Sathya Sai College students are looking after the Tweed
14 September 2022
Students from Sathya Sai College in Murwillumbah are taking steps to protect the Tweed for future generations by looking after native animals such as frogs, bees and bats.
Each year classes from the college participate in weekly activities to learn about and offer support to community charities or projects. This year, some students took on the school garden as their project, affectionately named ‘Garden Guardians’.
It has allowed students the opportunity to be a part of a larger-scale project and take care of the garden, growing fruits and vegetables that can be harvested and shared. Each week, students weed and tend to garden beds, plant and water new vegetables and herbs, and turn the compost pile.
One of the students, nine-year-old Archie said gardening at school is really fun because you get to be outside in nature.
“I like doing gardening at school because what we grow in there is really healthy for your body. If you don’t do it, you will most likely have just plain grass instead of a garden where you can get your own produce from. When you make a garden, it’s like inviting animals into your school like birds, lizards and bees. It is also a good habitat for animals that live underground because these plants, combined with the compost, make healthy soil,” said Archie.
Another student, nine-year-old Eliana said growing plants makes her happy.
“When you grow a plant, you get to see what happens - from little seeds until they flower and give us food, and that makes me feel happy. I love eating ripe tomatoes from the plants and mint,” said Eliana.
The school aims to provide and maintain habitat for native animals including microbats, native bees, frogs and insects and student, eight-year-old Rumi knows how important this is.
“Having biodiversity in our school backyard is important so that our native animals, like bees, frogs and bats have somewhere to live and food to eat. If we don’t take care of them, they might become extinct,” said Rumi.
Students, parents and staff attended a workshop run by Tweed Valley Wildlife Carers about how to support and look after microbats. Three microbat boxes and 2 tracking cameras were installed to monitor the movement of microbats and their habitat use.
Students also made frog hotels and planted native plants to attract insects, including vines for the endangered Richmond Birdwing butterflies.
Another wonderful addition to the garden is the native stingless beehive. Students took part in a native bee session to learn all about the bees and their vital role in our ecosystem. Sadly, the school’s original 10-year-old beehive was lost in the most recent flood event this year. Thankfully, the school community rallied behind the Year 3 class and the bees and held a mufti day to raise funds to go towards the purchase of a new hive.
Well done to the students, teachers and parents at Sathya Sai College for taking action as caretakers for the Tweed’s internationally significant environment.
Image: Sathya Sai College students as 'garden guardians' looking after their school fruit and vegetable patch.