After facing two postponements earlier in the term due to Covid and stormy weather, Year 8 students were finally able to experience their Retreat in Week 10 of Term 3. During Religion classes throughout the term, students had been focussing on the world as God’s creation and the Christian understanding of stewardship.
The Retreat provided students with the opportunity to experience one way of protecting the environment. Across two mornings, students planted nearly 6000 Spinifex, Glow Wattle and Nobby Club Rush seedlings at Myalup and Binningup Beaches, as well as sweeping the areas for rubbish.
Bruce Ivers, from Trees4Australia, explained that the purpose of the seedlings was to prevent sand dune erosion and facilitated the planting. Sam Pickering from the Shire of Harvey described the effect of small plastics on bird and marine life and oversaw the rubbish collection.
Thanks to Ms Doyle, Mrs Branson, Mrs Godwin, Mrs McCosker, Mrs Murray, Mr Rotelli and Mr Stapleton for assisting on the day.
"This year’s Retreat was a blast, with a walk up the beach to plant grass. It was a great way to see what true nature is about." Sienna Vinci
"Year 8 Retreat was so fun, we planted trees and picked up rubbish off the beach while talking and having fun with our friends." Diana Ehrenburg
"The Year 8 Retreat was awesome. We picked up some rubbish from the beach and used a really cool machine called the tree planter to plant the trees. This retreat is really something the next Year 8’s should look forward to." Helena Hill
"The Retreat this year was fun. We did activities to help the environment and God’s creations." Chanel Haskett.
"I enjoyed it and loved planting trees for the environment." Sophie McCamish
"Fun but sore." Paige Lewis
"The Retreat we went on was a very good experience. It taught us to look out for our environment and care for our beaches. Even small things can make a difference. Planting trees and picking up rubbish made me feel grateful and made me more respect creation a lot more." Madeline Iannello
"I liked seeing little things like a crab and mussel while looking for rubbish and I also liked planting with my friend. While looking for rubbish we found lots of little plastics, rope and wrapping and also learned things like how the birds eat the plastics. It was a good trip, I enjoyed it." Logan Abbey
"My favourite part of the Retreat was picking up the rubbish because we were learning about the environment." Samuel Hook
"Yesterday, we went to Binningup to plant trees and pick up rubbish. I liked planting because it means we preserved a part of nature. We learnt that you can find plastic in clumps of seaweed. Nature benefited from us going out there and picking up rubbish and planting." Bella Burns
"Yesterday we went to Binningup beach, we did two activities. One was picking up rubbish along the beach and one was planting little seedlings to stop the sand blowing into the town. I enjoyed picking up rubbish better because we got to go on a walk down the beach with our friends and it was fun to use the tongs to get the rubbish. One thing I learnt was how to use a tree planter to plant little seedlings. The people who benefitted from this service were the people who live in Binnigup because it will stop the sand blowing off the beach into the town. The animals and birds also benefited because there is less rubbish on their beach so they don’t swallow it and die. I would repeat this activity again because it was fun to go to the beach with my friends." Emily Hickling
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