Nature Archives - Enviroschools Marlborough

November 27, 2025

Picton School – Growing a Food Forest From the Ground Up

A small group of Picton School tamariki taking part in the Science Alive programme spent Terms 2 and 3 diving deep into food forests and composting. What they achieved was incredible! The food forest plan Their goal was to set up a hot composting system in their Kids Edible Gardens and transform the ornamental garden near their lunch area into a thriving, productive space full of vegetables and herbs. They began by exploring how food systems work, then headed out to Esson’s Valley to see decomposition happening naturally. In the ngahere they noticed something important, the forest has a structure. Tall trees form the canopy, smaller plants create the understory, and...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

20 year celebration - the mayor saying a few words

September 14, 2025

Enviroschools stories General

Celebrating 20 years of Enviroschools in Marlborough

To celebrate 20 years of Enviroschools in the region, students from 4-12 years old from around Marlborough helped to plant trees and plants along the Taylor River Walkway. The students from 6 schools, Springlands kindergarten and Montessori were welcomed with a mihi. Followed by an introduction to the planting site, a site that was created in 2000 with Forest and Bird. The area was then added to in 2005 when Enviroschools first started in Marlborough. Again in 2015 at the Enviroschools 10 year celebration and recently for the 20 year celebration.

: Identifying leaves with Angela

: Natural collage – how our plantings will look in the future

: Natural exploration space constructing

: Insect hunting in the bush

To connect to the space, students took part in a range of activities, including hunting for insects, making a natural collage,...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

September 14, 2025

Enviroschools stories General

Celebrating Conservation Week at Wild Waikawa

As part of Conservation Week Aotearoa, a group tamariki from Waitohi Kindergarten went on a beautiful bush adventure into the heart of Wild Waikawa — and what an incredible journey it was! Wild Waikawa stands at the base of Mt Piripiri and stretches up the face of the maunga, the mountain sacred to mana whenua. Waitohi Kindergarten have a special relationship with the place, visiting there with tamariki several times a term. Here they connect with nature, explore and discover. These experiences don't sit in isolation either, they are brought back to kindergarten and extended upon. On this visit their little explorers delighted in spotting Black Witches Butter fungi, lying back to gaze up...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

August 30, 2025

Enviroschools stories General

Riverlands School – Rediscovering Te Taiao in Their Own Backyard

Riverlands School have reignited their Envirogroup. A small group of keen Enviroleaders have been rediscovering their school environment through small nature connection activities. Small changes in the environment are hard to notice when you are playing in the same space every day. Some familiar and special places are taken for granted. That’s where nature connection activities come in - helping tamariki pause, observe, and notice what is happening… and sometimes more importantly, what’s not happening. The Enviroleaders have been busy; becoming plant detectives, identifying native plants and learning their names. Also exploring where they might find atua in the playground, investigating the different habitats that exist within their school grounds and going on insect hunts...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

June 18, 2025

Enviroschools stories General

Nature Walk

When we think about Nature Connection most of us would instantly think of being in the bush somewhere. But in term 4 last year Seymour Kindergarten tamariki discovered that a walk around the block can tie in all the Pathways to Nature Connection. What are the Pathways to Nature Connection? A deepened nature connection experience is achieved through the 5 pathways - sense, emotion, meaning, beauty and compassion. Hill rolling at Lansdowne Park Seymour Kindergarten tamariki have been exploring these by using their senses - smelling the flowers and touching the lambs ears. Experiencing the enjoyment (Emotions) of rolling down a grassy mound in Horton Park or the excitement of watching a bumble bee...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

April 3, 2025

Enviroschools stories General

Nature connection sharing

Nature Connection programmes have been growing in Marlborough, especially in Kindergartens. Recently environmental educator for Marlborough District Council, Ramona Millen and Marlborough Kindergarten Association Senior Teacher, Gwenda Jones shared how this has developed over the last two years and the benefits of Nature Connection for tamariki. Ramona supporting a Nature Connection session The New Zealand Association for Environmental Education (NZAEE) hosted a webinar where Ramona and Gwenda talked about the changes they have seen by supporting teachers and children to regularly spend time in nature in the Marlborough region. With a few prompts around observing, tamariki have been experiencing many ways to connect with nature. From walks around the block, to local parks...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

December 4, 2024

Enviroschools stories General

Riverlands School at Onamalutu

A large group of tamariki Yrs 1 -3 from Riverlands School headed to Onamalutu Reserve earlier this term as a celebration of their learning around sustainability and the living world. At school they had created bird feeders and houses, planted vegetables and cleaned up rubbish. The trip was a chance to see the beautiful areas they can create when nurturing the environment with the small actions they took at school. The ngahere at Onamalutu is a remnant of podocarp forest once common in Wairau. It has beautiful mature kahikatea, matai and totara. The reserve was donated by a local sawmiller in 1901. This has preserved a small part of the natural ngahere that filled...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

December 4, 2024

Enviroschools stories General

Bioblitz – Grovetown Lagoon

Enviroschools and Junior Landcare joined up again in term 4 to give the opportunity for rangatahi to become scientists in a Bioblitz at Grovetown Lagoon. Biodiversity brings to mind thoughts of remote, wild places full of extraordinary animals and plants. While wild areas are rich in biodiversity, we can easily overlook the variety of species that surround us every day in easy to reach, local spaces - even on the school playing field. Did you know that New Zealand has 2000 species of spiders and you are likely to find one million spiders in one hectare of paddock land! Angela, Wendy (NZ Landcare), Rosanne and Justine (Wetland Warriors) welcomed rangatahi from Queen Charlotte College and...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

September 18, 2024

Enviroschools stories General

Kahikatea Reserve

Earlier in the year, Tua Marina and Springcreek Schools teamed up to replant a section of the Kahikatea Reserve. This amazing restoration project was started 20 years ago. The aim being to return the land to original ngahere and water ways. A group sitting quietly counting birds When planting the damaged section, we could hear numerous birds in the maturing ngahere beside us. Of course we also had piwakawaka ducking and diving around us as we disturbed the insects that piwakawaka love to eat. We came up with the idea of returning each year to do a bird count. Both in the 20-year-old section and the newly planted section. This would measure...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

September 13, 2024

Enviroschools stories General

Knowledge of Tānemahuta grows at Springlands School

If you haven’t been to Mckendry Park in Spring, it is something that you must do. Golden and white Daffodils dot the park, whilst spring blossom gently falls to the ground from the breeze of Tāwhirimātea, as if snow is falling. The students of Springlands school got to experience this magic as part of their learning about Tānemahuta. This term Ramona and Angela from our Environmental Education Team worked alongside Springlands School to put together a plan to learn about Tānemahuta and his presence within their school and surrounding areas. Tānemahuta is the guardian of all the forests and all the birds and plants that live there.

The plan that was put...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

Nature Tag