Mini Senior Scarecrows

Seniors students in Ms Nelson's & Ms Griffin's class took up the theme of laughing scarecrows for the garden and made some nifty mini chucklers ! Soon to be released into the wilds of HalindaGreen.

Halinda Green Learning

Staff from Halinda set out for the city early this Wednesday for an hour and a half of stop-start traffic. Their destination ? The Royal Botanical Gardens Sydney !

Halinda Green takes it's commitment to growing knowledge and plants seriously, and the development day for Green Educators, P&C members and community gardeners within schools held by the fine people at the RBGS was an excellent primer for core knowledge in the Sustainable Schools curriculum.

Native plants and indigenous knowledge workshops, permaculture lectures, lesson workshops and compost inservices all provided rich experience for eager learners.

A great day !

Stone the Crows !

Our Halinda School Laughing Scarecrow Competition is on the way !

Work Ed. on Halinda Green

This week the Transition grade of our school ventured out to view the garden. We used the chance to see which learners could benefit most from being there. Students liked the outdoor classroom environment and did several circuits of the green to take in the grounds. Group members plucked herbs and enjoyed the sensory stimulation of fresh smells and sunshine.

In the coming weeks work parties will be formed to spend longer sessions outside for gardening tasks. Students looked forward to the chance to spend more time out here.

After it doesn't rain, it pours.

So after the heat of a summer so hot we had to stay inside at recess and lunch, we now have a week so wet we can't use the playground because of torrential rains!

These extreme contrasts are big events even for the Australian climate. The Sunburnt country full of droughts & flooding rains seems to have turned up the weather a notch. HalindaGreen is now flooded at one end of the bike track.

We are considering an overflow to give quicker drainage and hopefully harvesting some water that way.

One of our goals written into the School Environmental management plan is to use Permacultural principals where we can. Designing water harvesting into the scheme of the garden makes common sense and reduces our future reliance on piped, metered water.

Stay tuned.

Heat Wave Summer of '09

The Green has been a hot place over the summer break. With driving winds and several strings of above 40 days the area has been hard to keep alive. Peter and John have kept up water to the student's vegetable plots and trees. Happily classes return to a Halinda Green where the plants have been able to continue to grow despite the heat. Thanks to our site manager and grounds assistant.

Plants have certainly flourished. Egg plants have swollen, melons grown and tomatoes have gone into overdrive ! In addition to these the native shrubs have established well and flowers thrown in for colour and bees have appeared and herald a new beginning to the school gardening year.

We are heading in the right direction.

Greening Up