We are very excited to announce the judge of the 2020 Kreative Koalas Best Community Action Project Reports has announced his Top Five

See the Top Five here 

The Judge

Les Robinson is the author of Changeology. He’s an internationally acknowledge leading expert on the design of community change projects towards sustainability. His website is full of interesting resources: www.enablingchange.com.au

Overall Les says:

“I’m gobsmacked by the amazing creativity, energy and amount of work put into all the projects. These kids are brilliant creative koalas!”

Les shared with us why the Top 5 schools excelled

1) They thought strategically

They started with a big global problem, for example ‘hunger’. Then they logically drilled down to identify realistic actions students could really do to make a real difference in their school or community. And they backed the case with research, including data collection via surveys and audits.

2) They implemented substantial actions for change

Once they identified strategic actions, they followed through with real life efforts that touched many people.

For example:

Annangrove Public School: set up chickens, worm farm and composter; created a vegie garden, grew vegies and supplied them to Windsor Community Kitchen. They also established waste-free Wednesdays, and ran a school feast.

Medowie Christian School: created a kindergarten garden, ran a Foodway tin drive, and cooked up a whole school feast.

St Brigid’s Catholic Primary School: took a whole of school approach. They  started with a survey of what their students were passionate about – that’s a great way to start because everyone has a chance for input. Then they  chose not one, but three (!) projects. The steps for each project were logically set out so every team can see the strategy. And each project was implemented. The projects were hands-on, especially growing and cooking your own food – that’s the best kind of change-making, because you didn’t just ‘tell people why’, you ‘showed them how’.

St Marys North Public School: Created a bush food garden, and ran a nude food day that involved the whole school.

3) They were creative

They were fun, innovative and brought out students’ creativity.

For example:

Gardeners Road PS: ‘unplugged’ hour without power’ event, supported by a TV and poster campaign

4) They wrote clear reports that were easy and enjoyable to read

The winning schools wrote short, simple, eloquent reports that were a pleasure to read. They also followed the format (which means they remembered all the important pieces).

Annangrove PS stood out in this respect because they set out simple ‘theories of change’ that logically described the necessary ingredients to achieve each goal. This was impressive project planning.

For example:

Watch this space for the announcement of finalists in the 2020 Kreative Koalas artworks

Mega shout out to our partners who are empowering the #changemakers

Become a Kreative Koalas Changemaker School in 2021. Expressions of Interest forms can be accessed from our website here