TREEmendous small rural school leads the way

A school north of Whangarei has created an extensive outdoor learning space so students can learn from nature in an authentic environment.

Hukerenui School, a rural school around 30 minutes north of Whangarei, planted hundreds of native trees and shrubs over the weekend and can add becoming a ‘TREEmendous’ school to its list of eco-friendly accomplishments.

The school creates and sells lavender products like bath bombs that students make, and they are taught how to make lip balm from honey extracted from its five beehives. An orchard is cared for by the junior class and the school has a vegetable garden.

Hukerenui School is one of five schools selected for the TREEmendous $10,000 grant towards creating an outdoor learning space. TREEmendous is a joint initiative between Project Crimson and the Mazda Foundation.

Teachers, students, the wider community as well as Mazda Foundation trustees and the Project Crimson team all helped transform the school’s western boundary fence area into a useful learning space.

“We are so excited to be able to use the area as an educational aid to teach students about how important trees are to our ecosystem,” Hukerenui School principal Margaret Holmes says.

Mazda Foundation chairman David Hodge says it was inspiring to visit a school that is committed to caring for the environment and using natural resources to educate its students.

“What Hukerenui School has done to create an authentic outdoor learning environment for its students is so impressive, and I’m glad we were able to help them expand it even more,” Hodge says.

Mazda ambassadors and marine scientists Riley ‘The Sharkman’ Elliot and Ruud ‘The Bugman’ Kleinpaste visited the school. Ex-student and deputy prime minister Winston Peters was also in attendance.

Elliot and Kleinpaste spoke with the teachers and students about the part oceans play in our overall environment.

Hukerenui School is the third school to be visited by the TREEmendous team this year and is the 47th school to get the TREEmendous treatment in the last 11 years.