Delungra Public School wins achievement award at NSW Minister's and Secretary's Awards for Excellence

The school was presented with the prestigious School Achievement award at the NSW Minister's and Secretary's Awards for Excellence at Sydney this week.

It is a prestigious award aimed for school's who have made a difference by running a project over multiple years.

READ MORE:

The project ramped up in 2019 when students at the school were worried about the loss of koala habitat caused by the drought.

They set a goal to save the nearby population by rebuilding trees to distribute for planting and increasing community awareness.

They began watering, caring and releasing koalas in trees within the school grounds.

This project won the award having met the criteria as an "outstanding example "of how children can contribute to native species habitat support and awareness and giving hope for the future.

"We've been looking after our koalas for a long time now, but when the drought hit we really go into it," Principal Toni Withers said.

"They'd come into our playground in a dreadful state and we would have to send them off for veterinary care.

"The Delungra population is quite significant for koalas because it's disease free; we wanted to raise awareness and build a habitat for the future.

"The parents have been right behind it since the beginning and some of our kids have been part of the project throughout their whole schooling."

"The koala is our Aboriginal totem and that makes it even more significant.

"We've had elders come in and speak to the kids about protecting the habitat by planting trees and making sure they survive into the future generation."

In 2020, the State Government provided the school with a $14,522 environment grant to install a small greenhouse, where students could propagate native plant seedlings, to help regenerate koala food habitat following the drought.

It has become a major part of the school curriculum with the koala project working its way into subjects like maths, geography and science.

"From small things big things grow and our whole philosophy has been to empower the students to care for something beyond themselves," Ms Withers said.

"We've weaved the koala project through our whole curriculum, there's still so much we can do with it.

"We graph koala sightings and we do experiments with seedlings, we're getting much better at growing the trees.

"It's basically been a way to use everyday practical learning across multiple subjects."

Make sure you are signed up for our breaking news and regular newsletters