Tirohanga School’s Projects
In 2022 Country Kidz ECE decided to plant their trees purchased with the Take Action funding from Contact Energy at Tirohanga School so the children could grow along side them. Tirohanga School had already been planning on restoring part of their field to create a "Pollinator's Paradise" where insects, bees, butterflies, and children could interact. During the holidays, Country Kidz presented koromiko and different varieties of hebes, mānuka, kānuka, ake ake, and some wharariki to the school staff and students which were planted by the children transitioning to school and their families. Mulch was laid down outlining a path that would wander amongst the trees as they grow. It was a wonderful way to help develop the school while helping the new children feel a sense of ownership and belonging at their new school.
In 2023, Thank you to everyone involved! We love having experts out at our kura to share their knowledge. Our tamariki were very engaged and are so excited for our native forest to grow! Update: Our pest tracking tunnels have foot prints today and the chew cards have bite marks! Such awesome hands-on learning about our environment! Thanks a million to Kids Greening Taupo and Taupō District Council and Call of the Wild
In 2024 we had two planting days where many of the school whanau came to help plant the school perimeter in native plants alongside their tamariki. A big thank you to Emma and Brenna from Taupō District Council who came along to help and share their knowledge. The students had been learning about native lizards with our coordinator, Rachel, and they decided to plan and plant a Kāinga Mokomoko (lizard habitat) in front of the staffroom. The big box garden at the entrance to the school has became a native pollinator garden, with lots of flowering native plants added. They also did infill planting in their bee garden and in other spaces around the school. Everyone worked so hard, we planted 200+ native plants to help encourage birds and bugs and enhance the ecosystem within the school. As they have an amazing new shade house, we also helped the students to pot up little seedlings that will be next year's plants. They rescued kāpuka seedlings from their garden and we donated some ngutukaka seedlings that we had grown, along with others that we had that were too small to plant out this year. The day was completed with a much deserved sausage sizzle and cuppa. It was a big couple of days, but the grounds look amazing, the tamariki learnt a lot, the whānau were involved, and the school will have thriving biodiversity in the future! Thanks to the Contact Energy Take Action Fund for the sponsorship of this project.
In 2025 Tirohanga School applied to our Contact Energy Take Action Fund for signage to inform about the many awesome projects that they have around their school. We went in and helped them to create the signs and then Quality Print printed them onto signage material. We also infill planted another 60 native plants around the school.
In 2026, Rachel took harakeke that had been donated to us by an ECE centre in to Tirohanga School. The tamariki had a lesson about the correct tikanga for cutting harakeke, then they trimmed it and transplanted it into their backfield planting. The off cuts were used for a raranga (weaving) session! Another 30 native trees were also added to infill previous plantings and we did some releasing of plants that were a bit smothered in thick grass.
