Educational business toes the green line

Perth-based teaching aids supplier, Australian Teaching Aids is walking the green line.A proud supporter of local business and local resources, this environmentally aware educational aids company has achieved a gold star for itself.
The company has been manufacturing and distributing teaching aids to schools across the far-flung corners of Australia for over 25 years, but now under new management, Australian Teaching Aids has really accelerated its commitment to local manufacture. 
Management has dramatically scaled down its imports, with 80% of its teaching aids now manufactured locally.  
Only the novelty pencil range is imported from America, where it meets strict health and safety standards. 
And when it comes to safety, all of ATA’s locally manufactured teaching aids are child-safe and meet Australian health requirements.
Jane Fievez, Australian Teaching Aids’ managing director, says everyone benefits from their strategy to go local – from retailers which carry their teaching aids to the teachers and students who use them.”We are passionate about supporting local businesses and encouraging local talent,” she said.  “We use local artists and authors, and support local businesses such as ParaQuads to handle most of our packaging.As far as possible, we only employ contractors who are environmentally conscious.
Our books are all written by local authors and published locally – with titles ranging from ‘Learning About Libraries, Benchmarking and Relief for Relief Teachers.
Scott Print, Perth’s first environmentally certified printer, publishes all our new wall charts and posters, which are all designed by a local artist.They use a Process Green System which means that every aspect of the printing process is environmentally sustainable, such as the use of green electricity, recycled waste, petroleum-free inks and recycled paper.
The company’s considerate approach extends to those communities who are in need.Desperately needy schools overseas get redundant stock of teaching aids from the company, because as Jane says, these schools have no facilities whatsoever and the children often don’t get a proper meal every day.
 “Our approach not only benefits local business, but has advantages for the users of our educational aids too,” added Jane.”Imported products sometime have designs, grammar and language that is inappropriate and not relevant to the Australian learning environment.Because we use local authors and artists, we can ensure the material is grammatically correct and is relevant to the local market, which is an important factor when it comes to teacher resources.The inclusion of Australiana such as marsupials and eucalypts into the designs makes our products relevant for Australian classrooms.”
If the growing popularity of products from Australian Teaching Aids is a benchmark, there is simply no substitute for traditional teacher resources to add value to the teaching and learning experience.