Keeping it clean

By Kelly Yates
BERWICK Fields Primary School students collected close to 120kgs of rubbish during Clean Up Australia Day last week.
All of the school’s 814 students, the teachers and principal Stephen Wigney were out and about picking up rubbish including cigarette butts, food packaging and paper for the annual event on Friday 5 February.
The students spent the morning learning about safety, the different kinds of rubbish and the importance of the day.
The prep students then cleaned around the school grounds while the students in Grades 1 and 2 collected rubbish from the Berwick Church of Christ car park, the school oval and the Gwendoline Kinder.
The Grades 3 to 6 students walked and cleaned along the way to Sweeney Reserve.
The Gwendoline Drive school has been taking part in Clean Up Australia Day since opening its doors in 2006.
Teacher Adam Surmacz said the students were “enthusiastic and proud” to be out in the community and taking a practical step to improving the area.
“We were also really excited to think that there are more schools all over Australia doing the same on the day,” he said.
The school is pretty conscientious about rubbish, says Mr Surmacz.
“We eat in the classrooms to ensure no rubbish goes outside,” he said.
Mr Surmacz said staff and students at the school demonstrated care for the environment every day.
“Making the environment a priority and giving something back to our community are pretty significant lessons to learn,” he said. “Community and environment have been a strong focus at Berwick Fields since the school was established. We try to show care for the environment though our daily actions such as recycling in every classroom, composting our food scraps, saving energy, and maintaining our wetlands and kitchen garden,” Mr Surmacz said.