Four of Toko School's enviro leaders (all aged 13) from left: Arlo Wells, Holly Topless, Amelia Lowe and Lockie Maketoni. Photo / Alyssa Smith
Four of Toko School's enviro leaders (all aged 13) from left: Arlo Wells, Holly Topless, Amelia Lowe and Lockie Maketoni. Photo / Alyssa Smith
A Green-Gold enviroschool is one of the stops featured in this year's Taranaki Sustainable Backyard Trail.
For a number of years, Toko School has opened its gates and welcomed green-thumbed individuals into the grounds to show them around the school for the Sustainable Backyards Trail.
The trail, run in partnership with the Centuria Taranaki Garden Festival, runs from October 28 to November 6 and features over 30 gardens.
School enviro leader Amelia (13) says each year, the school's enviro leaders take the groups on tours of the school and show the visitors some of their projects.
"It's always fun. I've done it for a number of years now. I like showing people around the school and teaching them about how we work to be environmentally friendly."
Some of the key attractions are the orchard, worm farm, bee hives, and chickens, Amelia says.
"We like talking about what we do here at school because some schools don't have the resources or opportunities to do what we do. We're very lucky to get the experiences we do."
The school's orchard. Photo / Alyssa Smith
The school was awarded the Enviroschools Green-Gold status in 2016, five years after they began their enviro journey.
Lockie Macketoni (13) says as well as learning new ways to care for the environment and be sustainable, they are also improving their literacy and numeracy skills.
"When we use the distiller we have to make sure we have correct measurements and write out the process. We're also using scientific methods as well. There's a whole lot of learning involved."
He says the school recycles items like plastic bottles, bottle lids and hub caps to create things.
"We have a bottle greenhouse. We're in the process of renovating that now so the younger classes are collecting more bottles. We have painted hub caps and bottle lid art around the school as well."
When the visitors are done, they can visit the school's stall, where they sell a range of products including honey, chutneys, balms and distilled products.
Lockie Maketoni (13) feeding the chickens. Photo / Alyssa Smith
Lockie says each product has a purpose.
"The honey and chutneys taste good, the kawakawa balm is good for the skin, and our distilled products use a range of produce."
Amelia and Lockie say they're looking forward to welcoming people for the Trail, with Amelia saying it's always great to tell people about their school.
"We're very proud of what we do and we like to share that with others."
