For more possibilities for funding projects big and small, take a look at our 'funding' padlet. https://padlet.com/EnviroschoolsMarlborough/funding We'll continue to update this as new opportunities become available....
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Students and staff of Te Kura o Waiharakeke | Blenheim School proudly unveiled their ‘Taylor River Care Code’ sign in November. The sign, which has been over a year in the making, sits beside the Taylor River near the John Street footbridge. Developed by the Envirogroup and their Enviroschools Lead Teacher Tracy Holdaway, the care code sets out how the whole community can help the tamariki take care of this special awa. It features beautiful artwork drawn by the students and reflects the special relationship that the school has with the awa that flows right beside it. Many students pass the river each day on their way to and from school, and tamariki regularly pick...
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Students at Waikawa Bay School lead an enthusiastic reflection this term and all that attended decided that the school was, without doubt, a Silver Enviroschool! The school’s vision for Enviroschools is ‘Living and Learning the Waikawa Way: Immersed in our natural world, watch us grow and make a change!’. Students at Waikawa Bay School are certainly immersed in their natural world. Senior students check, clear and rebait the trapline every other day, and record their catch data to measure their impact. Students take part in ‘bush school’ every week: learning and playing at and in their local beaches, rivers and forests. All students spend time planting, weeding, harvesting and learning in the edible gardens....
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Autumn is harvest-time in our school's edible gardens: a time to marvel at what we grew and to enjoy some tasty garden treats! Grovetown School had a group cooking session using fruit from their orchard to make blackberry and apple tarts for the whole school. Laden trees of plums, apples and pears ensured they shared their mahi and kai with the wider school community. A bumper crop of late potatoes was the harvest highlight at Picton School. Using the tuakana-teina buddy system, older students introduced new children to the garden while digging potatoes. It was a great way to teach how to safely use the garden tools, but it soon became less about the tools...
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Tamariki at Blenheim School have been thinking about how they care for a place that is very special to their school: The Taylor River. The Envirogroup got together to think about kaitiakitanga, and talked about all of the different kaitiaki that care for the Taylor awa. These include ātua (e.g.: Tangaroa and Tamanuiterā), taonga species (e.g. tuna | eels), iwi/mana whenua, council, and community members. The students discovered that they can be kaitiaki for the awa too, as the more kaitiaki the awa has, the healthier the awa will be! They all had loads of examples of why the river is special to them. It turns out that they have already been doing some things...
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What do you get when you cross an elephant with a potato? MASHED POTATO! Term 3 is a popular time of year in the Kids Edible Gardens. For most children participating, they are chitting (sprouting) potatoes, eagerly waiting to plant them into buckets for class potato growing competitions or planting into their garden beds. There is a lot of discussion as to how they will cook them: mashed with butter and cheese, roasted with summer herbs, added to boiled eggs as a salad or simply boiled with mint and eaten with lots of dipping butter! The most excitement, however, is digging them up before leaving school for their long summer holiday. There is, of course, much...
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Ellen Theobald, co-leader of Renwick School's 'Green Ferns' enviro group, wrote this article to tell us about the school's recent Enviro Week activities. Our Green Ferns organised a really fun Enviro Week to coincide with the Climate Strikes and the work done by Climate Karanga and George Varney (Climate Youth Action Team) at the tree planting opportunity that was offered to schools. We also decided that we need to raise the profile of recycling within our classrooms as school systems changed and we needed to educate everyone to let them know what to do.
St Mary's Envirogroup students submit on NZ's biodiversity strategy. Can you imagine what our world would look like if there was only one type of tree or bird or one type of apple to eat? The children in St Mary’s Envirogroup didn’t want to imagine that type of environment. Healthy biodiversity is important to them. They know that Aotearoa New Zealand’s biodiversity is amazing! About 90 % of our insects, 80 % of trees, ferns and flowering plants, 25 % of bird species, all 60 reptiles, 4 frogs and 2 bats are found nowhere else on earth. The current Government strategy on biodiversity is 20 years old and expires in 2020. The Department of Conservation is putting...
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Bohally Intermediate's classroom recycling bins got a makeover this term, as classes battled it out to win a mufti day. Each class was challenged to revamp their bins for general recycling and GOOS (Good On One Side) paper, in a competition run by the school's enviro-team. The competition aimed to make students and teachers think about recycling, and to make sure that the bins were easy to find in the classroom. Some classes went all out, completely redesigning their bins from the ground up, while others worked to make what they already had more eye-catching. Judging took creativity, wow-factor, functionality, and the use of recycled materials into consideration, and gave bonus points to classes that had...
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Marlborough Girls' College students have a new addition to their school: a thrift shop where students can recycle and purchase used clothing. A visit to Nelson College for Girls last year sparked the idea for this exciting new venture. Since then, a group of keen students have worked with supportive MGC staff to take the thrift shop from idea to reality. The students have created an inviting shop, bursting with donated clothing, shoes, and accessories. They have used recycled materials as much as possible, including upcycled and repurposed driftwood poles, secondhand shelves, and picture frames. Students wanting to dress up for house sports days and competitions will be able to select clothes and accessories from the 'house...
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