ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

Exciting find in the Mangawhero Stream

In all the years I have been running Waiora stream studies, I’ve never caught tusked mayflies (Ichthybotus species) but Year 10 students from Ruapehu College found heaps of these borrowing mayflies in the Mangawhero Stream in Ohakune. The presence of tusked mayfly suggests good habitat and water quality conditions, especially if other mayfly or stonefly groups are abundant, which they were.

What animals live in driftwood?

This is what students from Halcombe School found out on their school camp at Foxton Beach late last year. Driftwood is a feature at almost every place where water meets land. Cast ashore by wind, waves and currents this is a unique ecosystem which is largely terrestrial but partly aquatic. Students looked in and around driftwood and were surprised to find heaps of animals such as beach earwigs, spiders, sand hoppers, and the most exciting find – the large grubs of sand scarab beetles.   

ENVIROSCHOOLS

Our city and district councils, plus the Ruahine Kindergarten Association are our awesome partners, without which we would not be able to run the programme. They have continued to support and help us grow the number of schools and early childhood education centres (ECE) able to join the programme. So a big thank you to them. 

A warm welcome to Clifton School, Manchester Kindergarten, Cullinane College and Te Wainui a Rua who joined the programme at the end of the 2020.

But……. we still have funding for more schools and ECE’s in Manawatū and Rangitīkei to come on board the Enviroschools waka. Please contact me if you would like more information.

In last term’s edition of Seedlings, we highlighted two hui we ran with support from the National Enviroschools team. If you are interested to read more, there are comprehensive articles available on the Enviroschools website about our annual regional ECE wānanga and our inaugural primary student enviro-leader hui, Forgotten Fauna.

Enviroschool Kimbolton School’s inspirational Principal retires after 15 years

With many years leading an Enviroschool, Principal Linda Campbell holds a tremendous amount of knowledge of the programme. Linda retired at the end of Term 4 but not before I had the opportunity to capture some of this wisdom and ask her a few questions. Check out her Q&A here. 

The Pat Kelly Enviroschools Action Fund

Despite Covid restrictions, last year’s recipients of the Pat Kelly Enviroschools Action Fund were busy implementing their projects. A number of schools received funding for greenhouse/tunnelhouse themed projects. Orautoha School have been busy growing seedlings now their 18 year old tunnel/shade house has a new cover. The growing season is short in their area so every day counts in growing veges for their whānau. Brunswick School have also started work with the students’ first job which was to read the instructions and work out how to put the greenhouse up!! Once it was up, the juniors have been focussing on 'Ready, Steady, Sow.. Let's Grow' so the greenhouse is now in full use.

Below are the recipients of the 2020-2021 fund:

We have awarded 13 grants to Enviroschools this year and the number and calibre of applications have increased significantly since we started offering this fund to our Enviroschools in 2016-2017. The initial fund available was only $7,000, and although we have had to make some tough decisions on who would get funded for this year, we have also re-allocated an extra $2,000 from the environmental education budget to support projects. Plus we managed to get two projects funded through Horizons’ Natural Resources and Partnerships Biodiversity programme. Here are a list of the successful applicants.

• Manchester Street School: the creation of an outdoor music area made from recycled and upcycled materials;
• Makino Kindergarten: raised garden beds to revamp their old bee friendly garden;
• Barnardos ELC: the purchase of water tanks for vege gardening and tamariki water play;
• Parkland Kindergarten: the purchase of raised vegetable gardens;
• Hokowhitu School: towards ongoing development of their outdoor classroom;
• Linton Kindergarten: replacing their old compost bins;
• Carncot Independent School: solar powered rainwater harvesting project;
• Pukeokahu School: to purchase fruit and native trees for their te ngāhere enhancement;
• Marton Childcare Centre: for the purchase of a water tank;
• Love and Learn Care and Education: for their collaborative community project and memorial garden;
• Westmere School: for creating an art work for their nature walk project which reflects the culture of the school and community.

Two projects funded through our Natural Resources and Partnerships biodiversity programme are:

• Ōhau School: for the purchase of traps. Students are setting up a trapping project in the bush block adjacent to the school for which they are kaitiaki;
• Mosston School: received funding for ‘Green One Hundred’, an initiative to regenerate the native bush in their school by infill planting with native trees. 

Taking a breather and reflecting on their sustainability journey so far have been

Kimbolton School who re-reflected at Green-Gold. A write up of their review can be found at the bottom of Kimbolton School’s inspirational principal article. Parkland Kindergarten reflected to Silver, and Brunswick and Aberfeldy schools reflected to Bronze. Congratulations to all.

RESOURCES