From Living Classroom to Tiny Forest

The sustainability work at Tarrawanna Public School first came to my attention through a friend with children at the school. Several years ago, Manami Henderson talked of the development of a permaculture garden that integrated with the curriculum for hands-on learning about plants, growing food, community resilience and sustainability.

Now Tarrawanna Public School has one of 22 'Living Classrooms' between Nowra and Coledale. Cringila Public School was the first and will be celebrating its 20th year in 2023. The Illawarra Living Classroom program is facilitated by Elemental Permaculture's Aaron Sorenson and Daniel Deighton, who are both passionate about sustainability, the wellbeing of people and the planet, and growing food locally for local consumption.

Aaron attends Tarrawanna Public School once a fortnight to work directly with the children. Manami joins him in a volunteer capacity to learn more herself, but also to help help with the children's learning. The teachers use the space regularly as an outdoor classroom for all ages, from kindergarten to Year 6.

The children learn about growing plants for food in the garden beds and food forest. They also learn about soil health, composting and biodiversity. A gathering space and an outdoor cooking area complete the picture.

Assistant Principal Kelly Judd is proud of this initiative and the others that Tarrawanna Public School is involved in. Picasso Cows, Tiny Forests and Koala Kreative are all educational programs that integrate with the permaculture garden to round out the children’s “feeding our community” education.

'Best Learning Journal' in Picasso Cows program

This year, Tarrawanna Public School won an award for the best learning journal in the annual Picasso Cows program. Run by the dairy industry, Picasso Cows is a national dairy education program. It uses art and creativity to teach primary school children about the importance of dietary dairy, as well as farming and manufacturing practices. Schools receive a white, fibreglass, almost full-size cow to paint and decorate. Alongside the art aspect, the children complete a learning journal.

How the Illawarra's first Tiny Forest grew

After learning about nurturing seedlings and garden beds to feed themselves and the community, the children wanted to take “zero hunger” one step further. The started to explore how they could help feed native animals and insects. Wollongong City Council supported the idea and the first tiny forest of the Illawarra partnership was born.

Harrington Park is in Kendall Street, opposite the school. A portion of the park was allocated to plant out with native plants. The children researched appropriate plants for the local area with the help of council staff and planned the plot, the size of half a tennis court. The trees and shrubs are thriving and the children report seeing native bees, birds and water dragons as a result of the increasing biodiversity.

Kreative Koala brings projects together

While creating the permaculture garden, the children unearthed a lot of broken tiles. They began to create artworks using the tiles. Each artwork represents a native creature they would like to see in their tiny forest. The students produced mosaics, including a tree of life, a black cockatoo and a water dragon.

Again, inspired to go one step further, they acquired a larger-than-life-sized fibreglass koala, which they have decorated using mosaics. The result is a representation of their tiny forest. The koala is resplendent with a mosaic beehive and bee, a tree and shrub, sulphur-crested and black cockatoos.

No doubt innovative ideas about feeding our community will keep coming from Tarrawanna Public School, but just as important is the practice of working together to achieve great outcomes.