Kura inspires with hands-on environmental initiatives

Nelson City Council visited a school that is making sustainability a part of their everyday school curriculum.

Birchwood School Kaitiaki Karen and Kaiako Shelley took us on a tour to showcase some of the ideas they have implemented and how they transfer from the classroom to the tamariki’s home. 

Birchwood School are one of 30 Nelson Schools and ECE’s involved in Enviroschools, a programme coordinated by Council. The Enviroschools programme supports tamariki to plan, design and implement sustainability projects that cover topics like water health/conservation, kai production and distribution, zero waste and biodiversity.  

“Recycling is a priority for our school,” says Kaitaiaki Karen. “We encourage our Whānau to bring items that cannot go in their yellow recycling bins to the school.”.  

The student’s commitment to recycling is clear to see.  

Hailey and Isla (Manukura o te Taiao - enviro leaders) were excited to show off the large recycling mural on the side of the school’s shed.  

“The most helpful part of this mural is this box,” Hailey explains pointing to a rectangle painted on the wall.  

“This tells us that for paper and cardboard to be recycled it must be bigger than this box, it makes it really easy and reminds us to not rip up bits of paper!”  

After the mural, we entered the school hall to see boxes for collection of lids, egg cartons, soft plastics and tetra paks.  

“Once we have a good collection we send the egg cartons to Kai Rescue” says Isla.  

“The tetra paks and lids to go Grass Roots recycling, and one of the teachers takes away the soft plastics”. 

The school recently did an audit to assess the amount of plastic in lunch boxes.  

“Chips and muesli bars” says Kaitiaki Karen, “the amount of plastic in just those two food items is astonishing.”  

During the audit, the school realised that the plastic packaging presents another issue too.  

“Kids rip open packets by the corners, we noticed the little corner pieces all over the field, and the wind would blow the little pieces out of the bin,” says Hailey.  

The school collected all the chip packets and will send them to The Chip Packet Project who recycle the packets into thermal survival blankets.  

Birchwood School have many other projects on the go from their tinker shed full of interesting and unusual upcycled products to their Koha Crop Swap where families are encouraged to bring excess cans or veges (often grown in home gardens) to swap for other veggies.  

Case study – Garden to Table 

The school is particularly proud of Garden to Table. While maintaining the gardens around the school, Kaitiaki Karen started planting fruit trees and various vegetables. The kids started to show interest as the vegetables grew, leading to a programme that is now a part of the enviroschools mahi.  

Each class in the middle syndicate gets a full term participating in Garden to Table. The tamariki are split into three groups that rotate through the term. One group gardens, one group cooks, and one group reports on what they see and learn.  

Mitre 10 and the Menz Shed donated the wood and time to build the garden beds, and the tamariki planted them.  

“There’s silver beet, sugar snap peas, spring onions, celery, bok choy, peaches, nectarines, figs and my favourite cherry tomatoes!” explained Isla. Families donated plates, knives, forks and kitchen equipment and often donate their time to supervise the cooking for lunch time.  

“The kids love to cook. We’ve had fried rice, vegetable curries, nachos and each is full of the vegetables they grow and harvest here at school,” says Kaiako Shelley.  

Once the food prep is done, the class sit down to enjoy their kai. When the scraps are composted – the cycle is complete.