Educating for a sustainable future

Our vision is to educate students who will make a positive difference in contributing to a sustainable future

Our most simple definition of sustainability at Cornish College is making a difference for a world where there is enough for all, forever.

We believe the best way to achieve our vision is to embed sustainability, in its widest form, within our curriculum. We do this through our four Rings of Sustainability.

In the context of learning at Cornish, the rings help us to embed a holistic approach to the understanding of big questions – the personal focuses on the individual, skills for living and wellbeing; socio-cultural examines beliefs, customs and practices; urban/technological takes an economic perspective; and natural an environmental perspective.

EcoCentre

Our award-winning EcoCentre allows students to learn and create outdoors and to build their own knowledge base around sustainability, animals, food production and the use of recycled materials. Our students’ hunger for knowledge is supported by our dedicated and passionate staff, and our parent and alumni community

Awards

• 2018 Greater Dandenong Sustainability Awards – Community Category
• 2018 State Award – Victorian Schools Garden Awards, for Prep to Year 12 schools
• 2018 Regional Victorian Schools Garden Award for Most Engaging Student Garden for Learning

Australia’s Strategy for Nature 2018 – 2030

One way to live our mission is to respond to requests for feedback on proposals that are integral to being able to have a sustainable future. Another is to give our students a voice in the policies that will affect them.

Our students, staff and parent community took part in the consultation for Australia’s Strategy for Nature (Draft) 2018 – 2030, Commonwealth of Australia 2017. They offered responses to key questions about natural sustainability and a critique of the strategy to feed into the consultation process.

Learn more in our submission about how Cornish College provides an important case study for others to learn how to authentically embed sustainability into all aspects of education.

We received a range of multimedia responses from our students as part of developing this submission that demonstrate what biodiversity means to them, why nature is important and what we are doing at Cornish College.

Two of our VCE Environmental Science students explain biodiversity and why it is important below.