Over the past year Matarau School near Whangārei has been introducing new sustainable initiatives, led by passionate teachers - Anna Alexander, Jo Gunson - and Enviroschools Facilitator Jane Norman.

Through the Envirochools Kaupapa, the school created the Kaitiaki Klub to ensure sustainable practices continued and ultimately helped the school successfully launch their Enviroschools journey.

To showcase all their new learnings, the Kaitiaki Klub with assistance from Jane, decided to start the Enviroschools 2023 year with a bang and held an Enviro Day with students and whānau.

The Enviro Day featured a number of educational stations including: pest trapping, kauri protection stations setup by NRC, litterless lunches, chemical-free cleaning, harakeke weaving, seed bombs, beeswax wraps, planting and data collection in the local ngahere.

But the fun didn’t end there. The Enviro Day also included an afternoon community market. Every class thought creatively to come up with a sustainable product they could source locally, design and create with a small budget. Some examples included upcycled tyre earrings, shopping bags made from t-shirts, natural soaps and insect hotels. Nearby Enviroschool Comrie Park Kindergarten joined in on the market fun by bringing along plants to sell from their shared plant nursery.

Teacher Anna summaries it perfectly:

“There were so many wonderful learning opportunities to spark and excite our whānau and students' passion for sustainability. We believe that it's not just a nice thing to do anymore, it is now a necessity. We believe that our students are ‘Nga Kakano apopo - the seeds of tomorrow’ and together we can all take action, make changes and lead by example.”

Anna said the atmosphere was buzzing with everyone enjoying the day.

“We are so proud of our students and our wonderful community. The best thing about this day was our whānau and the local community all came together to support and celebrate our students here at Matarau. It was a very humbling experience.”

What an awesome way to launch your Enviroschools year Matarau School!