The Backyard Garden Group have been very busy, no matter what the weather has been.   They have been harvesting food for our Community Table and for their own food preparation.  High Energy Beetroot salad was a big success.  Apples were also preserved for use later in the year when apples are not readily available.  In the garden, students and helpers planted out our winter vegetables. It is great to share life skills and teamwork opportunities that students can draw on in the future.

Students in the Year 5/6 Sustainable elective have willing taken on the challenge to continue the great work students had begun in the term 4, 2017, when they chose to continue to explore and research how and what an outside kitchen space would look like. In 2016, students reviewed the Living Room wish list and voted to take on the challenge of planning for this food preparation area so that students at our school could harvest food from our kitchen garden and prepare and cook it in our environment. Over the last few years, students have found problems and challenges when cooking in different seasons without a dedicated covered in area.  Our PTA have very generously offered $20,000 dollars towards our goal as they value projects that benefit our students.  We feel lucky and honoured to continue on with this legacy and to be led by three students from the previous elective.

Our student Enviro Council work with all the classes in our school to continue our sustainable journey and to take new actions to help our school, local community and globally.  They have been exploring what the past enviro councils have achieved, looking at our school's Environmental Care Code and our Enviro Voucher promotion to encourage students to continue their great work.  The council meets every Friday Morning to discuss their minutes and their learning over the past week.  As well as their sustainable learning, many life skill development opportunities occur e.g: talking to a large group, managing time and reporting back. It is a privilege to work with this motivated and conscientious group.

It has been wonderful to see the commitment of our students who care for our school environment and who have a strong connection with sustainability and their future as each of our student groups are up and running.  We have seen our Paper Recyclers in action, collecting paper materials and measuring amounts collected as a part of Paper4Trees, our Enviro Councillors getting together to learn and explore our school's Vision Map to take action, our Backyard Garden Group who care for our gully and fruit and vegetables. and our Living Room Specialist Group who are our eco-classroom historians and caretakers.  We thank all the students in these groups.

Students in our Backyard Garden group have been working well together on many of the tasks required at the start of a new year.  After harvesting cucumbers, onions and honey, they made their own Summer Sunshine Pickle with the help of Grandma Sharon.  They made 12 bottle of this delicious pickle following a tried and true recipe.  The jars of pickle are being sold at the school office to raise funds for more netting to cover our gardens, keeping our inquisitive chickens and the nosey pukeko from eating our food.  Well done to this great team.

Our students groups are continuing the great work from 2016 along with the many actions from the years before since we became an enviroschool in 1998. Our Backyard garden group have been busy harvesting onions to store for future cooking experiences, using our school made compost to improve the soil quality of our strawberry patch, harvesting food for the school Community Table, making Lemon Curd for fundraising, learning how to put in an effective watering system and celebrating each sessions work with homemade lemon drinks.  Another great start to our year at school.

Welcome to 2017 with Hukanui School and our sustainable learning.  We are looking forward to continuing our Sustainable Journey, building on existing actions, maintaining projects and exploring options for the future.
We started this year with a very special Whole School Assembly on Friday February 3. During this assembly, we welcomed community visitors who quietly go about helping in our school and our students develop unique experiences.  Mr. Graham Kitto from the Rotary Club Fairfield made two special awards. We are thrilled that Graham, and the Rotary Club of Fairfield continue to support our sustainable journey as they have over the past six years.
This year the awards went to Tony and Jane Lorimer for their continued support for our school beehive. Since 2011, they have been our mentors, helping us keep our beehive active and healthy. This provides our students with the opportunity to learn more about honeybees, their role in pollination and how we can help them.  Our students have developed a caring and respectful attitude to bees.
The other award went to David and Sharon Payne, affectionately known as Pops and Grandma Sharon.  They have done amazing work in our Backyard Garden, providing our student with opportunities to learn about gardening and cooking with their produce.  David and Sharon also work with the students to pass on their valuable knowledge and experience about building a garden, preserving produce and the history related to our foods.
We are grateful for our community support, enthusiasm and the care and kindness our supporters give us so willingly.

Look at the produce from our gardens that
Grandma Sharon preserved for us, so we
can learn about them and eat them later in the
year when they are not in season. Wow! Plums,
apples, peaches and strawberries.  Thanks so
much Grandma Sharon.