A beautifully designed and crafted area in the Waikawa Bay School grounds.
The article Enviroschools | Inspiration through an International collaboration was published in 2021. It was a celebration of a webinar our Enviroschools National Manager, Esther Kirk, ran about our programme and work facilitating the nurture of nature and people and the whole school environment becoming a rich ecological learning resource. It also highlighted the importance of advocating for enrichment of children’s learning and play by promoting high quality design and everyday use of school grounds.
Esther has continued her active involvement in the International School Grounds Alliance. More recently the alliance has completed writing of a Climate Statement with supporting case studies.
In response to this, the Enviroschools National team submitted a collection of stories 1. Celebrating Kūmara and 2. Ecological Building.
You can see these here:
- Enviroschools | A full cycle of growing kūmara knowledge
- Enviroschools | The spirit of maanakitanga through kūmara
- Enviroschools | Grounding the Vision at Paeroa
- Eco-Building: Muddy Feet and Creative Minds | by NZAEE
The updated plan using straw bale cladding and clay render.
In the spirit of collegiality and sharing, one of the members of ISGA has responded with the following comment and shared their own inspirational Ecological Building story:
I was really inspired reading about Enviroschools and your work with teaching about sustainable buildings. I am working in Naturskolan in Lund and this spring we was working with a project involving construction with clay and particular the cobe method! You can read more about our project at MUR-RUM (lund.se) , Kind regards from Carolina Lindeblad, Nature school educator and environmental scientists
These stories and resources shared from all around the world about engaging with the context of natural play spaces in schools’ grounds and in their local community are inspirational. Recently the ISGA newsletter showcased Practical Guides for Natural Play created by the Alana Institute in Brazil
They also shared a tool to address biodiversity loss through curricula and school grounds, developed by Shari L. Wilson, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and Southern New Hampshire
University. You can check out Schoobio here.
There are clear synergies, between the concepts that many of these case studies and resources embrace, with our kaupapa, just in a different place on our planet. The research that backs the resources is rigorous.
So, what might this look like in the context of our place? What messages can we take from these other practitioners?
Part of our Enviroschools kaupapa is for students to be actively involved in creating a sense of place, where “all aspects of nature, including people, are nurtured and the whole school or centre environment is a learning context. Creating a sustainable physical environment is an ongoing learning exercise that fosters a greater understanding of whanaungatanga – the inter relatedness between all living things, and a concern for the particular place we live in.”
A tunnel was created to add interest to their trail.
What if our Enviroschools grounds where truly a reflection of this? What are the opportunities when integrating the theme areas through learning and action in, about and for the Enviroschools?
“Declare your commitment to creating and caring for these special environments that support children and young people’s learning, play and well-being… ensuring that the ecology and biodiversity of school grounds remains high on the agenda of those who influence and pay for school ground design around the world.” – excerpt from ISGA website
