The+story+so+far...

__ Our Journey So Far... __    2008     'Kaitiakitanga' (guardianship) was our learning focus for Term 1. We learned about the creatures that live on the rocky shore, and our responsibility in protecting and respecting their habitat. We also explored kaitiakitanga in our own school environment, and realised that each and every one of us has a responsibility to minimise the negative impact we have on our environment. A group of students worked with a teacher to design and paint our drains to encourage people to understand that the drains are only for rain. Term 2's focus was 'Our Place in Space' which gave us the opportunity to learn about Matariki. This important time on the Maori calendar is a time for reflecting and giving thanks for the treasures the earth gives to us. It is a time for preparing the soil for planting new crops. Many classes have identified areas of need in their immediate surroundings. We have new vegetable plots and flower beds outside some classes. Children have come up with solutions to problems such as birds eating new plants and planter boxes not getting enough water. 2007...    This year the aim was to have __every__ student in the school involved in learning in, about and for our environment. Every class had two representatives in our school envirogroup - these reps were elected by their classmates. The group met weekly as far as possible, and shared ideas from class enviro-meetings. The reps then took the collated ideas and decisions back to their classes, and gave guidance on environmental projects that classmates could become involved in. Our caretaker, Anetelea, worked with groups of students every lunchtime on outdoor environmental activities - e.g. gardening, raking leaves, sweeping, etc. All students were invited to assist during this time. Many of those not involved in the day's specific activity could often be seen carrying green buckets around and collecting waste that found its way onto our grounds.  Classes had their own areas of responsibility in the school grounds. The envirogroup instigated visual reminders to school users about turning off lights, turning taps off properly, and not walking past rubbish. These reminders were produced by others in their classes - the representatives were simply communicators of information. A composting group was formed. Composting was started in the school in 2005, however, there were a few problems with the first attempt. In 2006 the composting group researched how to build healthy, workable compost. This year this information was to be shared across the Year 5-6 classes so that they all became 'experts'. This project will continue into 2008. Our worms' diet was widened towards the end of 2006, and now all classes are able to sort their food waste so that the worm food can be collected by students and fed to the worms daily. We also sold our first harvest of worm juice. The students designed their own label to go onto the recycled bottles, and the first worm-juice stall at our mini-fair was a sellout! The beginning...    A t the end of 2003 we made a decision to emphasise environmental education more fully in our school. Part of this journey involved becoming an 'enviroschool' with the support of the Auckland Regional Council. Our 'Envirosavers' team was made up of representatives from every class in the school, along with one teacher and sometimes a parent and our representative from the ARC. They meet regularly to discuss environmental issues in our school. During our first year (2004) the Envirosavers took a 'hands-on' approach and started many initiatives around the school, including the development of a cultural garden. However, Environmental Education involves a lot more than gardening. Therefore, our curriculum planning for 2005 included a major focus on the environment for the whole school. 'Me in My Environment', and 'Zero Waste' were the focus of our learning for the first half of the year. Our school now has a 'vision map', to which every child in the school has had an opportunity to contribute. This outlines the direction the school wants to head in in the future, and is constantly being added to and reviewed. During the planning of every unit, an environmental aspect is incorporated as far as possible. When making management decisions in the school we endeavour to consider the environmental implications and the impact of those decisions on interdependence, sustainability, biodiversity, and personal and social responsibility for action. [|(The key concepts of Environmental Education.)] // Our achievements to date include // : · heightened awareness amongst the children of our environment, and our role in protecting it; · a commitment from staff and children to improving our environment and taking responsibility for protecting it; · the development of a recycling system, a composting system and worm bins; · ongoing aesthetic improvement of our school grounds through the work of the enviro group, classes and our community (and including the results of a major Art Intensive focus in Term 2, 2005); · earning a bronze //Enviroschools// medal for our work in 2004 and a silver in 2005; · a unique  resulting from community funding, and extensive community and schoolwide consultation spanning almost a year; · the development of our vision map, forming a focus for further development and sustainability of our environmental learning. · extensive planting of our school grounds, involving all students in 2006, resulting in extended native areas, a citrus orchard, a feijoa orchard, a tecomanthe hedge, productive vegetable gardens and a number of class gardens and planter boxes; · environmental activities during lunch breaks for any children who wish to be involved.