On Tuesday, 15th June our school was presented with the Woolworths Gardening Grant. We were very excited to welcome Lesley from Woolworths. She came to present the grant to our Year 6 leaders who graciously accepted it on behalf of the school. This is great news for our gardening team, our Newman STEM team and native bees in the area.
This grant will be used to support a continued school focus on raising awareness about native bees. Our Newman STEM team is investigating the plight of bees and how we can support their population growth in our local area. Students will use the grant to purchase native plants and redesign our Parker Street gardens.
By incorporating native plants into the garden design we hope to encourage growth in the local native bee population. “This grant will allow our students’ designs to become a reality. They know what plants will attract the bees and now they have the resources to purchase these and make real and positive change in their local environment,” said Mrs Sullivan who leads the STEM group.
Our enthusiastic gardening team are looking forward to being involved as parts of the garden will need to be cleared to make way for the new native plants that will attract native bees in the area. Some students will also be constructing bee hotels for solitary bees using a variety of natural materials.
The bees have also been a focus of our Year 3 class who earlier this year encouraged to school to celebrate World Bee Day to raise awareness.
Our new and improved Parker Street gardens is a project students will work on throughout the year. We will be sharing our new and improved space with our community in Term 4.
Watch this space!