2006 Enviroschools award winners
In 2006, the Enviroschools Awards were run for the first time in the Northland region. Schools were invited to participate and a number showed interest. Ten schools were selected to be winners of the Enviroschools Bronze Award and two were selected to be winners of the Enviroschools Silver Award:
Silver Awards
- Hurupaki School
- Kaeo School
Bronze Awards
- Ahipara School
- Dargaville High School
- Mangakahia Area School
- Ohaeawai School
- Otamatea High School
- St Francis Xavier School
- Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Pukemiro
- Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o te Tonga o Hokianga
- Te Kura o Waikare
- Te Kura Taumata o Panguru
Silver awards
Find out how they achieved silver awards:
Hurupaki School
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Hurupaki School students are the guardians of a wonderful wetland. Over the years, students and local community members have worked together to turn a swampy paddock into a thriving ecosystem and outdoor classroom.
Beginning this year, the school now employs Mrs Holt to work with all students in a school-wide wetland action programme.
Students have solved waste management problems at the school by setting up a new recycling system - that works! ‘Let’s get sorted’ saw waste separation bins introduced, food scraps composted and materials previously thrown out reused. A student roster ensures waste collection and monitoring of the recycling system.
Kaeo School
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Kaeo School has two envirogroups. For the past four years, the Eco Warriors have led the school in a ‘towards zero waste programme’, helped classes plant and care for vegetable gardens and participated in ‘Keep New Zealand Clean’ week.
Over the last three years, the Pukeko Squad has researched saving the Kiwi in Northland, designed and distributed an ‘how to save the kiwi’ flyer to the local community and developed a ‘save the kiwi’ quest on the school website. This year the school-wide curriculum theme has been ‘recognising earth’s precious resources’ – how they might have been destroyed and how we might protect or restore them.
Bronze Awards
Find out how these schools achieved the Bronze Awards:
Ahipara School
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Ahipara School’s Envirogroup has implemented a school-wide recycling system. The students drew up an action plan, researched recycling systems and received funding through media attention.
The Envirogroup hosted an opening ceremony where a super hero and special activities helped the whole school learn what rubbish goes in which bin.
The Envirogroup recently led a staff meeting entitled ‘Enviroschools Journey’, where teachers participated in Enviroschools activities and began planning towards a Silver Award for 2007.
Ahipara School continues its work to care for the Wairoa River. Together with the Landcare group that the school initiated and the conservation corps, students are involved in riparian planting, fencing and a weekly water quality monitoring programme.
Dargaville High School
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Dargaville High School students have been working on freshwater monitoring analysis and improvement projects for the last three years involving Kai Iwi Lakes, Waipoua and Waimata Streams and the Gordon Street Reserve.
These ongoing environmental projects see students carrying out work in the field, in class and in the laboratory. Students monitor water quality and dissolved chemicals, record and analyse stream data, model dissolved oxygen behaviour at differing temperature and flow rates, plan projects including brainstorming and timelines, and research rural New Zealand freshwater issues.
Mangakahia Area School
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Mangakahia Area School’s environmental action projects have focused on turning ‘nothing’ areas into ‘something’ areas: an overgrown garden became a Māori medicinal garden, boring block walls became colourful environmental murals and an empty fenceline is now a native grove.
Staff and students have carried out an environmental review, set up an envirogroup and an environmental committee and developed an environmental care code.
Ohaeawai School
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Ohaeawai School is working towards becoming a ‘zero waste’ school. They have set up a school-wide recycling system using separate classroom bins for: paper, food scraps, shredded paper, bits and bobs, and pencil sharpenings. Students and teachers participated in a ‘Lunchbox Challenge’ where people were encouraged to buy big and use small – to avoid those mini chippy and biscuit packets filling up the rubbish bins.
They have also set up a sustainable recycling centre where technology sheds house waste materials brought from home to be reused at school.
The students continue to enhance their physical surroundings by building a worm farm, creating and hanging kites, setting up bird nesting boxes and, clearing and developing a large back area of the school grounds.
Otamatea High School
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Otamatea High School boasts an all-boy environmental group. This Envirogroup, inspired by participation in NRC Youth Summits, has ‘adopted’ a large area of commuity land adjacent to the school.
The boys investigated the local stream with Whitebait Connection and decided to help protect stream invertebrates, fence off the waterways from stock and improve the native bush area.
The group secured funding from the NRC and Kaipara District Council, and senior students set about fencing off a wetland area and the estuary whilst gaining NCEA credits for their work. Wetland plants have been planted, further funding secured for fencing off native bush and a stream, and eco-sourced native seedlings grown on by the horticulture class have been planted. The Envirogroup also plans to remove a pile of tyres dumped in the stream before the year is out.
The Science and Social Science departments are working together to take on board more environmental education in their teaching and learning programmes for 2007.
St Francis Xavier School
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St Francis Xavier School’s catch phrase is Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink! As soon as kerbside recycling began in Whangarei, the Room 12 ‘Recycle Champs’ introduced all classes to paper recycling, then cardboard and aluminium cans.
With the help of Slash Trash, ‘Enviro Monitors’, from across the school, set up a worm farm to take care of the food scraps and encouraged everybody to take their plastic rubbish home.
The students donated tiger worms to the women’s refuge centre so that they could set up a worm farm too. After siting a school power bill, the ‘Enviro Monitors’ promoted an energy conservation poster competition at assembly time.
Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Pukemiro
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Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Pukemiro has become part of the ‘Experiencing Marine Reserves’ programme.
Students and teachers increased their knowledge about marine biodiversity and carried out comparative snorkelling investigations of a local non-protected area and the Leigh marine reserve.
Starting from a bare kura site in 2003, the tamariki have planned, designed and helped create playing areas incorporating a playground, signage and games painted on the concrete.
The kura is helping to regenerate toheroa via its Pingao project. Tamariki and kaiako have been propagating, potting up, growing on and planting out Pingao on local beaches.
Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o te Tonga o Hokianga
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Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o te Tonga o Hokianga has begun to take special care of its awa. The tamariki are involving whanau, hapu and iwi in addressing environmental issues surrounding their river.
They have investigated the present state of the awa and its value within the community, undertaken initial water quality testing and are setting up a monitoring programme. They plan to riparian plant the river banks and ensure that plant and insect communities are cared for.
Starting from a bare kura site, the tamariki from each class have designed and created entrance gardens. The gardens contain Māori medicinal plants, vegetables and native plants growing amidst aspects of Māori design, complete with a waka!
Te Kura o Waikare
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At Te Kura o Waikare, the Tuakana class is the envirogroup. Tuakana began their environmental mahi with learning how to respect and care for their creeks and rivers, and themselves.
They interviewed kaumatua and kuia about the state of the awa when they were tamariki, ‘walked and talked’ the river with kaumatua and a Northland Health representative, and found out about the community’s feelings, uses, and knowledge of the river.
This year, students have shared their environmental learning by presenting at the 2006 Environment and Conservation Organisations of New Zealand (ECO) conference, the inaugural meeting of the Bay of Islands Management group and to a variety of school and marae groups.
Te Kura Taumata o Panguru
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Te Kura Taumata o Panguru has been living its curriculum! Each year level has been investigating and reporting on environmental issues within the following topics: waste management, native plants and traditional medicines, organic gardening, water weeds, micro-organisms in our waterways, climate change, local environmental disasters, landscape changes, plant pests, and land ownership and land use.
The Kura identified a problem – their school and community library was not being used. Students, teachers and community members together carried out a survey and produced an action plan to create a library space that is inviting and interactive for students and the local community. They have renovated donated used furniture, painted murals, made cushions and dressed up an old boat and mannequins.