On Friday evening, 11th February, the Preschool community was saddened to find out that the century-plus old tree that had provided protection for generations at the College and the preschool decided to gracefully lay itself down.

Around 6pm that evening a person in a nearby workplace heard the commotion and raced over to the College to see what had happened. You can imagine the shock of finding the huge Horizontal Elm tree (affectionally known by tamariki as ELMO) completely fallen and laying across the preschool playground. It managed to avoid damaging any of our newly landscaped fencing and pathways and fell just short of the veranda roof. We know all in our community have offered up their thanks for the protection provided at the time.

During the Preschool rebuild we had taken all precautions to make sure this protected tree was not interfered with in any way. In fact, decisions on where to place the building were made around the position of the elm tree. The best guess about what happened seems to involve a leaking water pipe plus the heavy rain. The specialist arborist deemed the tree to be healthy; however, the ground was unstable. We now have a huge gap in our playground and so will shortly begin planning for new plantings and shade for the playground.

In true early childhood style, the removal process became a rich learning experience for tamariki who had their own theories about what happened and why:

· “Wind and the rain knocked it down”

· “My ELMO tree fell down yesterday”

· “Sun and rain broke the tree – the tree is 100 years old!”

Some were also very curious about what was to happen to the tree and asked the Tree Tech worker: “How are you going to get it through the door?”

We may have lost an old friend in the tree, but it is certainly leaving us with lots of great learning. We have kept some large limbs hoping to turn them into something to remind us all of ELMO. If anyone has ideas about what to do and who may be able to transform these pieces, please let us know.