Anna BeccyPineRobyn Amanda Adrienne Andrea Marianne

On 23 September Te Kura Kaupapa

Maori o Whakawatea celebrated 20

years of schooling in Waikato. Old

students and staff were present, and

trees were planted to celebrate all those

who participated in the development

of the kura. This day contributed to

the continuing development of the

Whakawatea grounds through its

vision map.

He Ra Whakanui i Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Whakawatea

Welcome to the twenty third edition of the Waikato Enviroschools newsletter.

This newsletter includes information about Enviroschools and showcases some fantastic

environmental education happening in schools and communities throughout our region.

We have an awesome team of Enviroschool facilitators in our region who are committed and

passionate about supporting our schools, students and communities in their Enviroschools

journey towards sustainability.

I would also like to acknowledge the Enviroschool lead teachers and principals throughout our

region. Enviroschools lead teachers are the people who often are our pioneers; successfully trying

new ways of teaching and learning, and role modelling commitment and passion as we all work

towards a more sustainable future. Principal support and commitment to the programme is a vital

component to its success in schools and a growing number now understand the benefits of being

an Enviroschool.

If you would like to know more about the Enviroschools programme or any of the Waikato

Regional Council’s environmental education resources for schools, email me

andrea.soanes@waikatoregion.govt.nz or call our free phone 0800 800 401.

Andrea SoanesSchools Programme Coordinator

newsletter no.23Waikato Enviroschools

What’s inside• He Ra Whakanui i Te Kura

Kaupapa Maori o Whakawatea

• Reflection in our region

• Kumara Maori ki Toku Mapihi

Maurea Kura Kaupapa Maori

me Nga Taiatea Wharekura

• Te Pamu Noke ki Te Kura

Kaupapa Maori o Te Ararima

• Scrapbook pages

• Puppet show with a message

• Sculpture park

• Wai challenge

• Enviroschools grant fund

• Education for sustainability

kete

The Enviroschools team...

Reflection in our regionWe held a reflection workshop for schools that are at a silver level and are working towards green gold or have not reflected through the

new Enviroschools framework yet. It was a great day with 10 schools attending from across our region. This is a summary of ideas the

group brainstormed around what is reflection.

Our Enviroschools national team have been working on a new

reflection process over the last two to three years. This process

replaces the awards system with a process that fits the

kaupapa of Enviroschools. In the last few years our region

has successfully supported schools to reflect using the new

tools and many are now recognised as a bronze, silver and

green gold Enviroschools. The new process is about celebrating

what schools and communities have achieved, as well as a shift

to the students, school staff and community making their own

informed decisions about where they are in their Enviroschools

journey. Many of our region’s schools have reflected using our

new process and have found it rewarding, inspiring and a great

celebration of how much they have achieved.

As a regional team we also work through a process of reflection

and set goals for our team and region. From these team reflections

we have developed a ‘review’ sheet that has been designed to

support schools to reflect annually and set future goals alongside

their facilitator.

Your Enviroschool facilitator is your school’s

champion, their time is funded by your local district council

and they are able to support your school in many different

ways. Part of the review sheet’s purpose is to identify how they

can best support lead teachers, students and schools in their

Enviroschools journey.

We expect that these annual review meetings with your facilitator

will be an opportunity for you to share achievements and enable

clearer ideas and direction to be established for the future of

your Enviroschool. Ask your facilitator about your review meeting

and book them in.

Participation Revisiting what’s gone right.

Building steps.

Community, children, teachers, councils, funders, board.

Buy-in and allows voices to be heard.

Participation/discussion/talking, group/self/peer reflection.

Needs to be an intrinsic managed process, expectation,

purposeful and directional enabling of all voices including

students, community.

Purposes Sharing and networking.

Regrouping looking at what worked well and what

didn’t.

Being honest about what is or isn’t working.

Constant reflection.

Analyse/measure.

Celebrate progress/where to next.

Why?

Processes Collaborative, leading to collective

decision making about direction.

‘So what’, ‘where to next’.

Actions/plannings.

The future – resourcing.

Vehicle for developing shared ownership.

Shared ownership and enhancing understanding and skills/

practices.

Verbal/written/visual/digital.

A pause in the journey.

Goal setting/evaluation/audits/oral/written/visual.

Whole school/community/staff/students.

Outcomes Critical thinking generating outcomes as actions

leading to yet more reflection.

Continual improvement/development. Renew and

revise vision.

Goal setting: what worked well/what didn’t for next

time. Where to next change.

What has been happening with action/projects/plans

– what are the next steps?

Celebrating: what is working and what has changed.

3

“Kei whea koe i te tangihanga o te riroriro?”

Kua tau nei te koanga ki a tatou. Kua tae ki te

wa ki te whakarite i te tapapa kumara.

I te koanga o te tau 2010 i tae mai nga akonga o

Toku Mapihi Maurea me Nga Taiatea Wharekura ki

taku kainga ki te hanga he tapapa kumara. Na Papa

Wiremu Tawhai nga purapura kumara i koha mai.

He Hutihuti, he Taputini, he Rekamauroa nga momo

kumara maori i tapapatia ki roto i te tapapa.

No nga ra whakamutunga o te kura nga pihipihi

kumara ka whakato ki nga mara o nga kura e rua.

Ngotongoto ana te tipu o nga rau kumara.

Whiria ai nga aka kumara ki te papa o te mara.

Poroporoaki ana ki te haka a Tanerore raua ko

Hine-raumati i te pae.

Tirotiro ana ki a Poutu-te-rangi, a Whanui ki nga

pokohiwi o to raua matua a Ranginui. Koia tera te putanga

o te hinu ara te wa ki te hauhake. Na ko te marama o Paenga

Whawha.

Ka mau te wehi te korero a nga akonga! Tena te koanga

ngakau i te hauhaketanga ake o nga kai rangatira nei.

Na Whaea Maisie me ana akonga nga kumara i komiri,

i tatari hoki kia puritia nga purapura hei tapapa

mo tenei tau. I te Koroneihana a Tuheitia i kite te

whanau a Papa Wiremu, a Te Awhimate ratou ko Te

Teira, ko Honor. Ko te whakaaro kei ahau he tuku

nga whakaahua a enei mahi kumara maori ki a

ratou hei whakahokinga koha.

The greywarbler calls us to planting. The late

Papa Wiremu Tawhai had saved some varieties

of Maori kumara for our seedbed. Students from

both Toku Mapihi Maurea Kaupapa Maori and Nga

Taiatea Wharekura came to build the seedbed at my

house. The seedlings that grew in the tapapa were

planted before the summer holidays. The kumara grew

abundantly through the long hot hazy days. As autumn

set in we harvested the kumara which were left to dry,

sorted and stored for the following year.

Kumara Maori ki Toku Mapihi Maurea Kura Kaupapa Maori me Nga Taiatea Wharekura

Te Pamu Noke ki Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Te ArarimaNa Neurayne

I tenei ahiahi i haere mai a Matua Pine.

I whakaako ia i a matou ki nga tikanga

o te pamu noke. Na Nganeko

E pa ana ki nga noke

1. Me tiaki matou i nga noke

2. Me hoatu etahi kai ma nga noke

3. He whariki kei runga na te mea, kaore

nga noke e makariri. Na Riingi

Ko nga whakaritenga mo te Pamu Noke

1. Ka kohia nga toenga kai e reka ana ki nga noke

• ki nga pakete o ia akomanga, o te ruma

kaiako

• ki te ipu nui (whai wira) ki te

whakamarumaru i te wa moko

2. He Kaitiaki ki ia akomanga kia mohio ai

tatou, e tika ana nga kai ki roto i te pakete hei

whangai i te noke. Ma ratou ano hoki nga toenga kai e rau

atu ki te ipu nui ia ahiahi, ahua 2 karaka te wa.

3. Ko Larissa raua ko Mapuna nga kaitiaki o te

ipu nui. Ia ahiahi ka huri haere tetahi o raua i nga

akomanga ki te kohi i nga toenga kai

4. Ma Matua Garry nga toenga kai e rau atu ki

te pamu noke.

No te marama o Here-turi-koka ka whakarite

he pamu noke ki roto i tetahi wharau o te

Puna Kaukau tawhito. He koanga ngakau no

nga akonga i te toronga atu ki nga noke e

korikori ana e pukanakana ana ki a ratou.

Koia tetahi wahanga o nga mahi hei whakaora ano

i tenei wahi hei mara kai, hei pamu noke, hei

mahi puwairakau mo te kura otira mo te whanau

whanui o Te Ara Rima. No reira kua timata tenei

mahi i wawatia mai ra ano. Kia kaha, kia maia i roto

i nga mahi rangatira nei. Na Matua Pine

Te Ararima’s old swimming pool area has seen some

redevelopment with the installation of a worm farm

administered by the students and caretaker at the school.

There is a large garden and composting bins also planned

for this area. It is hoped that these initiatives will draw in

the local school community to support the garden.

4

A BIG thank you to all the 23 schools that sent in scrapbook pages. They were all outstanding. I know how much mahi and effort goes into

them. Regions were limited in the number of pages that could be put forward for this year’s national scrapbook, so not all pages could be

submitted. It was a hard decision to make and I want to acknowledge all our schools that had worked hard to put their pages together, so

they are appearing in this newsletter for you all to enjoy. Our national Enviroschools

scrapbook will be out in November.

Outstanding – keep up the great work

Andrea Soanes

6

Waihi puppeteer Alison Collings has created a musical

puppet show with a strong environmental message

for primary to intermediate aged children. With

puppets made from recycled materials such as

Alison’s old dressing gown and the spokes of

a broken umbrella (used for manipulating the

puppets), Alison is ‘walking her talk’.

The catchy songs that make up the show are

all original with witty lyrics that pack a punch.

They are performed live by Alison, who

also does all the voices of the puppets and

plays the keyboard as well! Alison’s partner

Michael Thornton plays an important part

in the creation of the show by making a

lot of the scenery and manipulating the

puppets.

The story follows the journey of the Little Bang Fairy (Big Bang

Theory), who comes down to earth from the outer reaches of the

galaxy looking for her blue-green marble (planet earth) which

‘used to shine so blue and green but now is nowhere to be seen’.

Through characters such as ‘Agent Orange’ and ‘the revolting

penguins’ Alison raises awareness of issues such as pollution,

exploitation of natural resources and global warming. The show

reminds children that we have to work together ‘to keep the colour

Puppet show with a messagein the morning and the blue in the sky’ and that our

blue-green earth is ‘the greatest treasure

we’ll ever know’.

Alison and Michael would love to get

their show out into schools throughout

the Waikato, and are available for more

information or bookings by emailing

amairimac60@gmail.com or phoning Alison on

021 2050786.

Review from a student from the Memphis Centre

(Special Needs Unit), Waihi College:

This morning we had a puppet show. The show was

called Fairy Bang. I saw puppets they were funny. My

favourite puppet will be the Little Bang Fairy. I loved

the show because it was funny. I loved all the puppets

and when they sang their songs. The thing I learnt was

in the show they were cleaning up the environment.

Kelsy Trebes

Excerpt from a review from teacher, Kerry Matich (Memphis

Centre): “The students loved the music and and the visual nature of

the show…the puppets were fabulous and the fact that she made them

out of recycled materials adds to the nature of her show…our students

enjoyed being able to hold the puppets and to see what they had been

made out of.”

Sculpture parkThe sculpture park in Tauwhare is an amazing

experiential learning experience. It encourages visitors

to engage with its exhibitions and the park setting.

The park is a great place for visitors of all ages to

enjoy others’ creativity and to foster creative thinking.

Whitehall school had a great experience on their

trip to the sculpture park and have incorporated and

extended the ideas into their learning back at school.

The trust’s part-time arts educator generates ideas

to help families and schools get more out of each

visit. Tap into these resources to get more fun from

your next visit to the park —contact Sybille for more

information, her email address is artseducator@

sculpturepark.co.nz or visit www.sculpturepark.co.nz.

The link to our educational handbook that is online

now www.sculpturepark.co.nz/learnexplore/education-

handbook. There are also family activities to download

www.sculpturepark.co.nz/learnexplore/family-

activities.

7

Wai challenge

To celebrate all the wonderful learning that has taken place from the wai

challenge, we are supplying schools with calico fabric flags for students to

create designs and images that reflect and record their learning journey. Be

creative and inspirational with the flags so your knowledge and understanding

about water can be shared with others. You can use anything you wish to

decorate your schools flag and if you would like more than one calico fabric

flag please ask your Enviroschools facilitator. Flags will be collected late

November to be displayed at the Enviroschools 10th birthday party on

6 December at the Hamilton Gardens.

Ask you Enviroschools facilitator if your school would like to be part of this

activity and celebration.

The wai challenge has rocked! Lots of learning going on out there in schools around wai and action

as well and that’s good for me and my other native friends because I need my habitat protected –

awesome! I would love to hear more about them – you can either post a pic or comment on my online

forum www.waikatoregion.govt.nz/waichallengeforum or post in to my friend Andrea.

I know she has some prizes to give away for schools, so go on write me a message or post some of

your work in to Andrea Soanes, Waikato Regional Council, Private Bag 3038, Waikato Mail Centre Hamilton 3240.

Kaarl

Congratulations to Puahue and Tauwhare

school students who represented our region in

October at the international Kids Teaching Kids

River Conference in Adelaide. This has been an

inspirational journey for all involved. A big thank

you for sharing this in the form of a DVD which will

be released early next year.

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The Waikato Regional Council’s website features a range of resources to help you teach students about our natural environment.

Download our FREE curriculum-linked classroom units:• Rivers and us• Coasts and us• Stream sense• Soils and usand check out our range of classroom activities.

Our website also includes pages especially for students, packed with useful information about the natural environment.

For more information, check out our website at www.waikatoregion.govt.nz/forschools or contact Andrea Soanes on Waikato Regional Council ’s freephone 0800 800 401.

Enviroschools grant fundWaikato Regional Council’s Enviroschools Grant Fund assists

Enviroschools with environmental projects. The fund provides

one-off grants to projects that directly enhance and/or benefit the

environment or provide environmental education.

Who can apply?Schools can apply to the fund. However, proposals designed to

generate personal or commercial profit or compensate individuals

are not eligible for funding.

What types of projects can be funded?Projects must be in keeping with council’s mission, goals and its

statutory functions and duties as a regional council. Funding can

be provided to specific projects designed to:

• enhance the environment

• promote and/or contribute to sustainable management of the

environment

• raise community awareness of environmental issues

• provide environmental education.

How to applyGo to www.waikatoregion.govt.nz/about-us/funding for further

information and the application form.

It is a good idea to contact Andrea Soanes on 07 859 0707 or email

andrea.soanes@waikatoregion.govt.nz to discuss your application.

8

See the education for sustainability kete at http://efs.tki.org.nz/

Sustainability is a critical issue for New Zealand – environmentally,

economically, culturally, politically, and socially. We need to learn

how to live smarter to reduce our impact on the environment, so

that our natural resources will be around for future generations.

Here to help – Hei āwhinaThis kete is designed to help teachers engage students in

relevant learning about sustainability, and encourage them to act

sustainably and contribute to the well being of New Zealand.

It does this by making connections between the learning areas,

vision, principles, values and key competencies of the national

curricula – The New Zealand Curriculum

and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa.

EfS in the curriculumhttp://efs.tki.org.nz/EfS-and-the-NZC

Sustainability is a significant theme

throughout the national curriculum. Find

out about effective teaching and learning

in education for sustainability here.

EfS in schoolshttp://efs.tki.org.nz/EfS-in-schools

Schools choosing to include a sustainability focus can do so in a

number of ways. Explore ideas for both primary and secondary

schools here.

Curriculum resources and toolshttp://efs.tki.org.nz/Useful-links

Sustainability-focused teaching and learning opportunities.

These ideas are cross-curricular, and include a range of

resources and teaching tools.

Senior secondaryhttp://efs.tki.org.nz/NCEA

Find out more about the new Teaching

and Learning Guidelines and NCEA

Achievement Standards for education

for sustainability here at

http://efs.tki.org.nz/.

Education for sustainability kete