On Thursday 14th of September students from Foundation, Grade 3/4 and Grade 5/6 took part in Tree Planting Day at the Wallace J Turner Reserve which our school has adopted through the City of Greater Dandenong Adopt a Park Program.
Students at Silverton have been trying to persuade the council to plant more trees in this park for several years without much success. However, in 2021 two students from grade six wrote to the council as part of their Biodiversity Project in science putting to them a proposal to plant out an area underneath existing gum trees. They provided them with a list of indigenous plants and asked them to fund the project being on public land. Not long after I received an email from the council confirming that they had received the proposal and they encourage us to apply to adopt the park though their Adopt the Park Program.
Students met with council members from the Bushland Team on site to discuss ideas for the layout of the new garden. Students asked that our house team plants be included in addition to local indigenous plants. Pat Cazaly the Open Space Officer from City of Greater Dandenong also offered to supply four redgum planks that had been milled from a fallen redgum in our area. These planks will eventually have artwork representing our house team plants.
In October 2022 students from grade 5/6 took part in the first planting day and planted around 600 plants. This year we planted an addition 1600 plants in two hours with the help from staff from Pat and the Horticulture Team. Students did a fantastic job, had a great time and the plants look amazing.
We are incredibly grateful for this partnership opportunity with City of Greater Dandenong who in addition to supporting us in this project also have sponsored our students’ participation in the Marine Ambassador Program for several years. We have had a long running partnership with the City of Greater Dandenong and we look forward to continuing working with them in the future.
