Talking about her experiences with Art4Agriculture’s Archibull Prize, Matraville Sports High School teacher Sarah Robinson was the keynote speaker at the 2017 Steps to Sustainability Conference held in Melbourne recently.
The conference, established by Julie Wynne, Sustainability Coordinator at St. Louis de Montfort’s school and Karen Jones, Education Manager at Port Phillip Ecocentre, encourages leaders within schools to embed sustainability and climate change in everything they do. The conference is conducted by teachers for teachers.
“Attendees described Sarah as sensational. She did a wonderful job and really connected with the audience, especially the creative and artistic teachers” said Organiser Karen Jones.
Sarah’s address, “Teaching Sustainability Through Innovative Design”, described her work with The Archibull Prize, an innovative program connecting students with farmers. As part of the program each school is assigned an agricultural industry, students research the challenges and successes of that industry, are mentored by Young Farming Champions and present their findings in art form on a life-sized fibreglass cow.
Sarah Robinson with the Matraville Sports High School team and their 2016 Grand Champion Archibull at the awards ceremony
“Sarah has been involved with the Archibull Prize for five years, successfully taking Matraville Sports High to Grand Champion Archibull on two occasions,” Art4Agriculture director Lynne Strong said. “She works closely with the Little Bay Community of Schools, five primary schools who feed into Matraville, to provide transitional relationships to high school and to promote Matraville High as more than just a sports school.”
“In addition Sarah was instrumental in developing the UNSW Matraville Education Program – an affiliation that gives high school students exposure to additional arts and science classes, and train teachers from the university exposure to students. For this Matraville was awarded our inaugural Alan Eagle Award in 2016 – presented to a school fostering partnerships between education, business and the community.”
In 2017 Sarah will be playing a mentor role to other schools involved in The Archibull Prize
Cowaski was a big hit at the recent Sydney Royal Easter Show. I hear on the grapevine that the main people who stopped for a lengthy time and stood in awe were middle aged men reliving their glory days with wind in their hair riding their Harley’s into the sunset.
For more information on The Archibull Prize please contact Lynne Strong on 0407 740 446 or l;ynnestrong@art4agriculture.com.au .