What is an Enviroschool? Whanganui’s award-winning Brunswick School has the answer

Brunswick School principal Jane Corcoran and her dog Gus enjoy the sunshine with their students. Photo / Phil Thomsen

Brunswick School is a small country school with a roll of 112 pupils, only 12 minutes from the centre of Whanganui.

When you arrive, you are greeted with a wonderful array of smiles from the pupils, including a little hairy-faced dog named Gus, who happens to belong to the principal, Jane Corcoran.

Gus is not there to show off his cuteness, which he has in abundance; he earns his keep welcoming children who come for a school visit or as a comfort blanket for any pupil feeling out of sorts.

Gus is not so keen on the school’s six chooks, in fact, he stays well clear of them.

Now, these are not just any chooks.

The pupils have watched them being raised in an incubator, and two, which go by the names Pumpkin and Jeffery, are show-standard and sometimes compete in the local Manawatū bird show.

If you are wondering why a school would have chooks, it is all part of Brunswick School being an Enviroschool.

You can’t just call yourself an Enviroschool; you have to apply to become one.

Brunswick became one several years ago and was awarded Greengold Enviroschool status in 2024, which only 10% of the Enviroschools in the country have achieved.

Enviroschools is an environmental action-based programme where young people are empowered to design and lead sustainability projects in their schools and early learning centres, communities, and country.

Each school decides what sustainability projects are important to them and their community and implements those ideas into their school.

Each class, depending on age, is given responsibility for certain environmental projects.

Brunswick School has a koha stall where surplus fruit, vegetables and eggs are placed.

Locals can purchase what they need by paying a koha.

A Brunswick School chook. Photo / Phil Thomsen

Parents of pupils have donated time to build vegetable planter boxes, help plant fruit trees, and build compost bins.

The school has a small glass house where they can bring on native seedlings that, once large enough, get planted in a local gully.

This school has no rubbish bins and everything that can, gets recycled.

Balloons are not permitted, and no fizzy drinks are allowed.

Compost bins at Brunswich School. Photo / Phil Thomsen

When carpet was to be replaced at the school, the old carpet was reused on the bike track.

They have a worm farm so they can use the worm tea in their vegetable gardens, and a flourishing lavender garden.

A grant helped the school purchase an impressive copper still from which they produce lavender oil, used for making soap to sell on market days, and they have also perfected making lavender cookies.

Brunswick School's copper still is used for lavender oil. Photo / Phil Thomsen

DoC trains senior children on safe trapping methods to keep rodents from their garden and chicken coop, and at times, some of the enviro leaders at the school have been able to donate time to assist at Bushy Park, a Forest and Bird Reserve just on the outskirts of Whanganui.

Brunswick often hosts other school leaders, teaching them about their journey into caring for their environment.

Being an Enviroschool has given pupils the power to solve environmental concerns.

The firepit for toasting marshmallows. Photo / Phil Thomsen

And that is just what they did when they felt their local recycling area down the road was becoming a dumping ground.

The pupils surveyed the community and came back with constructive ideas, which they presented to the local council and in due course, appropriate changes were implemented.

While all the pupils have a role to play in being an Enviroschool, they do get time to enjoy climbing the wonderful large trees that come with a school that has been around for more than 150 years, and there are times when the firepit is lit and the marshmallows are toasted.

There is something special about a rural school, and Brunswick School is a real example of how learning, growing, and caring for the environment can be fun.