Senior Student Leadership Programme
Our senior and intermediate team members received certificates at our Christmas party that they can use in their CVs to show their learning and experience with Kids Greening Taupō.
Our student leadership teams always fill up with eager primary school aged students who love exploring nature. Our challenge has been how to keep these students interested as they move through intermediate and into high school. By then, some of them have been on the team for over 5 years and it is difficult to keep things new and interesting.
However, several of our senior students have used their experiences on the KGT team to get into university courses and internships, which got us thinking. How could we make a senior course that caters to the needs of the busy high school students, allows them to take on new experiences, and could lead to experiences that could be used in their CV?
With all of this in mind, this year, we put together a booklet of conservation work and leadership opportunities with local experts that our senior students could chose activities from. The seniors checked in with us once a month in an online meeting and then chose any opportunities that came up that they were interested in. At the end of the year they received a beautiful certificate for their CV that acknowledged the experiences that they had and the skills that they had learnt.
Our amazing senior student leaders truly took the lead in directing their own learning! Isla’s curiosity led her to initiate a native seedling collection from in a block of forest run by the New Zealand Forest Management. She learned how to identify a range of native seedlings — including kowaowao, ferns, and grasses — and carefully selected and transported them back to town, where they’re now thriving.
Meanwhile, Angela explored and learned more about the wetlands near her home through bittern monitoring. In her words, "I went out for 3 nights: the first with Shirley Potter from Project Tongariro and my Granny Rona, the second with Ardy from Department of Conservation (this time in the rain!) and the third with Shirley again. I learnt how to record the calls of the bitterns. I found it very interesting especially as I'd never really been exploring in my local wetland before!" You can read more about her experience here.
Victoria and Isla attended a workshop in Tokoroa to learn about a very endangered parasitic plant, pua o te reinga (dactylanthus). They were able to help learn about and hand pollinate some of these special plants with an expert from the Department of Conservation. The plants had been caged for protection from possums and their location kept secret due to poachers who sell the roots of the host species as ornaments called ‘wood roses’. The natural pollinators of te pua o te reinga, which translates as ‘flower of the underworld,’ are bats, which are not present to pollinate them in that area, so the girls were able to help out and do the pollination by hand.
Lizzie and Pipi learnt alongside a local ecologist, Margaret Dickinson. They propogated endangered ngutukākā seedlings and helped her with the ones planted at Aratiatia. They even got to meet scientists and have a tour of Scion’s nursery in Rotorua, learning about the kinds of scientific experiments that are done there researching things such as kauri die-back disease.
Kairi spoke at our big 10th birthday party in front of a big crowd. Over the years, she has taken on lots of speaking opportunities, including submitting to Taupō District Council’s long term plan and proposing a cat bylaw. It has been fantastic to see senior leaders such as Angela and Kairi bravely speak in front of groups such as the elected councillors and mayor in council chambers. Their confidence has grown and they have learnt fantastic life-long skills. In 2026 Angela will be deputy head girl of Tauhara College and we think these experiences will be a huge help to her in that role. Here’s what she had to say,
My experiences with KGT have helped me to become more confident and to develop my leadership experience in many different settings. For example, by attending the Tokaanu Catfishing Camp as a senior leader, I was able to work with younger students and lead an activity for them. Public speaking opportunities such as presenting to the Taupo District Council and Acacia Bay Residents Association have helped me to connect with the community and develop public speaking skills. These (and many other!) experiences that I have had through KGT have led me to gain confidence in different leadership skills, which I will be able to use in the upcoming year ahead.
A river crossing on a bush skills course with Adventure Works.
In 2025, senior students helped run camp activities, nocturnal walks, and many other sessions for younger students. They were able to share their knowledge and be role models for the younger teams. They also took on projects such as trapping and native planting in their own backyards and took opportunities to do NZOIA and Adventure Works courses, learning survival skills and how to navigate using a compass. They were able to visit Wairakei Sanctuary and do a tour on golf carts to learn about the tākahe programme there, along with doing tours of the kiwi incubation facility. They also ran the registration desk, BBQ and organised music for community planting days and took on public speaking roles.
We’re so proud of these senior students’ initiative, passion for nature, and willingness to take opportunities that were offered to them. It was an honour to present them with their awards at our Christmas party. We can’t wait to see where their journey will take them in the future.
