Our vision is to have the school community totally engaged in and taking responsibility for looking after the environment and to adopt sustainable practices.

Our Strategic Goals are:

• Support foster and provide learning opportunities for all about the environment and sustainable practices

• Broaden and accelerate the implementation of innovative learning practice about the environment and sustainable practices.

• Provide opportunities for our learners to be connected locally, internationally and globally with the environment and sustainable practices.

OurTeam Goals are:

• To be aware of our environment and take responsibility to look after it.

• To ‘walk the talk’ and deliver environmental messages by teaching good practices and being good role models.

• Include an environment and sustainability topic in yearly overview.

• Take opportunities during the year to incidentally teach good sustainable and environmentally friendly practices.

2017 Planned Events:

• Tread Lightly Caravan (Years 3 - 6) Term 2 Week 2

• Green Day - Love Our Place (Whole School) - Date to be advised

• New Enviro initiative introduced each term (Whole School)

• Term 2 initiative ‘Litterless Lunchboxes’.

• Enviro team term meetings

• Worm Farmers

Term 2 Enviro Initiative is Litter Free Lunches

As a Waste Wise School we try to reduce the amount of rubbish we send to landfill. Hence we have invested in worm farms and compost bins for our organic waste.  Another initiative we tried was to encourage children to bring litter free lunches to school.

Waste Brigade

We are now part of the Waste Brigade.  As well as collecting dental waste we collect suckies and pouches and old Glad products. TerraCycle recycle these into useful items (see our park bench made from our collection of waste last term and designed by Nina Harlen). The school receives 2 points for each item collected and these points earn $$$$ for us.

Kauri Dieback Disease 

THE KAURI DIEBACK MURAL (see main picture) CAN BE VIEWED ON THE WALL OF ROOM 16

Over the holidays your family may enjoy a bush walk in the Waitakeres. Please be aware of Kauri Dieback disease and protect our Kauris by following these simple rules. Before your walk, clean your shoes, scrub off the mud and during your walk, stay on the track. Following these rules will help to stop the disease spreading to other healthy Kauris.

Organic Matter:  As a Waste Wise School we are obliged to sort our rubbish so that it is disposed of correctly. Our school is aiming for zero tolerance for organic matter going to the landfill. Therefore, our children are asked to put all their scraps in the food scrap bin or take it home to be disposed of correctly if that is what you prefer.

Worm Farms:  We have the best fed worms in NZ because of all the food scraps we have to dispose of daily. Please remind your children to eat all the fruit in their lunchbox or bring it home. Children have difficulty eating large pieces of fruit so it is a good idea to give them small apples or cut it up into sizes they can manage.

Soft Plastic Collection:  We are an Enviro and Waste Wise School and we all try to keep our waste to a minimum and dispose of it correctly.  We collect all soft plastic from the school and take it to a collection point at New World, Countdown or the Warehouse. This helps to reduce our landfill rubbish.

Liquid Fertiliser:   A by product of worm farming is liquid fertilizer. If you would like to purchase some for your garden, please order it through the school office. Cost: $2 for a 2 litre bottle. It can be watered down 10:1 making 20 litres. The proceeds go towards purchasing equipment for the garden group and buying vegetable seeds and seedlings for the school gardens.

Happy recycling from the Enviro Team.

Kaurilands 2017 Environment Curriculum Team Members: Jill Larbey, Sandra Fletcher, Jackie Taylor, Lillian Bombay, Sarah Milner, Victoria Palmer and the worm farmers.