Professional Documents
Culture Documents
goes to school...
An education and networking tool from Pacific Edge Permaculture
Permaculture Paper No. 2 — Autumn1997
T
he Permaculture in Schools
information kit had its origin at Courses
the Sixth International Courses on permaculture in schools are
Permaculture Convergence which took occasionally offered.
place during October 1996 in Bridgetown,
Western Australia. Readers are referred to the course listings
pages of the Permaculture International
Pacific Edge Permaculture undertook to Journal (PIJ) for details.
publish the information assembled by
participants and distribute it.
How-to information
The PIJ carries a regular, two-page
Aims section on working with children in
The aim of the kit is to bring together the permaculture.
titles of publications and other resources
of potential use to people working in The section is produced by Brisbane-based
permaculture projects in schools or permaculture in schools consultant,
who are working in permaculture with Carolyn Nuttall, author of
children in other circumstances. A Children’s Food Forest.
Content
As well as the bibliography and resource
listing, there are a number of articles.
P a c i f ic • E d g e
P ermaculture
Thanks are due to all who attended the
Æ Permaculture Design Courses —
permaculture in schools sessions at the
part time in Sydney
convergences and who contributed to this
Æ Home and community gardens —
resource package, as well as to those who
design and implementation
have contributed since. Æ Desktop publishing and design —
The package is not intended as a brochures, newsletters, publicity material
complete listing of all publications of Æ NSW state contact — Australian City
Farms and Community Gardens Network
relevance to the practice of permaculture
in schools or to working with children in Æ Approved EarthWorks program trainers.
permaculture. It simply aims to record Contact us at:
those resources identified as useful ITV\Y\V >WZX IXe`TVh_gheX
by participants of the permaculture Fiona Campbell and Russ Grayson
convergences. PO Box 446, Kogarah NSW 2217 Australia.
Phone: 02 9588 6931
Email: pacedge@magna.com.au
A playground
committee made
up of parents,
teachers, students
and community
members can be set
up to work on and
develop the design
brief (a description
of the project’s aims
and purposes) and the
design process.
Successfully
completed, the design
moves into the
implementation stage.
Broad aims
identified...
People will have concerns about the The separate items can then be assessed.
project, so it’s useful to deal with these
openly and promptly.
Edward de Bono’s
Positive/Negative/
Interesting table
A Positive/ Negative/ Interesting
(PNI) table enables permaculture
designers to identify aspects of the
project in a graphic framework. It
brings together participant visions,
fears, concerns and other points
that don’t fit into positive or
negative catagories.
Teacher/ parent/
community concerns may
include:
Æ drain on school
resources
Æ ongoing maintenance
of site, particularly in
school holidays
Æ vandalism
Æ risk management and
safety
Æ supervision of students
Æ use by after-school-
hours drug users
Æ developing teacher/
parent/ community
motivation and skills to
sustain project
Æ aesthetics/ visual
presentation
Æ lack of parent and
teacher time to put into
site development
Æ crowded curriculum,
lack of time to use and
develop the site
Æ being left by designer to
fend for themselves.
Scheduling the
steps
To implement our vision we
proceed to action planning
in which the key question is:
What are the most important
things to do to move towards
our vision?
Monitoring
Monitoring is done at regular intervals to
assess how the project is progressing, to
identify problems and reinforce strengths.
Graham had to meet a number of The olive trees in the school are remnants of an old orchard which
challenges, such as the development of occupied the site long before the school was built.
staff support and training, production of
written curriculum guidelines and lesson
ideas and production of a resource file. Arts: Mime, Maths: Counting,
drama, song, measuring,
To allay fears that he was stuffing more Health/ PE:
television, painting, graphing, Environmental
into the curriculum than teachers and construction calculating health, air
students could handle, Graham made sure monitoring, water
Integrating Black pollution
that environmental education at Black
Forest primary
Forest involved hands-on activities across garden with
the curriculum. school curriculum Science:
Technology: Design, Ecosystems,
construction of
For any permaculure food growing processes,
mini-glasshouses, investigations,
development to succeed, according to compost bins and English: Story
writing, speaking, energy, gas
Graham, a co-ordinator with gardening energy efficient emissions,
systems newsletters,
knowledge and communications skills is a research,
posters.
necessity. So is the participation of parents resources
and the support of teachers.
School needs
Integration of project with curricula
Assessing needs...
Identification of educational outcomes of project Designers needs
Low establishment and maintenance costs Clear brief about needs of school and students
Safety of students and staff; risk minimisation Knowledge of curricula and how project will be
Supervision of students integrated
Positive public image Good communication and people skills
Attractive appearance Information about resources school will
Assistance with integration into make available to maintain project
curricula, ongoing project Co-operation by and education of
maintenance grounds and maintenance staff
Support from parent groups
Student needs
Learning opportunities Parents/ community needs
Space for recreation, quiet sitting, socialising Children's and community safety
Project design which stimulates interest Visually attractive
Practical, innovative integration in curriculum No pollution - noise, odour, visual
Adventurous but low-risk environment