Enviroschools first awards
The Enviroschools Canterbury Partnership has made its first awards to five of the schools which took part in the programme’s trial, including three city schools.
Enviroschools is a national programme which takes a whole-school approach to environmental education. Students develop skills, understanding, knowledge and confidence through planning, designing and creating a sustainable school. Projects have both environmental and educational outcomes that benefit the school and the wider community.
The Enviroschools Canterbury Partnership includes the Christchurch City Council, Christchurch College of Education, Department of Conservation, Environment Canterbury, Kidsfirst Kindergartens, Waimakariri District Council and the World Wide Fund for Nature.
The five Canterbury schools to receive Bronze Awards at a ceremony last month were Our Lady of Fatima, Cashmere Primary, Discovery One, Ashburton Borough and North Loburn.
The Enviroschools Awards are designed to provide an incentive for schools to become involved in sustainability education and undertake environmental initiatives. Sustainability is the key word – the awards acknowledge schools that give students and staff opportunities to develop more sustainable ways of doing things within the school that can often then be applied in the home. Involving students is at the core of the awards scheme — teachers and schools are encouraged to tap into kids’ creativity and use this to create more sustainable ways of operating.
The awards will be made available to all schools in Canterbury later this year. By starting at the bronze level and working through the silver to green-gold, schools progressively guide their school community to adopt a sustainable lifestyle, one that will improve and enhance the environment for present and future generations. The programme fits with several of the City Council’s aims.
Enviroschool
As well as being one of five schools to help test the awards scheme in Canterbury, Our Lady of Fatima on Innes Road, Mairehau, is the first city school to have taken up the challenge to become an Enviroschool.
The school started work on this last year, with a whole-school unit called Me in My Environment. Students and staff recorded their opinions about the school environment and how this might be improved. A group of Environmental Leaders then made a list of what to do over the next year or so, including developing a care code, landscaping areas within the grounds, looking at how school waste could be reduced and designing a brand for the Environmental Leaders of Fatima group.
- For more information about the national Enviroschools programme and awards scheme, look on the web at www.enviroschools.org.nz
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