St Brigid's students have joined thousands from Catholic schools across the Diocese in gloving up for Schools Clean Up Australia Day. From clean ups of school grounds and local parks to themed classroom learning and activities raising awareness amongst students and staff, our school has embraced this year’s theme, ‘Change Starts With You’ by taking action to protect and care for their local environment.

Participating in the Schools Clean Up Day has been a fun and engaging way for our students to learn about the best methods for disposing of waste and the damaging environmental repercussions of dumping rubbish irresponsibly, while playing an active role in the solution by helping clean up their local area. 

Our classes dedicated their morning to a whole-school clean up of the grounds and perimeter of the school. With official Clean Up Australia bags, the children scoured the area for any sign of rubbish and made sure to sort their findings into rubbish and recyclables – further enhancing their sustainability efforts.

“I loved the clean up day, because we are helping the world,” Kindergarten student, Charlie said.

“Clean up day was so much fun! We are making everything beautiful,” classmate, Ella said.

Not-for-profit environmental conservation organisation that started this community event 30 years ago, Clean Up Australia, says every young volunteer across schools and youth clean up sites is ‘AWE-some’. That is:

• (A)wareness – their eyes have been opened to the scale of rubbish that is harming our environment and wildlife;
• (W)ellbeing – their reward is a better understanding of how keeping the environment healthy is part of leading a healthy life;
• (E)mpowerment – they are now empowered to continue to take positive action to make their schools, clubs, sporting grounds and outdoor spaces the cleanest places they can be.

“The kids of Australia, led by their teachers and youth leaders, are showing us all that they really care. Their efforts across the country are raising awareness and developing leadership skills as our young people take up the challenge of creating a more sustainable and waste-efficient future,” Terrie-Ann Johnson, Clean Up Australia Managing Director said.

An encouraging additional dimension of our school's environmental awareness and action is that our ongoing focus is now as much on preventing rubbish entering our environment, as it is removing what has already accumulated – initiatives such as waste-free or ‘nude food’ lunch days, adopting a more environmentally-friendly multi-bin waste management system, and our participation in the Vinnies ‘Return and Earn’ program.

St Brigid's was one of several CEDoW schools who participated in Schools Clean Up Australia Day. Read more from across the diocese here.