A lifetime of learning with Enviroschools

“I remember my teacher at the time had a classroom that was based on the whole environment and a lot of projects were based on native animals and plants. We also had lots of speakers invited to talk to us which was great. It was the experience that she gave us that inspired me to become a teacher.”

Enviroschools is a nationwide programme that supports early childhood centres and schools to commit to a long-term sustainability journey. Tamariki (children) connect with and explore the environment, then plan, design and take action in their local places in collaboration with their communities. Heddon Bush School joined the Enviroschools programme in 2016. When Sarah joined the team in 2019, she saw an opportunity to take on the challenge of helping build on the work already done. Sarah has taken her early years’ experience and tried to replicate it with her students by continuing the wide range of projects that past teachers had started, and embedding them further across the whole school. As a result, a new native area has been created at the school with students helping to build the area from scratch.

For Sarah, witnessing the growth of knowledge amongst her students has been the most rewarding part of the programme.

“The whole experience has been great. Watching the transfer of knowledge from school to home has been the best part for me. Being able to see and hear discussions about the environment really shows the kids taking in this new knowledge and applying it to their lives.”

Heddon Bush School is celebrating their Enviroschools ‘silver reflection’ where the school will be able to reflect and celebrate on the past few years’ achievements and look forward to new projects in the near future.

“I’m looking forward to the silver reflection, but most of all I am excited to just continue the work and create a legacy with all the projects we have going on, including the new native area that we have made.”