Our Sustainable Action Ideas newsletter is filled with exciting upcoming events and dates as well as ideas to connect with your environment and community. Click here to access our online Padlets to view this newsletter and previous ones....
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This term, kaiako from ECE centres taking part in an Enviroschools pilot attended a workshop and visited kindergartens to see the programme in action. Four ECE centres are currently taking part in the pilot, and they visited two kindergartens that are very active in the Enviroschools programme: Seymour and Renwick. Renwick shared the pepeha, karakia and tiriti that they have developed to connect to their special places and values. Outside, they showed the group their strawberry walls and multi-purpose hut area. They also shared their learning around energy and the newly installed solar panels. Seymour showed the group their bike track, new composting area, butterfly house and the beautiful community-created mural that represents the things...
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It was a treat for teachers from our three Marlborough Green Gold schools to visit Renwick School this term. Hosted by students in the Green Ferns group with support from their lead teachers, we saw a presentation on some of their actions for this year. These included their school-wide BioBlitz in Term 2 and their Enviro-week in Term 3. Students shared the learning that followed on from the BioBlitz, such as entries into the science fair. The 'Stream Team' took us to see the changes they have been making to protect the school stream, including regular waste clean-ups and weeding sessions. It was exciting to hear they have seen some fish and an eel...
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This year the team from Waikawa Bay School hosted the annual caretakers get together - with a surprise! The school had arranged for the caretakers to travel by boat to see the Kaipupu Point trapping programme. Rachel Russell from Kaipupu Wildlife Sanctuary gave a bit of background about the project, and then the caretakers walked up the hill to see a variety of traps and the spectacular view. Waikawa Bay School is part of the Picton Dawn Chorus predator trapping programme, and wanted to show other schools why they were involved in predator trapping. We returned to the school for a delicious lunch and then the students proudly showed off their trap line that runs...
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A confident group of Bohally students helped to run a workshop for teachers at Momorangi Bay during Conservation Week. With support from their teacher Phill Johnson, as well as MDC, DOC, and Richard de Hamel (University of Otago's Marine Studies Centre), this group trained and then ran a number of hands-on science and nature activities at the workshop. Their job was to help the teachers explore and experience DOC's education kits, for use in forest, stream, and seashore settings. These kits are available for schools that are camping or day-tripping in this stunning spot. The weather did not co-operate on the day of the workshop, with everyone having to don raincoats to get out and experience the stream, forest and seashore activities...
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Trash-talk has never been as inspiring as it was this week at ‘The Rubbish Trip’ sessions for Marlborough teachers and senior students. Hannah Blumhardt and Liam Prince were in town as part of their year-long journey around New Zealand, sharing the 'why' behind their decision to live without a rubbish bin, and tips and tricks to help us all explore what our next steps might be in reducing the waste in our schools, kindergartens, homes and lives. It was a cracking start to our Enviroschools Marlborough theme for 2018: EXPLORE! If you didn’t manage to get along, The Rubbish Trip website is a fantastic resource, sharing what Hannah and Liam have learnt and thought about during their trip,...
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