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A TREEmendous Outdoor Learning Area

In November last year we received the exciting news that part of the school is to receive a “TREEmendous” makeover, thanks to Mazda NZ and Project Crimson awarding us a $10,000 TREEmendous event to create an outdoor learning area. 

Stanhope Road School is one of four New Zealand schools selected for the 2020 TREEmendous School programme. For more information about TREEmendous head to http://treemendous.org.nz/

Our TREEmendous area was designed by year 7 and 8 student members of the Eco-Warriors group. They imagined an area filled with native plants to create habitat and food for native birds, lizards, and insects, as well as a wildflower meadow for our bees, a vegetable garden and some fruit trees. There is also a water wheel that fills a tank with rainwater, timber teepees for native plants to grow over and for children to sit inside, bird houses, insect hotels and huge logs for sitting on and an outdoor blackboard for creativity and learning.

On Friday the 31st of July we had a wonderful day of learning, inspiration and entertainment with Ruud Kleinpaste (the Bug Man) and Frazer Dale (a conservationist and amazing volunteer) as a warm up for the big event the following day. 

What a truly amazing day we had on Saturday the 1st of August for the creation and unveiling of our magnificent outdoor learning area, including planting over 800 plants. We were blown away by the turn out from our students, families and local community groups who arrived in droves to convert 1,000sqm of the school’s grounds into a learning zone to help students develop their understanding of the local environment. It was great to have Ruud Klienpaste (Project Crimson Trustee) inspiring our students and teachers and having Peter Wolfkamp and Boh Runga (Mazda Ambassadors) and Warriors players and staff in attendance. Check out the awesome clip below that Sky Sport produced for Warriors TV.

We would like to extend a huge thank you to Mazda NZ and Project Crimson who are behind the TREEmendous programme. We also have many other supporters who we would like to thank: Ruud Klienpaste, Frazer Dale, Hazel Meadows, Auckland Council Sustainable Schools, Horizon Church, Doug Vause from Lawns Plus, Bunnings Mt Wellington, Ignition Firewood, Jay Park of JP Homes, A1 Landscape Services, Green Matter, Loaf, New World Stonefields, Allan and Kay Parker from Sweet Azzz, Graham Hunter, Phil Hall, Gwyn McIntyre and the staff of Stanhope Road School. One more thank you goes to the army of keen workers from our community who came along and helped us realise our dream!

Our students are already enjoying spending time in the TREEmendous area and the possibilities for outdoor learning are many and varied. We look forward to extending our learning outside the classroom, for literacy and numeracy as well as for environmental education.

“Nature breeds curiosity; it helps to grow explorers rather than robots. It reminds us that we are part of something bigger. It grounds us, calms us.” - Ben Palmer-Fry

Toitū te Marae o Tāne, toitū te Marae o Tangaroa, toitū te tāngata.
Protect and strengthen the realms of the Land and Sea, and the people will thrive.

















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