By Roman Scott
Year 7

Gardening at Gilbert’s
On 8 November a group of Eco Crew students were selected to take part in a day of gardening at Gilbert’s located on High Street. The students transformed a section the café’s backyard to a productive garden that now includes beans, parsley, oregano, sorrel, mint, strawberries and sunflowers. In addition to the weeding, preparing the soil, planting and watering, students had the opportunity to learn to make coffee and enjoyed toasties and beverages for lunch. Students showed initiative and leadership, and exercised communication, collaboration and problem-solving skills.

We’re grateful to Gilbert’s for this opportunity to regenerate a space, learn and develop skills, and look forward to continuing the connection in 2024.

Q-Up Piece/ Plant Stall
At the Q-Up Twilight Picnic some of the Eco Crew team set up a small plant stall, selling herbs to daisies to cacti to palms. This event was a great opportunity to open the herb garden space and show parents and students plants we grow. Students raised $100 by selling a range of plants and this money will go to purchasing a composting tumbler further expanding Kew High’s waste management strategies. This concept gave the Eco Crew students a chance to learn and the environmental team will be doubling down next year to make it bigger and better! Q-Up was full of smiles, songs performed by the music students and we were lucky to have sunshine and the warmth of Kew High’s community.

Project Stationery
The long-awaited end of term (to the parents’ dismay) meant that students’ lockers needed to be cleared out. This gave students the chance to collect pencils, pens, erasers, sharpeners, plastic sleeves and half-used exercise books that would normally be thrown out. The stationery collected was donated to Project Stationery – a new initiative in our local area that aims to recycle stationery that is still in good condition. This is part of our school’s waste management system and helps others source stationery.