Enviroschools
Across the region there is a growing network with 119 early childhood education (ECE) centres, primary and secondary schools who are part of the Enviroschools kaupapa. Enviroschools is inspiring and empowering people of all ages through connection, creativity and action to help create a sustainable future.
We have partnered with all city and district councils in our region to deliver this programme, together with the Ruahine Kindergarten Association and Central Kids Trust. A big thank you for their ongoing support.
Through Enviroschools, tens of thousands of innovative projects and lifestyle changes are happening in schools/centres, households, neighbourhoods, local businesses, on farms, and in all types of ecosystems. Some projects are small-scale in one school, while others involve hundreds of people working across a whole catchment or community.
What do Enviroschools do and how we support them
Ehara taku toa, i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini. Success is not the work of one, but the work of many.
Our Enviroschools are supported by a facilitation team. Every early childhood centre and school across the country is unique, with its own ecology, history, culture and community – so Enviroschools looks different in every setting. The journey of connecting with the place and its people is designed and led by each school/centre, with our facilitation team on hand to provide advice, guidance, support and motivation to help them on their sustainability journey. Teachers at Enviroschools support, role model and empower their young people to undertake action projects.
We run regular workshops, wānanga and hui which aim to inform and inspire teachers and provide opportunities for them to network with others. This helps to increase the pool of knowledge in our network.
Teacher and Student Events
Enviroschools teachers relish the opportunity to visit other Enviroschools to gather ideas to take back to their own school/centre.
For teachers, we run district and regional hui. Our regional hui, which bring teachers together from across our region for a day, are hugely inspiring. In the past we have run regional road trips for primary teachers where one or two schools in a district host on different themes. Our ECE teachers have also had to opportunity to come together and explore the Enviroschools kaupapa in the ECE context. District cluster workshops focus on specific sustainability issues such as zero waste, water for life, living landscapes, energy, and ecological buildings.
Student hui for school enviro-groups are also highly attended and hugely popular. Past events have focussed on pest plants and forgotten fauna, exploring some of the lesser-known animals such as bats/pekapeka and lizards/mokomoko. These events support students to be empowered to action in their communities on issues that are important to them.
