Bush becomes outdoor classroom
Atract of remnant forest on its doorstep is providing an extra classroom at Te Ranga School. The 2ha bush classroom is being used regularly as a learning environment, teaching students about the New Zealand native bush and what lives there.
Principal Brendan Wilson says classes started using the bush area, a short walk from the school, last year. It is on land owned by Peter and Megan Mark.
“It’s quite handy to have this in walking distance of the school,” he says, adding that it is a step up from simply teaching outdoors.
“This is legitimate bush so you come out here and it’s peaceful and pretty calm.”
The land is protected under a QEII National Trust covenant and this has allowed a successful grant application which has been used to put a track around the block. There are also plans to build a storage building and infrared cameras so students can see what happens in the bush area at night.
Each class has its own pest traps in the bush area.
Alongside the school’s teachers, mother and daughter Carmel Richardson and Sky Smale are providing their own expertise as “bush class teachers”.
“[The students] are all feeling really at home in here now,” says Sky.
Brendan says the work done in the bush classroom complements other teaching in the school.
“The big thing is integrating it with their writing and maths and integrating it into what they do every day.”
“This combination of having a primary school so close to a wee bit of old forest with the landowner wanting to learn from it is pretty special,” says Carmel.
Brendan says having the bush classroom is providing a new experience for “town kids”.
“Te Ranga has always been a country school and most of our kids would have been familiar and comfortable in the bush but now, of 150 kids, there are probably 85 or 90 who live in Te Puke — they weren’t totally at home here [at first] but you can see them just becoming more comfortable.”
Sky and Carmel are part of the Paraiti Catchment Care Group formed last year to help protect and improve the local environment around the Paraiti River and Carmel is involved in the Ko¯ kako Ecosystem Expansion Project (KEEP).
“The Marks wanting to keep the forest, the school wanting to use the forest and the Paraiti and KEEP groups — all those three things coming together, it works really well.
“It’s not about the kids running around, it’s about respecting the forest. It’s covenanted and it’s protected and they are part of it and are leaning and respecting and looking after it.”
There are plans to build a rope swing and three wire bridge across the gully within the area.