Poem Forest
Poem Forest is a free nature poetry prize created by Red Room Poetry in collaboration with the Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan NSW. The purpose of this competition is to plant a native tree in the garden and restore the critically endangered Cumberland Plain Woodland in Western Sydney. Poem Forest aims to plant over 22000 trees over three years by planting three grand tree species: Forest Red gum, Grey box and Narrow-leaved Ironbark.
https://www.australianbotanicgarden.com.au/Learn/Poem-Forest
The following poem penned by Chinmayi Jonnalagadda, a Year 10 student from Brentwood has been selected and featured by Red Room Poetry as a part of the Poem Forest competition. Congratulations, Chinmayi.
https://redroompoetry.org/student-poems/twas-but-the-last-spring-day/
Term Tree
This year’s World Environment Day’s theme is ‘Ecosystem Restoration’. Brentwood has joined the Generation Restoration and pledged to plant 2700 trees in Term 3 along the Scotchmans Creek and in the Mornington Peninsula. We are partnering up with the Friends of Scotchmans Creek and 15 Trees to execute this plan. The following poster created by Anais (Year 7) was posted to our house teams.
VSGA Awards 2019:
Turf Victoria Award
Brentwood Secondary College won the Turf Victoria Award at this year’s Victorian Schools Garden Awards held on 21st November at the Royal Botanic Gardens. The prize included 300 square metres of Kikuyu turf from Advance Turf, worth $4,500. The Green Team had the opportunity to meet Costa Georgiadis, the gardening guru, at the awards ceremony.
Update 2023:
The Green Team won 300 sq. m of Kikuyu turf sponsored by Advance Turf Instant Lawns (www.instantlawns.com.au) at the Victorian School Garden Awards. The turf was laid behind the SLC during the recent term holidays by Adam and Marc from our maintenance team, the area looks so much more inviting now.
Biodiversity Audit 2019
On Tuesday the 18th of June, the Green Team participated in the Habitat Quality Assessment of Brentwood as a part of the Biodiversity Module of the ResourceSmart Schools program. The audit of the college grounds included identification and recording of indigenous plants, animal habitat quality, linkages of school vegetation and habitats with surrounding areas.
The Habitat Quality Assessment score for this audit was calculated as 68 out of 100. The previous score calculated in 2016 was 51. This significant increase in the biodiversity assessment score is the result of the planting and caring of natives done by our college gardener, Mr. Collin King. The Green Team has planted several native trees in the past few years at the Brentwood Tree Day. The team will continue to work on the school’s biodiversity throughout this year to hopefully achieve the fourth star of the Resource Smart Schools certification, by the end of this year.
Brentwood Tree Day
2023:
Brentwood celebrated the annual tree day on 28 July. 25 students from the Green Team, Brentwood staff, PFA and community members were involved in the various tree planting events on that day.
During the morning session, the students worked with the volunteers from Friends of Scotchman’s Creek & Valley Reserve (FoSCVR) and the City of Monash to plant over 1600 saplings, including Goodenia ovata and Dianella longifolia, along the banks of the creek. Thanks to Tony and Sally from FoSCVR for providing us the opportunity to take part in this event.
During the afternoon session, we were joined by our local MP, Mr. John Mullahy, Deputy Mayor of the City of Monash, Nicky Liu, staff from Waverley Toyota to plant over 100 native plants on our college grounds. Thanks to all the stakeholders involved. Special thanks to Cultiv.ate and Bunnings Warehouse for their donations.
Annual Tree Days such as these help in offsetting Brentwood’s greenhouse gas emissions every year.
2022:
Brentwood’s Green Team had another day of fun, celebrating Brentwood Tree Day 2022 by planting nearly 1800 trees along the Scotchman’s Creek Trail and 150 natives along the new SLC. Members of the green team had a blast planting along the Scotchmans Creek trail, followed by a delicious barbeque organised by the VCAL students. To finish off the day, everyone planted trees and shrubs along the new SLC building. Plus, everyone looked great in their hats and gloves!
Boarding the bus bright and early at 8:45 am, Brentwood’s green team were ready to tackle the day. There, they were met by members of the Monash Council and the Friends of Scotchman’s Creek and Valley Reserve. They offered the team excellent advice for the planting and soon the team was off to plant. The planting was a great learning experience for everyone, as the hosts explained the species, their significance and their required locations.
Suddenly, it was time to head back to school and the green team received the news that they’d exceeded the expectations of their hosts, by planting nearly 1,800 plants! Also, many records were broken, with members working together and getting over 150 plants planted back at the college! This friendly competition motivated many to work hard, and it really paid off!
As the green team headed back to school, everyone was ready to have a nice hearty meal. The team was greeted with an unlimited amount of sausages and veggie patties that were spread across tables ready to be eaten. The VCAL students were equipped with the materials for a delicious barbeque, and the green team had a blast. There was chatter, fun and best of all, a nice barbeque! Mr Barry definitely outdid himself this time!
As we all gathered together in a classroom, the green team captains, a Monash council representative, and others delivered speeches. Then, everyone headed out to the SLC building to plant some native species. The collaborative activity was a lot of fun and got a lot of work done too! After a while, everyone looked like pros, with their planting skills, gloves and hats. The day ended with everyone receiving certificates and taking photos. Altogether, it was a lot of fun!
Brentwood would like to thank the support from the City of Monash, Bunnings Vermont South, Waverley Toyota and V2 Foods for sponsoring the merchandise, food, plants and gloves.
2019:
On 26th July 2019, the Brentwood Green Team invited several members from the community to participate in Brentwood’s annual Tree day event. With the help of everyone involved, we planted over 65 native plants in various locations at the college.
The recent Biodiversity audit carried our as a part of the ResourceSmart Schools program indicated that Brentwood’s Habitat Quality score has improved from 51 in 2016 to 68 (/100) this year. Tree day events conducted for the past four years have also helped in improving this score.
2018:
On 27th July 2018, The Brentwood Green Team participated in Schools Tree Day. Parents, community members, students and teachers from Brentwood and Glen South Primary School attended the event. Collectively, we planted over 60 natives on the college grounds. The Green Team had the opportunity to share their actions and achievements with the community members. It was also a great opportunity to network and share ideas with the Enviro club members of GWSPS
2017:
On 19th June 2017, the Green Team planted over fifty native plants behind the portables on the eastern side of the college as a part of the Schools Tree Day. Our school gardener, Mr Collin King taught us how to plant them and helped us with tools and other materials required. We thank the Monash council for providing us with the voucher to obtain free native plants from a local nursery.
2015:
On 24th July 2015, the Green team and a group of students and staff participated in this year's National Schools Tree day. We received 20 shrubs and native trees from the council. All the students and staff at the event planted the native shrubs in the school grounds. It was interesting to see a lot of new faces from the college taking an active participation in one of the green team's initiative.
VSGA Regional Award
2018:
Brentwood bagged the regional award at this year's Victorian Schools Garden Awards. The award included a certificate as well as a $300 voucher to redeem at a local nursery. The awards ceremony was held at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne.
2016:
The Green Space has won this year's Regional award provided by Victorian Schools Garden Awards. We were invited to the presentation ceremony at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne held on 29 November.