Hume City Council offers a range of programs and support to assist local schools and early childhood centres to engage students around sustainability and to create more sustainable learning environments.
To book educational incursions for your school or for more information, please contact the Sustainable Environment Department at environment@hume.vic.gov.au or call 9205 2200.
Volcano Dreaming
Volcano Dreaming is a panoramic banner display consisting of twelve 1m x2m murals. The banners showcase the diverse wildflower grasslands of Victoria’s Western Plains. Each panel has a theme that represents an aspect of our native grasslands, and includes fascinating geological features, rich Aboriginal and European histories, and special native plants and animals of the basalt plains.
These grassland communities have been devastated since European colonisation. Today, less than 1% of the original extent of high-quality grassland communities remain. These unique Victorian ecological communities are listed as critically endangered under both federal and state environmental legislation.
Important places such as the Evans Street Grassland in Sunbury are here to help conserve and protect what little is left. Many remnant grasslands are dotted across Hume City's nature conservation reserves.
Your school, community group or organisation can borrow this beautiful exhibition from Hume City Council for free.
Notes about native grasslands and research links are available online on the volcano dreaming website.
Teacher notes and student worksheets are available from Ecolink in their program called Footprints.
Ecolink provides free apps (Apple devices only) of field guides of grassland flora and fauna, specifically of the VVP and South-eastern Australia.
Hume City Council can provide further educational support for local schools through Volcano Dreaming biodiversity incursions. In addition, Hume's Seedlings for Schools program, offers free indigenous seedlings.
For full impact the Volcano dreaming is best displayed as a straight line, semi-circle, or curved around the corners. For one person it takes 20-30 minutes to set up/pack-down the twelve panels.
For more information or to check the mural’s availability, contact Hume City’s Sustainability Engagement team on 9205 2200 or email environment@hume.vic.gov.au
To book the mural please fill out the booking form(PDF, 290KB).
Waste education
Council, in partnership with CERES education, provides a range of free waste and environmental education programs for schools, kindergartens and early learning centres. Further information can be found on the Waste Education page.
Biodiversity incursions
A range of biodiversity incursions and excursions are available. Incursions range from indigenous garden planting days, introduced species or threatened species activities, conservation and ecosystem-based activities, biodiversity audits and action planning, water quality monitoring and investigations, as well as indigenous cultural use of natural resources.
Seedlings for Schools
All primary schools and secondary colleges located in Hume City can apply to receive free indigenous plants through Council’s Seedlings for Schools program. Schools can select to plant their seedlings on their school grounds in either Term 2 (May) or for Schools National Tree Day (July). For more information on what is provided and how to apply online, visit the Seedlings for Schools page.
Schools can also use these seedlings to participate in Council’s Gardens for Wildlife program.
Environmental scholarships
If one or more of your students is passionate about the environment and is keen to undertake additional learning, they could benefit from an Environmental Scholarship provided by Council. The scholarship can fund up to 80 per cent of environmental related course fees to a maximum of $1500 per eligible applicant. Further information on eligibility and how to apply is available on the Environmental Scholarships page.
Support for environmental conferences and capacity building
Council regularly provides financial support for Hume schools to participate in environmental related conferences for students such as Australian Youth Climate Coalition events, Schools for Nature conferences and Kids Teaching Kids.
We also support teacher education such as Bike Ed training.
Subscribe to our Teachers Environment Network to be kept informed, or contact the Sustainability Engagement Officer at environment@hume.vic.gov.au.
Hume City Council and CERES present Student Environmental Leadership Summit 2023(PDF, 3MB), schools in Hume are invited to check out the Summit flyer(PDF, 3MB) and contact Thomas Fox for bookings and more info at Thomasf@hume.vic.gov.au
ResourceSmart schools
The ResourceSmart Schools program is a Victorian state government initiative helping schools embed sustainability into their curriculum and school operations. Many Hume schools are involved in the program. To find out more visit Sustainability Victoria's ResourceSmart Schools web page.