Up Australia Day 2025

At St. Angela’s School, we’re having fun with bamboo ball runs! These cool outdoor play structures are made from bamboo, a fast-growing and eco-friendly material. Students get to design and build their own tracks, learning about movement and teamwork while using sustainable materials. It’s a great way to have fun and care for the planet at the same time! 

Waste management in schools is important because it helps keep our school clean and safe. By throwing away trash properly and recycling things like paper and plastic, we can reduce pollution and help the Earth. When we take care of our waste, we use fewer resources and make sure less trash ends up in landfills. Learning about waste management teaches us how to take care of the environment, and it’s a fun way to make a big difference!

Thank You!

$73.30 Raised for St. Vincent De Paul and the work that they do.

$30.80 and 308 containers recycled in December, 2024.

Students used the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the L'Audato Si' Goals to focus on waste reduction by creating a fully recyclable pet rock community. Aligning with SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), which emphasizes reducing waste and promoting recycling, students designed their pet rock community using only materials that could be reused or recycled. This included creating pet rock accessories, like homes or habitats, from repurposed items, ensuring that everything in the project had a purpose and could be reused or recycled at the end of its life cycle. 

This term, Year 3/4 students have been exploring how food and fibre are produced, comparing old and new ways of farming. They learned about how people in the past grew food and raised animals using simple tools and natural methods. Then, they discovered how technology has changed farming today with machines, irrigation, and new ideas that help make farming faster and more efficient. By looking at both traditional and modern methods, students learned how we can use the best of both worlds to grow food and fibre in a way that’s good for the planet and helps us in the future! 

The Yarning Circle mat is perfect for both indoor and outdoor use, bringing Aboriginal culture into the classroom in an engaging way. Designed in consultation with Aboriginal artists, it features authentic and respectful designs. Our students will use the mat to explore important topics, and the CHAT team will also use it for discussions about our school, with hopes of involving Gunai and Kurnai Elders in the future.

Students learned about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a huge area in the ocean where plastic waste gathers, hurting sea animals and the environment. They explored how plastic pollution affects our planet and why it's important to use less plastic. They thought of ideas to replace plastic items, like using reusable bags instead of plastic ones, choosing metal or bamboo straws, and using glass or metal containers instead of plastic bottles. This helped them think about their own choices and how even small changes can make a big difference in protecting the Earth.

This holiday season, let’s turn our empty bottles and cans into something special! 

We’re excited to announce our Christmas Container Deposit Fundraiser! All you have to do is collect your eligible containers and drop them off at your nearest container deposit point or in our CDS bin at school, and we’ll use the funds to support St. Vincent De Paul.

 How You Can Help:

1. Collect your empty bottles and cans (look for eligible containers with the  CDS 10 cent logo)

2. Drop them off at your local container deposit point or in our school CDS Bin

3. Watch your donations grow and help us reach our goal!

 Why It Matters:

• Reduce waste: Keep bottles and cans out of landfills.

• Support our cause: Every can and bottle returned helps fund gift cards to families in need. 

• Get into the holiday spirit: It’s a simple and impactful way to give back this Christmas!

Let’s spread holiday cheer and make a difference together—one container at a time! 

To connect Recycling Week and our incursion with Gippsland Water, students explored the Great Pacific garbage patch.  Learning about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch helps us understand the critical connection between water and waste. This massive accumulation of plastic and other debris in the Pacific Ocean highlights how waste, especially plastic, can travel through waterways and harm marine life. By exploring the impact of the garbage patch, we see the importance of reducing waste and properly disposing of it to protect our oceans and the creatures that depend on clean water. This issue shows how our actions on land directly affect the health of our water systems and ecosystems worldwide. 

$9.40 and 94 containers recycled in November, 2024.

Recycling Week in Australia 2024 offers an excellent opportunity to teach students in schools about the importance of sustainable waste management. 

In Term 4, Simone Taylor our Resource Smart School Coordinator came out to complete a waste audit of our waste bins for our school. 

$33.10 and 331 containers recycled in October, 2024.

Students in year 1/2 designed and recycled old materials to create scarecrows for our vegetable garden. They used Zip ties and upcycled materials in STEM. They used alpaca fur to fill their scare crows, old shirts, overalls, pillowcases and hats to stuff each scarecrow. These scarecrows are 100% made from upcycled materials and our 1/2 Students have done an incredible job.

Wrapper Free Wednesday Winners  2024

Homegroup 1/2E!

We received our first Donation and had our first bin onsite for CDS!

11th of October, 2024!

111 Containers and $11.10 raised. Thank you!

1st- Foundation C

2nd-  1/2M

3rd- 1/2S & 1/2E

1st- Foundation V

2nd-  Foundation C, 1/2S, 1/2B 1/2M & 1/2E

3rd- Foundation K

1st- 1/2S

2nd- 1/2M & 1/2E

3rd- Foundation C

1st- 1/2E

2nd- Foundation V

3rd- Foundation C

1st- 1/2E

2nd- Foundation C 

3rd- 1/2M

1st- 1/2S

2nd- Foundation C and 1/2M

3rd- Foundation V

1st- 1/2M, 1/2E and 1/2S

2nd- 1/2B

3rd- Foundation V and 3/4D

1st- 1/2M

2nd- 5/6M

3rd- 3/4A

1st- 3/4D

2nd- 3/4A

3rd- 1/2B

Starting from Term 3 Week 2, 2024, St. Angela’s will introduce Wrapper-Free Wednesdays. The CHAT team will conduct audits during recess, tallying students and staff who attend school without any soft plastic wrappers. 

Layered composting, also known as lasagna composting, is a method of composting where organic materials are arranged in alternating layers to create a nutrient-rich soil amendment. It's a simple and effective method that requires minimal effort and results in nutrient-dense compost for gardening and landscaping needs.

With this new addition, our students will have the opportunity to engage in hands-on activities, learn about gardening, and develop a deeper appreciation for the natural world. Your efforts have not only enriched our school community but have also inspired future generations to embrace creativity, collaboration, and environmental responsibility. 

On the 29th of February 2024, Students at St. Angela’s took part in Clean Up Australia Day, where we cleaned up litter within our school grounds. 

Once we collected all the litter in our yard, we sorted the rubbish and recorded what we had collected. We will use this data to inform future goals and actions within our school. 

An action that students identified and wanted to do in the classroom is to collect fruit and food scraps for the compost bins. Every classroom has been supplied with a Compost Bin in the classroom. 

Term 1 2024, we introduced bin labels to identify each bin including; compost, paper and cardboard, scrap paper, landfill and bottle recycling. We included images of common waste to provide a visual for students, so they know which bin their waste goes into. 

In 2024, St. Angela of the Cross became a Container Deposit Scheme Donation Partner.

Bottles and containers can be recycled at 

CDS Vic Depot Warragul (operated by Return-It)

4/15 Phoenix St · 1300 237 010

Open ⋅ Closes 5 pm

You receive a 10-cent refund for every eligible container you return. You can choose to keep the funds or donate to a participating charity, community group, environmental group, educational organisation or sports group. 

Your returned container is given a new lease on life. The material is recycled and remanufactured into a new product, saving it from landfill or littering the environment. 

Eligible containers include most beverage containers (between 150ml and 3L) made from:

• • Aluminium

  • Plastic bottles

  • Glass bottles

  • Steel bottles/cans

  • Paperboard cartons (ie Fruit juice boxes & flavoured milk under 1L)

Term 4 2023, Our Sustainability Action Team- C.H.A.T Leaders, worked with Simone Taylor from Resource Smart Schools to complete a waste audit at our school. 

Term 4 2023 our students in year 1/2 designed and upcycled old materials to create scarecrows for our vegetable garden. 

To support the garden waste in our school, Students in 3/4 students created Worm Farms using styrofoam boxes. Following Gardening Australia's series on creating worm farms, students worked together to create these asset's to our gardenng program.