introduction

About Us
The Environmental Neighbourhood Cluster was established in 2004 under the Department of Education and Training (DE&T) Innovations and Excellence initiative. The cluster aims to develop a neighbourhood environmental education program that will enhance student learning and engagement. Students will be challenged and encouraged to develop their connectedness to the immediate world around them through participation in authentic experiences. Our cluster seeks to explore opportunities for students to learn in an environment that is engaging, challenging and exciting. The Environmental Neighbourhood Cluster aims to create a more connected community through environmental education and awareness. Students and teachers in the ENC have begun implementing and modelling behaviours and actions that can make a difference to their local environment both now and into the future. The cluster has three focus areas: 1. A Personal Ecological Footprint • Students along with Teachers learn about what makes up our Eco Footprint and test their own. Empowering students with the knowledge that if everyone lived like the average Victorian we would need 4 earths. We pose the question how can we reduce our eco footprint? • What is your Eco Footprint?

2. Powerful Learning and Teaching Through professional learning and sharing teachers maximise their expertise in successful middle years teaching and learning strategies. Integrated units focus on the development of rich tasks which have a real world impact in their community. Learn more about what is happening in the cluster - see our Projects page.

3. Environmental Education Actions FOR Our Environment The aim of this focus area is for each cluster school to establish and maintain individual Environmental Education (EE) projects in the local Williamstown community and to develop supporting, transferable curriculum materials.

Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005 - 2015
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) defines Education for Sustainable Development as follows. Sustainable Education represents a new vision of education, a vision that helps people of all ages better understand the world in which they live, addressing the complexity and interconnectedness of problems such as poverty, wasteful consumption, environmental degradation, urban decay, population growth, health, conflict and the violation of human rights that threaten our future. This vision of education emphasises a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to developing the knowledge and skills needed for a sustainable future as well as changes in values, behaviour, and lifestyles.

Sustainable Education will aim to demonstrate the following features. 1. Interdisciplinary and holistic: learning for sustainable development embedded in the whole curriculum, not as a separate subject 2. Values-driven: it is critical that the assumed norms - the shared values and principles underpinning sustainable development - are made explicit so that that can be examined, debated, tested and applied 3. Critical thinking and problem solving: leading to confidence in addressing the dilemmas and challenges of sustainable development; 4. Multi-method: word, art, drama, debate, experience ... different pedagogies which model the processes. Teaching that is geared simply to passing on knowledge should be recast into an approach in which teachers and learners work together to acquire knowledge and play a role in shaping the environment of their school; 5. Participatory decision-making: learners participate in decisions on how they are to learn; 6. Applicability: the learning experiences offered are integrated in day to day personal and professional life; 7. Locally relevant: addressing local as well as global issues, and using language which learners most commonly use. The Cluster Management Team works collaboratively to drive transformative learning and sustainable education in their school and across the cluster. The ENC has developed an Action Plan (pdf doc) which is a living document to ensure we meet the aims of the initiative. See the Projects page for more sustainable resources and professional learning links.