In 2025, the Waikato Enviroschools team organised an online professional development (PD) hui to share the revised Holistic Reflection process with teachers in the region. Lead Teachers from Elstow-Waihou Combined School, Pirongia School and Matangi Primary who had used the process in Term 4 of 2024 and facilitators Alex Daniel and Adrienne Grant shared their experiences and thoughts about the new process. The full recording of the PD is available to watch here and the following is a summary of some of the key points, experiences and quotes from those involved. Please see the footnote at the end of this story for chapter markers for easy reference.
In 2024, the Enviroschools Holistic Reflection process was thoughtfully refined to enable schools, ECE centres and teachers to lead a process that honours and celebrates the unique character of their Enviroschool. The tools and process support schools to create a meaningful, holistic, celebratory and honest reflection at that moment in time. As part of the process, Enviroschools identify next steps that will support their ongoing Enviroschools journey.
The refined process can take different forms depending on the needs of the school:
- It can be undertaken by an Envirogroup;
- It can be used by the staff instead of an annual review;
- It can be used to reflect on a project; or
- It can be used by the whole school.
Enviroschools facilitators are available to support schools to reflect on a regular basis, so schools, Envirogroups and the community can keep the journey alive.
Holistic Reflection at Elstow-Waihou School:
Lead Teacher, Deane Scott from Elstow-Waihou has been involved in a number of Holistic Reflections. The school reflected at Green-Gold level using the old process in 2022 and reflected again at the end of Term 4 in 2024. He explains: “I can tell from (the 2024) experience it is way easier. The new process is way less stress and way less time”.
What was valuable about the process?
“It was student led. This was key. They led the process, decided what they wanted to share; how they wanted the day to look, how they wanted to celebrate and were excited to be in charge of this”.
“As part of the reflection, we looked at all the things that were going on. I didn’t realise, until we reflected, how much we had actually done and how far we had come . . . It strengthened our school culture by celebrating together as a community. It created a sense of pride and achievement for our school. It gave us a sense of togetherness and sense of shared direction”.
Would you recommend it?
“(I) thoroughly recommend it. It was simple but powerful. It was powerful in the sense that the children led it and they decided on where they wanted to go in the future . . . and staff reflections complimented and reflected the schools’ shared direction. It gave students a really strong voice and ownership in the school’s future and what they want out school to be like”.
What are your key takeaways?
“Keep it simple! It was a proud and affirming day and really good to see the students taking the lead” – Deane Scott, Lead Teacher, Elstow-Waihou Combined School.
Enviroschools Facilitator Alex Daniel, who supported Elstow-Waihou with their reflection shares “pausing to reflect is really crucial. . . make sure you take the time to slow down and look around and really acknowledge all the amazing mahi that is going on . . . making space for the pausing is a really key part of the reflection process”.
Elstow-Waihou School reflections
Holistic Reflection at Pirongia School
In Term 2, Pirongia School started reflecting and working towards a sharing and celebrating day in Term 4. They created a dedicated reflection team of teachers with representatives from each of the teaching teams and also included a Board representative, the school Principal and their Enviroschools facilitator. One of the goals of their reflection was to build a whole school approach to Enviroschools.
“We met on a fortnightly basis . . . this created a team approach for the school reflection and meant it wasn’t all on lead teachers shoulders” explains Deanne Wilson, lead teacher.
With guidance and support from team leaders, all teachers were empowered and had the flexibility to support their classes to create ways of sharing their learning. This included drama, slideshows, guided walks, and a waste audit presentation using music.
What was valuable about the process?
“The whole school approach – I feel so proud that we have got our whole school on board . . . The process really honoured our journey . . . I’ve been through many reflections myself and felt that stress about having to meet some guidelines and were we going to be good enough to get the reflection. I can’t recommend this new process enough . . .the new process was seamless and it helped everybody do what they wanted to do and do it in a way that was authentic . . . one thing I really loved was the sense of pride and collaboration that came out as part of this process. It was hard to hold back tears, I was so proud”.
Would you recommend it?
“Yes, Yes, Yes! Definitely. Loved it! The good thing about the new process is that no school is the same. We all look and feel different . . . This new reflective process really allows for that. The new holistic approach is very authentic and it embraces your schools uniqueness, I just love it! – Deanne Wilson, Lead Teacher, Pirongia School
Pirongia Reflection Case Study – Using the kaupapa to ask, listen, understand and share at Pirongia
Pirongia School reflections
Holistic Reflection at Mātangi Primary School
Mātangi Primary had their reflection and celebration all on one day in Term 4 2024. They had started a number of new initiatives around the school in 2024, but weren’t sure they were ready for a holistic reflection as they didn’t feel like they had “ticked off enough boxes”. Their facilitator Adrienne suggested they do it to celebrate the achievements that they had made. “We had our celebration in Term 4. It was a really nice time of year to hold the celebration because, we had been beavering away at all these things all year and it was a really nice concluding time when we could reflect on what we had achieved as a school.” Explains Amelia Meertens, Lead Teacher.
Since 2022, the school started having ‘Kaitiakitanga Days’ once a term. These are “mucking-in days” where the whole school gets involved in various activities like weeding, mulching and planting; seed sowing and generally taking action to make the grounds a better place – the whole school takes part. Parents and people from the community also come along to support and the days have been incredibly successful. So the Term Four Kaitiakitanga day was chosen as a way to reflect on what was going on in the school and celebrate what they had achieved.
In the lead up to this day, Lead Teachers Amelia and Kelly identified some key initiatives or key areas they had made progress in as a school. Each class chose one of those areas that they had some ownership of. On the Kaitakitanga Day, they had their usual ‘mucking-in’ component in the morning and then between morning tea and lunch classes spent some time reflecting on a project and creating and practising their presentation. At 2pm they had their whole school assembly and celebration inviting members of the wider school community to join them.
“It was a really purposeful process and we all kind of collaborated together as a school . . . we’ve continued on that journey . . . I think that reflection process was really good . . .we thought it was kind of a destination when we first started thinking about whether we were ready for it, but actually it’s more of a journey and just like a little stop on that journey just to have an opportunity to celebrate what we had achieved” – Amelia Meertens, Lead Teacher, Mātangi Primary School
Mātangi School reflections
Continuing the Journey
Each of the teachers were asked how they were continuing the journey:
Deane Scott, Elstow–Waihou:
Deane is the Junior and New Entrant teacher, but takes a group of senior students as part of CRT: “They have created a Te Whare Tapa Wha out of an old climbing frame and, and we’ve currently ripped apart our greenhouse and are in the process of rebuilding it, which were a couple of major things that we had as part of our reflection . . . My wondering now is how often do we reflect? Under the new process of reflecting, it’s a lot easier to reflect. So possibly more often”.
Deanne Wilson, Pirongia:
“We are continuing on as we left at the end of last year . . . each of the teams are all doing either their projects or their community work or the kaitiaki or their leadership roles. We will still have our lead group of teachers that will meet as and as and when we need to . . . We continue to keep building those external relationships with our community . . . our next project will be a hot composting system in the school for the community”.
Amelia Meertens, Mātangi:
“The reflection process was just kind of pausing for a moment and we’ve continued on”. The school experimented making tracking tunnels to track animals in the school such as rats and mice and Enviroleaders have been supported to make boxes for rat and mice traps, set up a trap line in the school. They have also been involved with the Matangi Community Committee who made a produce stand located at the school gate. Amelia explains, “it’s given us a real purpose for our seed planting and our vegetable plants that we have in our greenhouses and our and our gardens that when we get a significant amount of produce, we just take some out and pop it there for the community to enjoy”.
Key takeaways from the revised holistic reflection process:
To conclude the hui, everyone attending was encouraged to share their key takeaways:
“The new process is much more organic and it works for their school rather than becoming a tick box. It’s just part of the Enviroschool process”. Amelia Meertens, Mātangi Primary School
“For me as a new Enviroschool, it feels like we don’t have to be good enough before we start the reflection process. We can just start where we are now. Whereas before I felt like we had to get a lot done before we could start the process”. Bridget McLaughlin, Te Totara Primary School
“It gives you time to reflect and really celebrate where you’re at, rather than trying to get to a level. There’s the time to pause, look around and really celebrate all the amazing mahi you’re doing, because all schools are doing amazing things all the time, and getting to celebrate that is really important”. Alex Daniel, Enviroschools Facilitator
“I think it sounds really, really good . . . taking away that competitive nature. I can identify with everybody who’s spoken about the feeling of stress and the idea of meeting us where we’re at? And I like that flavour of it, of the new way . . . I feel like this is . . more authentic because we’ve always on the journey, aren’t we? None of us can tick all of the boxes all of the time. I think it’s really good to show that to the children that it’s normal to not be on top of everything all of the time . . as you’re bringing new ideas and processes to the top, other things do tend to fall off or they become embedded” Alicia Patterson, Netherton School
To conclude, the Enviroschools Holistic Reflection process
- Can take different forms.
- Encourages you to keep the Enviroschool journey alive.
- Can replace annual reviews
- Can happen at any time of the year; choose a time that suits your school
Your key tools to using the Holistic Reflection process:
- Holistic Reflection Overview
- Questions from the Enviroschools Holistic Reflection Matrix
- Kato Kōrero activity
- Action Learning Cycle
- Your Enviroschools Facilitator!!!
Get in touch with your Enviroschools Facilitator and talk about what your Holistic Reflection could look like. It’s a powerful process that supports your school to honour and celebrate the unique journey that your Enviroschool is on.
Footnote: PD video recording chapter markers for easy reference:
What is reflection – 1:00
What has changed, and why – 2:12
Introducing the new Holistic Reflection process – 5:57
Stage 1: Pausing to reflect (case study Elstow Waihou School) – 7:31
Stage 2: Reflecting (case study Pirongia School) – 16:15
Kato Kōrero – 26:56
Stage 3: Sharing and celebrating (case study Mātangi School) – 31:50
Case study Waikato Waldorf School – 37:40
Stage 4: Continuing – 39:04
Take away messages and closing reflections – 45:25
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