As part of a submission to the 2022 Love Your Place Awards, Henderson Valley School students celebrated their learning and action for reducing waste by creating a video. In this video you will hear from students about their learning journey, the decisions they made and the changes that took place.
In light of the recent Government announcement to phase out single use and hard to recycle plastic, this is a great example of how young people can explore and put into practice sustainable solutions.
The video provides an insight into the place that Learning for Sustainability has in their whole school life.
“Our relationship to our environment is woven into everyday school life at Henderson Valley School. Our aim is to foster a deep connection with the natural world so that our children can emerge as present and future kaitiaki (guardians) of the environment. Attaining Green-Gold level of Enviroschool 2010, we connect our tamariki with nature in an ongoing way through sustainability initiatives such as our:
- Green Team
- Once-a-term Green Days
- Garden to Table Programme
- School vege gardens and orchard
- Community garden
- Livestock (currently chickens and bees)
- Tikanga Maori
- Class composting
- Matariki and other cultural celebrations
- Community tree planting – our ākonga have planted around 4,500 native trees and shrubs in the past 2 years
- Stream water quality monitoring
- Package-free lunches programme
- Positive behaviour for learning
- Native plant ID trail
- Regular beach and stream clean-ups
We also have environmental themes integrated through much of what is being taught in class depending on the interests of individual teachers.” – Henderson Valley School