Te Totara School, a growing urban school located in Hamilton, has embraced its role as an Enviroschool by taking significant strides toward waste reduction. With a focus on tackling food waste, they set out on their Enviroschools journey to implement a sustainable and impactful solution that would not only reduce waste and their carbon footprint but inspire and empower their community.
Working together in Waiouru has been advanced through a tuākana tēina approach between Museum staff and students at the local school. This initiative has seen young people question the staff about their current practices and exploring alternatives together. Likewise, the Museum staff have provided opportunities for learning for the young people and supported them on their sustainable journey.
A new teaching team at Redwoodtown Kindergarten provided impetus for reconnecting with the Enviroschools kaupapa, considering what was going well and what the opportunities for action were. This thinking and planning has sparked ideas and action! Find out more.....
Whanganui Girls' High students have been addressing waste issues at their school through creative approaches, reducing, reusing, recycling and re-imagining across different areas of school. Waste audits have led to gaining insights into success of actions and inspired next steps.
The vision of creating healthy, peaceful, more sustainable communities calls for many different skills, perspectives and resources. In this story, Enviroschools Facilitator, Alex Daniel tells us about how working alongside Urban Miners in Waipā has had a range of beneficial outcomes.
Centennial Park School in Te Kūiti embeds reusing and repurposing materials and rethinking the concept of ‘waste’ as they adapt and grow as a school community. Through exploring ways of thinking and acting that embody principles of circular resource use and zero waste, the school has, in recent years, undertaken a number of projects to transform their systems and physical space.
Going on camp is an important part of the learning programme at Shotover school. It was important for the students to think about their impact on camp and together they came up with strategies to reduce waste and raise awareness (through audits) of ways they could improve.
Julie Low at Point View Enviroschool in Howick shares a learning journey from their middle school. They creatively planned their term 1, 2023 inquiry to integrate science and Seaweek. See below for a snapshot of this wonderful example of genuine empowerment and curriculum integration.
Students at Mt Aspiring College are showing what it means to be empowered. They took the initiative to write to their then Mayor, Jim Boult, to ask to become an Enviroschool (despite adults unsuccessfully lobbying for several years). Their proposal was so powerful that he granted the students’ wishes and provided funding for Enviroschools support. In 2021 the sustainability mahi really started.
Conscious actions enable us to make a difference to issues by treating our resources as taonga that they are. Early Childhood Enviroschools around the country have been taking on the issue of hygiene waste. Below is a collection of examples of how this has been addressed, in particular hand wipes, and the results seen.
A composting and wormery project at Tatuanui School was a perfect example of supporting student-centred learning, featuring problem solving, collaborating, communicating and resilience-building along the way with the bonus of reduced waste and supersonic soil.
Waiheke High School Sustainability Group leader, Ella Singh, tells us about how Enviroschools Earthwise Action funding has not only enabled the purchase of their first composting system but inspired further learning and action towards their vision of a Waiheke Island Community Composting hub.
Learn more about the world-famous-in-Linton wormshake production that tamariki at Ruahine Linton Kindergarten are making daily, on their own, with a kaiako or showing tautoko for a friend! The wormshake is used to feed the gardens or sold to the community in the kindergarten shop.
In this inspirational story we hear about the significant journey towards zero waste that Pakuranga Baptist Kindergarten has been on, what the enablers were and how they are now supporting the wider early childhood community to embrace this kaupapa. Mīharo!
Being an Enviroschool is about going on a long-term journey of sustainability. This requires commitment and passion along with continuous momentum. Puddleducks Manchester St, Feilding have been extremely successful on their sustainability journey in reducing waste by developing and deepening their Enviroschools practices since celebrating a Bronze Reflection in 2019.
KiNZ Mission Heights tamariki, staff and whānau grasped an opportunity during Seaweek 2022 to learn about the significant local site (the landing place of Manawatere) near their Early Childhood Education centre and take action for their local bay, Cockle Bay. Find out more here.
Opunake Communities Kindergarten made the most of an Earthwise Action Fund in 2021 by working with others to provide worm farms and plant/produce swap stations for their small town. This is a great example of how tamariki can influence the wider community. Read more here.
Clyde Primary School students have had a big focus on waste this year. The Envirogroup has been leading their whole school to be more aware and to make positive changes. The solutions generated were simple yet effective. These empowered students have found the opportunity to share their ideas, concerns and visions immensely satisfying.
As Sacred Heart School in Reefton celebrates their one-year anniversary of becoming an Enviroschool, Kaiako Rose O’Connor reflects on how she is now far more environmentally aware and ‘walking the talk’. She has made big changes in her household and reports that the students in her class are also more aware and taking action to look after the environment. You can read more about her journey here.
“Inspire Time” at Kuranui College, in Greytown, provided the ideal opportunity for Cameron, Ngakau, Aleisha, Jeremy and teacher Rachel, to investigate and initiate a long overdue school-wide recycling system. The students articulated two main drivers for recycling - to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with creating new products.
West Coast Enviroschools are dedicated to reducing waste Coast-wide, supporting centres and schools to conduct annual waste audits. Taking this beyond the school gates, Enviroschools West Coast Regional Coordinator, Zoe Watson, led a community workshop for participants to learn the waste audit process. Read more about how Enviroschools is supporting Sustainable Communities on Te Tai Poutini.
Zoe feels angry, Jade is sad and Logan is motivated to create change. Read about how Boulcott School students have responded to their visits to sites of significance to waste management in Te Awakairangi as part of their Enviroschools World of Waste Bus trip funded by Hutt City Council.
In 2019 Silverstream School formed a committee of nine staff to work alongside their student Envirogroup. It was a big shift for environmental leadership in the school and the scene was set for a diverse inquiry into waste across the whole school. The inquiry took some students and staff beyond waste management into rethinking product development so that waste was never created in the first place.
In this story from Canterbury, students from 2 schools reflect on their experiences with preparing and submitting to the Christchurch City Council's Draft Waste Management and Minimisation Plan and speaking to this at a council hearing.
In the Gisborne/ Tairāwhiti Region the Enviroschools team have been continuing to seek ways of shifting community practice around waste and a 2020 series of collaboratively run waste workshops has already reaped rewards. This story tells us about how this came about and the flow on effects of this holistic approach.