Birchwood has recently held a bike blender lunch hour for their reflection and a waste-free Wednesday lunch celebration. They have spent time reflecting on how the Enviroschools Guiding Principles enrich their whole school life. You can check out how Birchwood school integrate Enviroschools through their amazing Birchwood Enviroschools website and how they celebrate the Enviroschools Guiding Principles, see their school as a sanctuary, take action across a range of initiatives, work collaboratively on the health and wellbeing of their local coast and waterways, have installed and care for their māra kai, and work alongside their community.
The following is an insight into how they live and learn at Birchwood School.
This is their story.
Healthy māra kai.
Our Enviroschools kaupapa is about creating a healthy, peaceful, sustainable world through learning and taking action together. We try to care for our planet, learn creatively and aim to live healthy, sustainable lives.
In 2023 our focus was empowering our students to take action at school & in the community to make a positive change for the environment. We wanted to attract people, plants and creatures to our kura so they can be nourished & protected. Our vision was to have a thriving orchard, a pollinator pathway, a greenhouse and a māra nui for growing kūmara.
Having an amazing caretaker is integral to the success of these initiatives.
“Our whole school was so excited when Jordan from Good Sorts made a surprise visit to Gardening Gran. We loved sharing the story of our special caretaker Kaitiaki Karen and her mum Gardening Gran and telling the viewers all the generous things they both do to help us and our environment.” Kelly and Ella – Manukura o te Taiao 2023
The Garden to Table program has been going really well at Birchwood School, helping to give a structure and framework to learning across the māra kai and kitchen and classrooms and then transferred into homes in the same way that their waste practices are. Everything is connected!
In 2024 our school-wide focus was on embracing the cultural diversity within our school whānau and our in-class inquiry looked at the weather from both a mātauranga Māori and western science lens. We made a start on our pollinator pathway with a small butterfly garden and maintained and extended our orchard. Our big win was finally making our much-anticipated māra nui.
Looking ahead to 2025 we have plans to explore Manukau Estuary, Poorman’s Stream and our local marine environment including opportunities for senior students to go snorkelling & sailing and conduct marine science investigations. A greenhouse and seedling nursery are still on the wish list.
Te Ao Māori
Birchwood School has a close relationship with our mana whenua iwi, Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō and works with the Kurahaupo Collective. We collaborated with them on our professional development, mural, enquiry and waharoa and were grateful to be gifted a narrative to inspire us. We are committed to honouring the status of tangata whenua in this land and value the indigenous knowledge and wisdoms which enrich and guide our learning, teaching and actions.
Check out the flipbook Cultural Capability and Local Curriculum Design we made to showcase some of our cultural journey. This work was completed in collaboration with Kurahaupō and it documents our learning journey over the last few years in developing our cultural capability and our local curriculum
Empowered Learners
Ākonga explain the process of their pāmu noke (worm farm).
Our ākonga are enabled to participate in meaningful ways in the life of Birchwood School. We foster student enquiry, decision-making, action and reflection. Their unique perspectives are valued for the knowledge and insight that they bring.
Students are supported to take action for real change – like organising a clothing swap to reduce fabric in landfill, running a koha table, designing a pollinator pathway and setting up a new recycling station for a variety of things what whānau cannot recycle in their home bins.
Sustainable Communities
Birchwood takes the stance that ‘when you know better you do better’ as we continually improve our systems, change our suppliers and introduce new ways of being and doing.
Our Bioblitz gave us a starting point to set goals towards our school as a sustainable sanctuary for creatures and humans. We want enough of what we need for everyone to thrive now and in the future.
Inviting our community to bring in their compost and hard to recycle items as well as welcoming help in our gardens, kitchen and classrooms has strengthened our home-school connections.
Respecting Diversity
We acknowledge the unique gifts, contributions and perspectives of individuals and groups. We celebrate diversity in our decision-making and engage in collaborative action. Birchwood kaiako nurture and value the cultural knowledge each student brings with them. With inclusion in mind, we have developed accessible calming spaces like the memorial garden, tinker shed & sunshine room.
We are so grateful that parents from a wide variety of backgrounds are choosing our school for their tamariki
Learning for Sustainability
Learning for Sustainability is everywhere at our kura. Birchwood recognises teaching and learning that uses connecting experiences to develop holistic and ecological perspectives and create sustainable outcomes. Birchwood kaiako visited Rotoiti with Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō, learning the significance of the lake, the Tuna pathways and why Tuna is a taonga species in Aotearoa. We integrated this learning into our local curriculum – looking at life cycles, mapping, preservation, & sustainable fishing. Kelly from Pupiri Taonga ki te Tai Ao (Nelson Museum) came in and shared the pūrākau of Māui and Tunaroa which inspired our technology challenge – create your own hīnaki!
Our enviro learning is student led. In 2023 Tī Kouka loved learning about mini-beasts, Harakeke focused on butterflies and the seniors in Manukau wanted to know more about native birds.
This inspired each learning hub to adopt an enviro-focus for 2024: Hā (air), Tangata (people), Whenua (land) and Wai (water).
As our Enviroschools work expanded across the kura, we noticed themes developing around our actions. We decided to actively plan around these natural interests to create a focus area for each age group which links with our school values as well as the Enviroschools Guiding Principles.
The following video captures aspects of our reflection celebration and mahi.
You can watch this Birchwood reflection Facebook reel about the visit from Nelson City Council representatives. This was filmed before their Holistic Reflection, when Nelson City Council wanted to share Birchwood mahi and in particular the school’s perspective on waste management in response to community concerns about bins being removed from some public places around Nelson. Council took the opportunity to celebrate how some young people were tackling waste head on and undertaking some effective initiatives. (Kura inspires with hands-on environmental initiatives – Our Nelson)
The one below was put together by Nelson Enviroschools capturing some of the reflection.