By Ms Tracey Markovic, Assistant Head of Junior School Operations

Our Year 3 and 4 Radford Awareness and Service (RAS) Junior students participated in their second Round Square Worldwide Show and Tell this week.

With a focus on how schools around the globe care for the planet, students shared how Radford is taking steps to be more sustainable and look after Earth.

With a focus on worm farms, our waste-free initiatives, conserving energy and saving water, students met online with other schools from Hong Kong, India and the UAE.

Here are some of the green initiatives at Radford they highlighted in the discussion:

"At Radford, we have a lot of initiatives that look after our environment. These include being waste-free every day, composting our food scraps, and having a worm farm and chickens at our school. Our Kindergarten-Year 2 children take part in Bush School each week - they spend time out in our local areas learning about the land and how to take care of it." – Jasmine

"At Radford, it is very important to us to look after our land as it has been for thousands and thousands of years. We recognise a deep and continuing connection to Country, community and culture - connections that have endured for thousands of years." – Charlotte

"There are a lot of ways that we try to save energy at Radford. We make sure that we turn off lights when we leave our classrooms. Our newer classrooms have lights that are automatic, so if we forget to turn them off, they turn off by themselves. Canberra can be very hot and very cold. We regularly remind staff and students to ensure doors and windows are closed when the air conditioners and heaters are on. A fabulous sign that says ‘Heat the school not the playground’ is on our classroom doors. We are also fortunate to have automatic taps and bubblers around our school. This means water is not running unnecessarily when we drink and wash our hands." – Regan

"Last year, our Year 5 and 6 Round Square students learned all about bees. They built a native bee garden and a bee hotel. Our Kindergarten classes have spent a lot of time building insect hotels and bird feeders to encourage the native wildlife back to our school grounds. We are very fortunate to have a lot of recycling bins, compost bins and waste bins at Radford. Our Radford Student Council has been working to encourage students to use them correctly." – Elsie