Greenmeadows School Gets Even Greener

Greenmeadows School have just become even more environmentally aware thanks to the Napier City Council’s Waste Aware Programme.

A few years ago the Middle Syndicate of the school took part in the Waste Aware Programme. They were so inspired by it, that when Waste Aware Educator Jacque Wilton rang earlier this year the whole school decided to get behind it.

Waste Aware and National Aquarium Educator Jacque Wilton says she was thrilled to see such a positive uptake of the programme by the entire school, which includes a roll of over 400 students.

“This is the first time an entire school has put all their students through the full term Waste Aware Programme. It really shows the incredible focus the school has taken to teach children the importance of looking after their environment,” says Jacque.

Allyson Ross, Middle School Team Leader at Greenmeadows School says the curriculum has such a strong environmental focus these days so the Waste Aware Programme had such a good fit with the learning and focus the school already had.

“The programme has allowed us to take the children’s learning to another level and the field trips to the Transpacific Recycling facility and Omarunui Landfill have had a strong impact on everyone involved”, says Allyson.

“The children and parents who attended the trip were absolutely amazed at the amount of recycling that our community creates. It’s really mind blowing when you see it. It makes you stop and think when you find out how long it takes for a single item to break down.”

The children at Greenmeadows School have taken their interest in the environment to new heights and since attending the programme have included some new but meaningful initiatives into their learning.

“The children loved the fashion parade in particular where each student had to make a fashion item out of recyclable products. The ideas were fantastic and the children had a lot of fun while learning from each other too. “

“The students have all gone to great lengths to reduce the amount of packaging their food is wrapped in and also to use products that can be recycled,” says Allyson.

The Waste Aware Programme is funded by the Napier City Council for Napier schools and delivered by the education team at The National Aquarium of New Zealand. The full term programme teaches students about waste, what happens to it and how it can damage the environment. It teaches students how they can individually make a difference to reduce waste. A half day programme is also available to schools.