Costa brings his magic to Surfside Primary School’s garden

BELOVED television presenter and environmental educator Costa Georgiadis stopped by Surfside Primary School last week to speak with students about Australian Pollinator Week and protecting the natural environment.

His visited was initiated by the students involved in Surfside’s environmental club, who met Georgiadis last month at Farm My School’s second birthday celebration and invited him to come see the school’s garden.

Dressed as everyone’s favourite garden gnome, Georgiadis spoke to a captivated audience about the importance of understanding the needs of local wildlife to help encourage them to inhabit new areas and to dispel any fear surrounding that wildlife with knowledge.

“If we want to protect nature, if we want to protect our pollinators, we need to understand them,”Georgiadis said.

He encouraged the students to build relationships with wildlife by learning how they work and what they need to survive.

Georgiadis then spent some time in the garden with Surfside’s students.

There, he congratulated the school on its thriving garden and education initiatives, stating it was the most important classroom in the school “because it’s changing lives”.

Surfside Primary School gardening specialist Clancey McKenzie said it meant a lot to the students that Georgiadis took the time to visit.

“All the kids are so proud of the garden and the kitchen and the program that we run that they just love sharing the space,” she said.

She said Surfside’s support for initiatives such as Australian Pollinator Week were aimed at giving children the knowledge and tools they need to identify and support wildlife, including insects and other pollinators that are in decline, and remove any fear of some of the bugs they might perceive as scary or dangerous.

Meanwhile, the school’s garden is intended to empower students with an understanding of where their food comes from.

“In the garden, they’re exposed to the whole cycle of the growing of the plants and the soil health, looking after the ecosystem, then when they go into the kitchen to cook the food, they’ve been part of the whole process,” Ms McKenzie said.

“Because their peers are then eating and tasting and enjoying, those who may be a bit more fearful of eating something, will be brave to have a go and discover new tastes and textures.”

She said Georgiadis’ was a role model to many of the school’s students and helped reinforce the lessons Surfside was hoping to impart.

Surfside Primary School is seeking community members happy to volunteer an hour or two of their time to help students in the school’s garden and kitchen.

To express your interest in a volunteer position, email Clancey McKenzie at [email protected]