Primary school pupils taught the Stratford community about sustainability when
Stratford Primary School featured in the 2020 Taranaki Sustainable Backyards Trail.
The trail is an annual event run by Sustainable Taranaki celebrating local efforts in sustainability with the aim of inspiring people in the community to make changes to live more sustainable lives.
As part of the trail, Stratford Primary School staff and pupils welcomed the community into their school.
Teacher Sonia Rova says once the guests were signed in, they were taken on a pupil-led tour around the school.
"The tours were run by our Enviro Tui Team."
Addison Moore (9), McKenzie Reed (9) and Blake Bolger (9) are a part of the Enviro Tui team.
Enviro Tuis are a group of pupils who meet with enviro schools coordinator Marlene Lewis and discuss what they are doing around the school. They then report back to the class.
Addison says she enjoys being an Enviro Tui.
"In every class, there is an Enviro Tui. We also sort through the recycling bins before it is given to the monitors who grade the rubbish on how recyclable the rubbish is. If it's completely recyclable the class gets 100 per cent."
She says it was "amazing" to be part of the trail.
"It's not every day that you are part of something like that. It was great to open up our school to the community and teach them about sustainability."
McKenzie says the Enviro Tuis made a map of all the "hot spots"' in the school.
"We had 20 hot spots which included our beehives, chickens, and artwork made out of recycled bottle tops. It was great showing people all of our awesome things."
She says it is important to live sustainably.
"If we don't, then there would be a lot of waste in the world which is very bad for our environment."
Blake enjoys being apart of an enviro school.
"You learn a lot more than you would at a normal school. It is awesome because we have so many cool things like our gardens and different animals."
She says the Room 13 lizard, the bees and the stall were popular features of the tour.
"Everyone was very interested in the lizard and they liked looking at our stall. We have a bunch of items for sale including honey, kawakawa balms and produce bags."
Sonia says she is proud of the students.
"They did really well on the tours. Our goal as a school is to empower our pupils and this was one of many ways that we have."
She was pleased the school was part of the trail.
"It was a massive collective effort from everyone at the school."