This year has been a momentous one for OGHS Enviroschools, mostly because of the intensive reflection we undertook in May upon how we ‘live’ the Enviroschools principles at our school (Empowered Students, Learning for Sustainability, Sustainable Communities, Respect for the Diversity of Peoples and Cultures, and Māori Perspectives). 

The outcome of several months of collating information, and then an afternoon of guided reflection upon it, ended in the mutually-made decision that we did fit best into the ‘green gold’ category. This is how we see our school now:

Embedded, integrated, sustained, instinctive, effective, empowered, deep, critical, visionary, courageous.

We have a living, evolving school vision - progress is celebrated and new ideas added. The Guiding Principles are woven into all aspects of our school life. Sustainability is part of all our decisions and everything we do. Students at our school have a strong sense of connection to the environment - we know we can effect change for a sustainable world. The enquiry and action is mainly led by students, with strong support from adults. We have been able to measure many changes from our actions, and show that we are making a difference. The environment is more vibrant and healthy; it feels like a living ecosystem that can support our community towards sustainability. Māori perspectives are enriching our journey. The school is involved with our community, honouring the diversity of people within it.

Since then, we have begun to work on areas where we do see more room to grow (there is always more room to grow!). We are excited about our school’s involvement in the Dunedin Town Belt project, which is a student-led initiative with three leaders from our school working with other schools and early childhood centres, as well as the DCC, the Chamber of Commerce and the Department of Conservation. Our science students continue to do wonderful work, for example in the Tomahawk Lagoon study, and propagating kowhai in our glasshouse. Enviroschools students helped regenerate land and waterways by working on Quarantine Island/Kamau Taurua and the St Clair wetlands. Our school fair worked hard to reduce waste and promote recycling, as well as selling plants and other environmentally friendly goodies (and raising quite a bit of money!). Sustainable Dunedin City and the PPTA funded us for untreated timber for raised vegetable beds for each House, and this week, two Year 9 groups are basing their community initiative around building and hopefully planting up those beds, with senior student help. We also have three senior students soon going on the annual ‘waterwise’ week, which is an intensive study into the multiple and sometimes conflicting uses of the the Clutha river.

We look forward to making sustainability even more part of ‘what we do’ at OGHS in 2018!