Have you ever wondered what environmental education opportunities there are for Māpua School students? The answer is 'quite a few'.

Every year Māpua School runs an enviro group called Tāne's Ark, which is for Year 5-8 students. This has been going for over 10 years and has involved many projects. A highlight of being in Tāne's Ark is heading over to Aranui Park at lunchtimes to plant and mulch native trees, plants and grasses. We also grow veges in the raised beds here at school and grow native seedlings. 

Earlier this year Tāne's Ark joined up with the kapa haka rōpū and Manaaki Tāpoi students from Whenua Iti to place a mauri stone and do some planting in our new rongoā garden. This garden will be a real asset to the school in coming years as not only a place to be calm and reflective, but also to source traditional Māori medicine. 

More recently, some Tāne's Ark students attended the Sustainable Māpua event which was held at the Māpua Community Hall. Students prepared writing on various topics, including our work at Aranui Park, growing fruit and veges at school, and ways we can all look after our environment. They interacted with the public and answered any questions they had. 

As a school we are also looking into joining the Enviroschools programme. This will enable us to access loads of resources and ideas for including more environmental education into our curriculum, and also have the support of a knowledgeable and experienced facilitator.