Great news!  Today, the 15 September 2015 we spotted our first tui in our Cultural Gardens by the classrooms.  The tui was busy sipping nectar from the kowhai tree.  We have seen tui in our school gully but this is the first time we have seen them in the school grounds by our classrooms.  The kowhai tree has been in this garden for a long time, so the reason we are seeing one now is probably because there is enough food for them to travel along the native tree corridors of our river and gully systems.  This was very exciting.

The Year 3/4 Sustainable Elective have this term been learning about our native, endemic and exotic birds in our gully, school environment and all over New Zealand.  When bird watching and tallying the numbers of birds around our school, they noticed that there were less birds in the school gully.  Their research showed them that during winter, birds find it more difficult to find their food.  We explored the different foods birds eat, the shape of their beaks and how we could help them.  After a lot of consideration and looking at alternatives, we decided to make seed and nectar bird feeders using recycled materials.  They look fantastic.  We tested our nectar sipping bird feeders with water and then filled them with nectar.  On our sharing day with the parents and grandparents, we went down to our school gully to hand the feeders for the birds to enjoy.  We also shared our amazing art work and our learning in our books and on our iPads.

Over the last two terms at our Friday Enviro Council Meetings, our students have been very busy exploring and reviewing the Five Guiding Principles for Enviroschools.  This has involved a lot of in-depth thinking and reflecting with amazing thoughtful and caring thinking shown and consultation with their peers.  The principles are Empowered Students, Sustainable Communities, Learning for Sustainability, Maori Perspectives and Respect for Diversity of People and Cultures.  Under each of these principle headings our students developed a list of the many ways we work towards achieving these within our school and community.  

The other things this wonderful group have been working on are rewarding students with Enviro Vouchers for helping the environment in our school without being asked and being great role models during the lunch times in the Junior and Middle areas, showing how Wrapper Free lunch boxes can work for everyone.  Our Enviro Vouchers are printed on reused paper too.

Our Enviro Councillors look very smart with their new badges that helps identify who they are and when they are needed to help in any way. What a special and motivated team!  Keep up the great work!

Our School Community Food Table has been running for two years now and it has been very successful.  Our aim was to give away excess fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs from our school garden so that our families can use them in their cooking, or eat them straight from the table. Families can donate to the table too. People don’t have to donate to be able to take food from the table. We want the food to be used so that it doesn’t get wasted.  Our table is available every Wednesday morning before school. What a wonderful way of showing Aroha and sustainable practice. Thanks to our families for supporting our venture and contributing to our table.  Enjoy!

The students in this term's Year 5/6 Sustainable Elective have been learning about the creatures living in our school gully and the threats to them.  After considerable consideration of alternatives and action, they have decided to trap exotic pests living in our gully so that they don't destroy the habitat, eat our insects like wets and bird eggs, or the chicks, lizards and seeds that will make the new plants. We have set up two possum traps and one rat track.  So far we have caught one rat but no possums.  We were hoping to trap possums too.  By destroying these pests, we are making a safer environment for our native and endemic flora and fauna.
These student diary writings captures this so well.

Wow!  What wonderful opportunities and life skills our students have the opportunity to develop at our school.  Since Term 3 has begun, students in the Back Garden Seed Group have continued their great work in our gardens, weeding, pruning, planting, Community Table harvesting and general tidying up; all tasks that need to be developed when caring for a produce garden.  Each week they have also been working in teams to cook freshly harvested food to share with our team.  It is very rewarding to watch our students harvest, wash, cook, share and enjoy food in one session.  They each get the current recipe and take it home to try with their families.  We have had Thai Fried Rice, ginger beer and warm winter salad so far this term.  It is with sincere thanks that we acknowledge the time and thought that Grandma Sharon puts into our programme each week, not only with her gardening and cooking skill but also sharing her knowledge of the history and ways to preserve food for the months they are not in season.

Yesterday two of our Tuesday Seed Group team members went over to Rhode Street School to attend a special presentation and to pick up four pear trees for our backyard garden.  The trees come from a newly formed charitable trust, called the Avis Leeson Fruit Tree Trust.  Avis is 80 now, and has devoted a large part of her life to providing and helping schools with the orchard and vegetable garden.  She has helped our school a lot over the last five years.  Yesterday, the trust gave away 1000 pear trees to schools and kindergartens.  They have committed to the next ten years to give away 1000 trees each year.  Once the trees are planted a data base will be set up to record there distribution.  Our four pear trees will add great variety to our school orchard.