Glenthorne earmarked as a location for unique outdoor education program

Glen­thorne Nation­al Park-Itya­mai­it­pin­na Yarta has been iden­ti­fied as one of the out­door nat­ur­al spaces that will be used in a unique new South Aus­tralian out­door edu­ca­tion program.

The Envi­ron­men­tal Edu­ca­tion Action Plan 2021 – 2024 is a joint ini­tia­tive between South Aus­tralian envi­ron­ment and edu­ca­tion depart­ments which aims to improve envi­ron­men­tal and sus­tain­abil­i­ty edu­ca­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties for pub­lic pre-school and school students.

The plan was announced at Glen­thorne Nation­al Park-Itya­mai­it­pin­na Yarta in late July where a Mem­o­ran­dum of Admin­is­tra­tive Arrange­ment (MOAA) was signed on behalf of both depart­ments by Min­is­ter for Envi­ron­ment and Water David Speirs and Min­is­ter for Edu­ca­tion John Gardner.

Under the pro­gram, stu­dents will learn from pro­fes­sion­als in the field and schools will also part­ner with oth­er organ­i­sa­tions to get involved in local envi­ron­men­tal and sus­tain­abil­i­ty projects based in local parks, bush­lands and com­mu­ni­ty gardens.

The pro­gram has also been co-designed to sup­port path­ways for stu­dents in indus­tries such as con­ser­va­tion and land man­age­ment, agri­cul­ture and ani­mal care, as well as aqua­cul­ture, hor­ti­cul­ture and forestry.

It will pro­vide stu­dents with oppor­tu­ni­ties to learn from employ­ers about essen­tial skills for the envi­ron­men­tal and sus­tain­abil­i­ty fields includ­ing future careers for the roll­out of South Australia’s new hydro­gen ener­gy sector.

A new work­ing group will be estab­lished which will over­see the imple­men­ta­tion of this plan and will report back to both Min­is­ters on an annu­al basis.