The Warrawong Community of Schools Living Classroom Program
The Warrawong Community of Schools is made up of six schools located just south of Wollongong between the Port Kembla steelworks and Lake Illawarra. They are Cringila Public School, Kemblawarra Public School, Lake Heights Public School, Port Kembla Public School, Warrawong Public School and Warrawong High School. |
The Warrawong Community of Schools has established the Permaculture Partners program in response to environmental initiatives at each of the partner schools. The program makes use of permaculture gardening and practices in a designed outdoor Living Classroom on each school site. It aims to realise the full potential of student learning and support teachers in the delivery of environmental education and related curriculum.
The Living Classroom is a classroom in the garden. It is a living environment based on Permaculture Design systems that balance food production, biodiversity and sustainable natural resource management. It is an interactive environment that integrates natural resources into the garden including harvesting and reusing rainwater and processing schools organic wastes into compost to build soil fertility and sustain garden productivity.
The Living Classroom is an effective learning environment that nurtures the individual students learning abilities and capacity to meet their curriculum requirements. It is also a social environment where children and the school community can get together to share and learn new skills and enjoy life.