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Environmentally Friendly School
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ILLAWARRA CHRISTIAN SCHOOL CAMPUSES
ICS ECO CV
 ICS Eco CV and Media (1342 KB)
ASTHMA FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT
Illawarra Christian School Tongarra began its journey towards being an Asthma Friendly School in 2005, a journey started by the ever present drought. Our rural school, sitting on 17 acres of remnants of threatened Illawarra lowland grassy-woodlands was not coping well with the onslaught of a drought on a land that had been cleared centuries earlier for dairy farming. The lack of tree cover and the death of many introduced species of plant had turned the lush pastures into a grey dust bowl. The constant dust storms and raging winds across exposed paddocks produced a rise in the frequency of asthma attacks amongst our children and staff. We first turned to the Asthma Council Website for guidance as a parent had alerted the school to the allergenic nature of many plants and the need to ensure that if replanting occurred then first and foremost the criteria must be low allergenic and native. We applied for a grant from Shellhabour Council and recieved $1600 and the support of their Environmental Officer -Andrew Williams. With the Additional support of The Asthma Foundation of NSW and their booklet on Asthma Friendly Gardens, the school grounds were eco-mapped. Allergenic or toxic plants were identified and tagged and a volunteer group of parents then systematically came and dug those unwanted plants up and removed them from this site. Parents were invited to take ownership of the garden beds outside their child’s classroom and replant. All plants, mulch, tools etc were supplied by the school.
A School Plant policy was formulated and parents asked to no longer bring in or donate plants to the school as we now had a 5 point check list for every plant that had to be certified by 2 members of our 4 man Eco-team before it could be planted. The compost bins, potent triggers of airway disease were relocated away outside classrooms and positioned near one of the outer borders of the school grounds. Mowing of lawns around classrooms was restricted to weekends, all grass was caught and removed. Bark chip is being replaced with native ground cover as the chip increases the dust burden when blown on to paths and crushed under foot.
The removal alone of the allergenic plants especially the Daisy Family plants found almost in every school garden had a dramatic effect on reducing the frequency and severity of asthma at the school. So effective was the removal that the new asthma dedicated sick bay and new equipment went virtually unused for most of last term which is traditionally one of our worst terms.
The School has a registered Reflexology Massage Therapist who during the worst of the asthma season, ran a mini trial with the more seriously affected children and staff. During lunch breaks mini massage sessions to target cramped and fatigued muscles from asthma attacks were given to each child and trigger points also given some therapy. The frequency and severity of the attacks were noted to see if there was an reduction in either due to the relaxation therapy.
Results will be available once the work has been accepted as part of the Therapist’s Curriculum Assignment.
As an independent school, we are a small community but a vibrant one with inter-generational interaction on a daily basis with many of our families involved in the life of our school. After learning of the under -diagnosed and under treated incidence of adult onset asthma after the age of 55, the school is currently reviewing how best they can serve to spread this new message throughout the wider community. Exciting times ahead!!
MEDIA RELEASE
Illawarra may be languishing second from the bottom of the Asthma Friendly Schools league table, recently published by Asthma Foundation NSW, but Illawarra Christian School Tongarra Campus , Albion Park have done the region proud by taking out a Healthy Cities award.
The award, which will be presented to the Tongarra Eco-Team of Greg Batten- Head of Campus, Dr Aine Seavers Asthma Project Co—ordintator and Mr David Imisides Agricultural Eco-Science Teacher, at a lunch function on Tuesday June 19th recognises the enormous efforts made by the Tongarra campus in re-landscaping its grounds to make them asthma friendly.
“Asthma Foundation would like to congratulate Illawarra Christian School Tongarra on its well-deserved award,” said Greg Smith, CEO of Asthma Foundation NSW.
“Of the 400 students that attend Illawarra Christian School Tongarra, some 75 have asthma, which is well above the national average of 1:6.”
“When the school first joined the Asthma Friendly Schools program they had quite a problem with students presenting with asthma symptoms and being absent from school. They joined the program, decided to re-landscape the school grounds, in-service staff, improving air changes in changing rooms and planting wind breaks to buffer againsy dust storms. These changes saw a dramatic reduction in asthma-related illness to almost none.”
Plants, grasses and pollens they produce can seriously affect people who suffer from allergies and asthma. Some 10% of Australians have asthma, one of the highest prevalences in the word, but around 40% of Australians suffer from allergies. Both asthma attacks and severe allergic reactions can be triggered by exposure to pollens.
As witnessed every Spring in Australia, there are many common grasses and plants, mostly wind pollinated, that do affect people with asthma and allergies very badly. However, there are also low allergy or asthma friendly plants mostly pollinated by the birds and bees.
“In order to produce an asthma friendly environment for their students Illawarra Christian School dug up all of its 23 flower beds and re-planted them with low allergy plants, planted trees and a wind break." said Mr Smith.
“They are a shining example to all schools in the Illawarra and we hope to see many more of its schools joining the asthma friendly schools program, which offers many benefits.”
In a recent survey of schools in the program, 98 percent said staff felt much more confident about managing asthma emergencies, almost 60 percent said more children with asthma now participate in sport, 54 percent said they had experienced less asthma emergencies, and 33 percent said asthma-related absenteeism has fallen since joining the AFS program.
Schools can register their interest in becoming Asthma Friendly and organise an asthma staff training session by calling 1800 645 130 or logging onto the Asthma Foundation NSW website www.asthmansw.org.au
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