Senior environmental leaders from Whakatū and Aorere secondary schools once again met at the beautiful Waimārama Sanctuary in Whakatū for the 2025 annual Student Hui. At the beginning of each year the Student Hui aims to provide an opportunity for the student leaders from the local area to meet and connect with like-minded students to discuss initiatives and issues they may face when leading their school’s environment group. This inevitably eases their concerns and helps them to go back to their kura with ideas and strategies to better prepare them for their exciting year ahead as an Environment leader.
Kai and connection.
This year a total of 21 students attended the Hui from 6 different secondary schools. Ākonga were welcomed to the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary with the call from a pūtātara (conch shell). Karakia and whanaungatanga were followed by kai. When sharing kai, students were given the task of introducing themselves to someone they did not know, from another school. This encouraged them to connect – a major goal of the Student Hui.
A student commented, “kai at the start was a good ice breaker.”
The National Secondary Student Survey sent to kura at the end of 2024 provided a guide to decide on the issues the students would discuss during their outdoor classroom session. The students participated in a mixed group with a representative from each school. Students discussed issues such as how to engage more students with their Environment group, resources and how to access them, working within the secondary school structures, initiatives and activities environment groups could do at a school-wide level, leadership strategies and roles and how to collaborate and work with other local secondary schools. There were plenty of positive discussions to have, and students enjoyed the opportunity to share and discuss ideas with students from other schools.
Facilitating good conversations.
Working together.
A comment from the students’ feedback on how effective this session was: “The students all brought their own unique ideas and perspectives. It allowed me to communicate what we are doing and have done, which gave them inspiration. However, it also allowed them to give ideas and feedback, which allowed me to go away with potential different ways to frame initiatives for the group as a whole. I felt very comfortable talking to all the students there regarding issues, but also solutions, to the different problems we face.”
Being in such a beautiful outdoor classroom situation certainly appeared to inspire the level of insightful discussion that took place.
A student commented: “It was fun to be able to meet them all in the little groups, as opposed to one big group which can make it harder for everyone to communicate ideas. The outdoor classroom also made it extremely enjoyable.”
Considering options for greater engagement.
Facilitator, Rick, points out where to look for tuatara.
The Hui concluded with a ‘behind the scenes’ tour of the Sanctuary’s new tuatara enclosure. We had two exciting viewings of good-sized tuatara.
One student commented on the feedback form: “Walking to find tuatara was a fun little bit at the end. I really enjoyed looking for them with the other students. It was a really fun and exciting way to end the hui, and I would totally love to do it again”.
Student feedback was very positive, and the aim for the Hui (giving the students a chance to connect with like-minded students and equip them with strategies and ideas to be effective environment leaders within their kura), was definitely achieved.