Environment education on the timetable as Taitoko School joins national enviroschools programme

Taitoko School pupils weeding the school garden. The school enrolled in the enviroschools programme at the start of term three.

Taitoko School pupils are growing, figuratively and literally, as they start on a new sustainable journey.

Teacher and enviro lead Jess King said the school enrolled in the nationwide enviroschools programme at the start of term three.

“We started our journey because we know the importance of teaching our kids to be kaitiaki (guardians) of the school environment, improving the health of our environment and the school community.”

The programme, which teaches pupils about sustainable living, pairs schools with a facilitator who helps them work through an awards system. The first level is bronze with schools progressing through the levels, working toward the highest achievement, beyond green-gold.

King, who worked at an enviroschool before starting at Taitoko last year, said the programme is valuable.

“I saw the potential Taitoko School had and how it would benefit from this programme. Not only is it teaching our pupils valuable knowledge, it’s giving them the tools to pass on that learning to others as well.”

She said community support has played a big part in starting the enviroschools programme.

“We’ve had amazing people jump on board to help us. Mitre 10 Levin donated gardening gloves for our students and Quinns Building is donating an amazing garden shed to store all our tools. We appreciate the community backing us.”

While the school is fairly new to the enviroschools programme, the pupils are already digging into sustainable learning, she said.

“We have been learning about what we can grow in the ground and about composting. We removed the weeds from our school garden and got the area ready to plant native trees.”

At the moment, King said they’re taking small steps to sow the seeds of learning.

“It’s about figuring out what we want to do and how we’ll achieve it. We have so many ideas but we’re right at the start of our journey. It’s about figuring out what we have in our environment already and what we want to add to it.”

Part of that process is involving the wider school community, she said, with the school’s Facebook page keeping people updated on future events, including a planned meeting next term.

“We’re planning to hold a hui next term to hear the voice of our kids, teachers, whānau and the wider community on what they would like the school to be. It’s an exciting journey to start and we look forward to where it takes us.”