ENERGY | KILLARA'S SUSTAINABILITY JOURNEY

KILLARA’S SOLAR JOURNEY

PERSISTENCE, PERSISTENCE, PERSISTENCE …….

Our journey to have Solar installed at Killara PS has been long and arduous to say the least. We joined Sustainability Victoria’s ResourceSmart Schools’ initiative way back in 2010. We undertook the Core module first, then Waste, and Energy was next on the agenda.

We knew about the 2008 National Solar in Schools program which was so popular its criteria was revamped so that in 2011 -2013 it was targeted more to remote or low socioeconomic schools. So in 2012/13 when we were beginning to think about energy at our school, we had already ‘missed the boat’, being metropolitan, having a higher socioeconomic status, and being a part of the RSS initiative.

We were lucky enough, though, to have a CERES sponsored energy audit carried out by Planet Savers Australia (helped by our HEROs (student leaders in each classroom – Heating, Energy, Recycling Officers) in October of 2013, and that assisted us in making some important changes around our school.

Over the years we tried to have fundraising money directed to Solar, but there always seemed to be another project that took priority. It was clear that a new resurfaced / reseeded oval was more of a drawcard for enrolments than Solar panels on a roof!
In 2016 Solar was getting a little cheaper so the Sustainability Team tried to push energy savings back onto the agenda. We organised quotes for an outright purchase. Solar Choice (a solar quote comparison company) helped us and we had several companies visit the school to work out where the panels would be situated. At this point we involved the students and they walked around with the reps and were thrilled at the prospect of Solar at Killara. Quotes were draw up which showed the savings to be had, submitted to leadership, but still no luck – no funds were available.

In 2016/2017, the team chased offers to upgrade the lighting throughout the school. We were lucky with this one. The old incandescent lights globes and some newer halogen were all upgraded to LED, even the old fluorescent tubes were upgraded, thanks to the government subsidy at the time.

In late 2017, we were still trying to find a cheaper way for Solar to be installed. What about a ‘no money upfront’ lease? We tracked down a couple of companies that were keen to offer this to schools. With new-found hope, off we went and called for quotes – after much time, effort, toing and froing, and more visits to the school, quotes/agreements were drawn up.

This looked like the perfect way to go. No upfront contribution from the school, lease payments would come from the energy savings; it really was a win-win situation. The team made the most of some parent interest in Solar and the quotes were eventually submitted to school council for consideration in July 2018. All members were ‘on- board’ – Solar was about to become a reality at Killara Primary School! The students who had been involved along the way, who were still at Killara, were so excited. They knew we were trying hard to make this happen.

We had a change of principal and business manager in Term 3 of 2018, they were thankfully open to the idea of Solar, and the agreements were submitted to the legal department of DET.

Thinking it was ‘all in the bag’, we relaxed and let the process take its course. However, that was not to be the case. We were advised by DET early 2019 that schools were no longer able to enter into lease agreements of any sort, especially Solar.
The news was devastating – what were we to do now? Had we exhausted all avenues? The new principal and business manager were on-board, but how was it going to happen? Back to square one!

All was not lost, in mid-2019, we were approached by a company offering us a Power Purchase Plan – No upfront cost, they would install the solar panels and the school would ‘buy’ the solar power they generated from the company. A lease? Not a lease? A bit of a back door proposal maybe? According to the company, other schools were doing it, why couldn’t we? Unfortunately it wasn’t the ‘deal’ we thought it was and we pulled away. Again, back to square one!

A few months later, the Sustainability Team heard a whisper about a 2018/2019 pilot program through the Greener Government Schools program – the program looked at putting Solar into some high energy usage schools. Approximately 100 schools were looked at and 42 of them ended up with solar, paid for by the DET and the schools would pay them back through the savings.

We wrote to GGSP and was told that they were looking at all the data from the pilot program with the hope of launching another program later in 2020. We monitored the website and when the second round was announced in mid-2020, we were very quick to put our application in.

GGSP had a huge response to this second round, over 200 schools applied. We knew there was a limited budget, probably only 50 to 80 schools would be selected, but we crossed everything we had and waited, and waited, and waited.
On Friday 13th November 2020 we were notified that we had been successful and would go into Stage 1 of the process. The Solar Panels arrived in Term 2 this year (2021) and work has nearly finished. By the end of Term 3, 2021 Killara Primary School will have 190 Solar panels and a 70.3W system installed at our school.

Persistence, Persistence, Persistence!

Students involved in our recent Energy Audit

WALK SAFELY TO SCHOOL DAY 2021

Today was Walk Safely to School Day. 140 students participated by either walking, or riding a bike or scooter. Parents, teachers and carers also participated in the event. Everyone had so much fun.

WALK TO SCHOOL COMPETITION WINNERS 2019

Thank you to all the artists in our school for taking the time to submit to the inter-school Walk to School competitions this year.

All entries were extremely impressive, making it tremendously difficult choosing the winners. As such, Hume are very excited to announce the winners and these schools will have both their footpath decals and wayfinding signage installed. Congratulations!

PURPOSED DECAL PATHWAYS

WALK TO SCHOOL OCTOBER 2019

Killara has signed up for WALK TO SCHOOL OCTOBER 2019 and we’d like every student to be involved in one way or another. All classrooms will have a calendar to record students who walk, ride or scoot to school each day in October.

We will be organising walking buses during the weeks and running lunchtime competitions and activities to promote this wonderful initiative, including:

Longest Walking school bus competition
Footpath decal colouring competition Years Prep – 2
Signage design competition Years 3-6

all sponsored by Hume Council.

Please encourage your child/children to participate in this wonderful initiative. More information will be on the school Facebook page prior to the commencement of Term 4 and in the school newsletters throughout October.

Robyn Smith – KPS Walk to School Coordinator

WALK TO SCHOOL RESULTS 2019

NOW FOR SOME MORE GOOD NEWS …. THERE WILL BE A WALKING BUS ON WEDNESDAY MORNING – MRS SMITH AND SOME OTHER TEACHERS WILL BE WAITING FOR YOU TO JOIN THE BUS AT 8.30AM AT THE MAIL BOX ON THE CORNER OF RIDDELL ROAD AND PHILLIP DRIVE. THANK-YOU!

Hi Everyone,

You may remember I was up here last week talking to you about WALK TO SCHOOL and how some classes didn’t have their posters up to date, well, now they have and we have some winners for you.

WEEK ONE

Congratulations to

PREP ROOM 2 WITH 56 STUDENTS WALKING, RIDING OR SCOOTING

1/2S – ROOM 20 – WITH 76 STUDENTS

3/4S – ROOM 15 WITH 112 STUDENTS

5/6S – ROOM 10 WITH 192 STUDENTS

WEEK TWO

PREP – ROOM 1 – WITH 30 STUDENTS

1/2S – ROOM 24 – WITH 79 POINTS

3/4S – ROOM 13 – WITH 192 POINTS

5/6S – ROOM 10 – WITH 129 STUDENTS

WELL DONE EVERYONE.

WALKTOBER 2014

Throughout the month of October, students participated in ‘Walktober’ where we attempted to walk to and from school as much as we could.

Walktober has now come to an end and the STUDENT LEADERSHIP COUNCIL and 3/4D have calculated some amazing data.

Out of our 618 students, 544 students walked at least once in the month. That’s an 88% participation rate!
The total number of walks for the entire school was 9404!
The total number of walks for each year level were:
– Prep: 703
– Grade 1/2: 3285
– Grade 3/4: 3179
– Grade 5/6: 2237
3/4D calculated the mean, median, mode and range of each class. The class with the highest average number of walks was 5/6D with an average of 28 walks per student in the class.
The year level with the highest average number of walks per class was the 3/4 classes with an average of 454 walks per class

Congratulations to everyone for their incredible effort. Can we record 10,000 walks next Walktober?

ENERGY AUDIT – PLANET SAVERS VICTORIA 2013

Planet Savers Energy audit 2013 Download

On October 21, 2013 Killara leadership students were involved in an ENERGY AUDIT carried out with Mark Smith from Planet Savers Victoria.

Every room in our school was assessed for lighting, heating, cooling and appliances.

Many areas were identified that could be improved in our endeavour to reduce our carbon footprint. We look forward to our school changing the habits of the past to protect our future.