Kia ora koutou

Happy New Year! We hope you have all had a well deserved Christmas break and are looking forward to the new school year.

Last year it was great to see so many of you engaging with us, booking education sessions and borrowing our new kits.

We have seen an increase in enquiries already for 2024, so we are are expecting this year to be another busy one. If you are keen to book a session or borrow a kit please get in touch on education@horizons.govt.nz.

Remember to join our Facebook group - Horizons Environmental Education Hub to keep up to date on all things Environmental Education and we can't wait to see you all getting out and about immersing yourselves in all things environmental education.

Mā te wā

Sarah & Christina

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

Exploring pest plants at Awahuri Kitchener Forest Park 

Last term we trialed out our new pest plant education session as part of the Awahuri Forest Kitchener Park education programme.

Students learnt about what a pest plant is, why they are considered pests, how they are spread, and various ways we can try to control them.

Students were split into groups to take a deeper look at five of the common pest plants found at the park and the Horizons Region including tradescantia, blackberry, old man’s beard, periwinkle and woolly nightshade.

Once they had completed these rotations they then tested their new found knowledge with a pest plant match game. Students did a great job, they can now easily identify some of these common pest plants.

Students tackle coastal litter 

Last term we joined forces with Sustainable Coastlines to deliver a teacher workshop at Foxton Beach to learn more about the Litter Intelligence Programme.

Litter Intelligence is a long-term programme that collects litter data from coastal areas around New Zealand that provides powerful insights about the problem, and inspires widespread action for solutions - “We cannot improve what we do not measure"

Teachers learnt more about this programme, how to set up and run a survey, analysis the rubbish collected into different categories, and then how to upload this information into the national database.

This workhop inspired Tangimoana School and Kairanga School to set up and commit to monitoring sites at Himitangi Beach and Tangimoana Beach - Kai Pai

You can learn more about the programme here 

Tōtara Reserve Open Day a success

Horizons Regional Council held the inaugural Tōtara Reserve Open Day on Saturday 28th October.

It was an amazing day with stalls offering rat trap building, pest plant information and games, a rongoā display, a deeper look at freshwater macroinvertebrates, bird count activity, wetā motel building and a free sausage sizzle.

A special thank you to Awahou School who organised the scavenger hunt through the Nature Trails for us.

If you didn’t manage to make it out on the day, make sure to keep an eye out on the Tōtara Reserve Facebook page so you don't miss out on future events.

War on Weeds Champion crowned in Ruapehu

Ohakune Carrot Park was the location of the third edition of our Pest Plant Student hui last term. Approx 50 students from five schools from southern Ruapehu (Waimarino) came together to learn about some key pest plants in their area, and what they can do to take action on them in their communities. Our Biosecurity pest plants team once again put on a great show for the students, enthusing them about a number of pest plants such as darwins barberry, old man’s beard, chilean rhubarb and wilding pine (contorta) and why they are weedy.

Students competed in a range of activities such as an amazing ‘slow’ race learning how to identify a range of pest plants, how they are spread and how they can be controlled, matching biological control agents to their pest plant, and then the ultimate spray off to see who would be crowned the War on Weeds School Champion for Waimarino. This time it was taken out by Ohakune Primary School.

It can be difficult to get students excited about plants so finding fun ways of doing this is the key.

Getting Spring ready

In October, approx. 30 teachers and community educators attended our first NZ Association for Environmental Educators (NZAEE) Hui-ā-kōanga (spring hui).

This local connection day held at Marton School enabled attendees to participate in workshops from NZ Indigenous Flora Seed Bank (NZIFSB), Tāhuri Whenua (National Māori Vegetable Growers Collective), and a Rongoā practitioner.

We also heard local pūrākau from the school’s students with support from tangata whenua.

The hui also involved preparing and planting kūmara beds.

ENVIROSCHOOLS

New Enviroschools 

A special welcome to the following schools that have joined the Enviroschools Programme last term.

Horowhenua College, Mataroa School, Tawhero School and Wanganui East Kindergarten 💚

Congratulations to......

What an amazing end to 2023 with so many reflections for term four.

Bronze reflections were celebrated at Pahiatua School, Ngakonui Valley School, Hiwinui School, Ruahine Makino Kindergarten, Tui Early Learners – Lytton Street, and Fun House Learning Centre.

Silver reflections were celebrated at Bulls School and Newbury School (pictured below)

Tino pai 💚

Pat Kelly Enviroschools Action Fund

The Pat Kelly Enviroschools Action Fund allows schools and ECE centres to apply for funding to support a project that aligns with the Enviroschools kaupapa and supports making long term changes towards sustainability.

Last year Tui Early Learners Feilding Lytton Street applied for funding for water tanks. The purpose of the water tanks was to connect the tamariki to water, understand where water comes from, why it is a precious resource and how water is used to sustain life on earth.

The water tanks were installed with the help of their facilitator. Tamariki were able to watch the tanks go in which sparked many questions about the process and what would happen next. When the rain started to fall and fill the tanks up it created many conversations around water, its uses and how to know what to use it for.

They will be using water collected for sensory play and watering the vegetable gardens and fruit trees.

You can see more about the projects that have received funding for 2024 here. 

IDEAS & RESOURCES

Horizons Environmental Education Hub Facebook Group

You may have noticed we have changed the name of our Facebook group. We want to be able to support all teachers in their environmental education mahi and not just those who are part of our Enviroschools Programme.

You will find us under Horizons Environmental Education Hub - This closed group is a platform to share all your  awesome mahi and resources. Its also a place to ask questions or share recommendations.

So if you are not a member already join up now. 

Seaweek -Sat. 2 March - Sun. 10 March 2024

Seaweek - Kaupapa Moana is New Zealand's annual national week to celebrate the sea.

Get out an discover how our lives are connected to the sea.

You can sign up to find out what's happening here

ENM Environmental Initiatives Fund

Environment Network Manawatu (ENM) administers the Environmental Initiatives Fund to support Palmerston North-based community initiatives that improve environmental outcomes.

Small Grants (up to $1000, open year-round) and Large Grants (between $1,000 and $12,000 and open from 30th January - 14th March 2024.) are available for projects that align with PNCC’s Eco-City Strategy priorities and any identified priorities of ENM.

During the 2023 round St Peter’s College and Bunnythorpe School were both successful with small applications to enhance the growing potential of their school mara kai. The fund welcomes applications from schools in the knowledge that teaching food growing and resilience skills to our tamariki is vital in helping ensure future food security.

They will be holding a celebration event/information evening for interested potential applicants to attend. To find out more or to register your interest you can call  06 355 0126 or visit them  here.