Education

The Fairfield Project provides bespoke education programmes for local schools, teachers and the wider community. Providing education for all ages is one of our key kaupapa.

We design and implement educational programmes, workshops and events to meet the expressed needs of the community. We often work collaboratively with other experts, to support participants to build on their understanding of the local environment. This encompasses history, culture and ecology achieved through sustainability, environmental and citizen science programmes. The Kukutaaruhe Community Gardens, Aratiatia Community Marae and the Kukutaaruhe Gully and stream all provide specific but interrelated contexts for learning. 

 

Schools

The Kukutaaruhe Gully is close to three secondary schools, an intermediate school, four primary schools and several early childhood centres. We prioritise the involvement of students and teachers from these schools in our project, through fostering engagement and a connection with the natural world. We offer opportunities for place-based and project-based learning and the development of local school-based curricula. 

We also work with teachers and students from other schools, utilising the gully environment and gardens to offer a variety of learning experiences.

The school programmes are negotiated and developed in response to needs identified by the teacher/s and/or school, and often involve teacher PLD, coaching, mentoring and modelling running alongside a programme of student engagement. These programmes may involve in-school and/or hands-on EOTC, connecting to and embedding planned curriculum and assessment outcomes, and include support through resource development. Many of the school projects are becoming longer term, as the relationships and connections build. Actions such as tree planting, habitat creation and predator monitoring have often been the natural student-led consequence of learning in and about the gully environment. 

 

We partner with and/or support other providers working in schools, such as Enviroschools; Trees for Survival; Smart Water; Stars programme (Graeme Dingle Foundation) and Wintec (Trades Academy training).

 

Our annual Kukutaaruhe Bioblitz offers students an opportunity to become citizen scientists,  gathering meaningful information about life in the Kukutaaruhe Gully.

 

“This has given our students a chance to do the sort of science that means something - the students gained skills and experiences that aren’t something we could have done alone.” (Teacher, 2021)

 

Community

A wide range of community groups are also involved in learning, in various ways. The project offers opportunities for people to make connections to, utilise and learn from this urban green space, whilst building skills and confidence, engaging with experts, learning from each other and connecting to the stories of the area.

Some of these opportunities include:

  • The Predator Free Fairfield project, which involves monitoring and trapping pest and predator species

  • Themed and targeted workshops such as the monthly garden conversations

  • Community events such as seasonal celebrations (Harvest and Matariki) and community planting days

  • Informal learning through activity and koorero, taking opportunities such as working bees to inform and learn about native plants, weeds, rongoaa and other species

  • Supporting other education providers such as third year Otago Polytechnic Occupational Therapy students, who offer their perspectives annually on part of the project, as part of their field work.

  • Providing targeted workshops for businesses, organisations and community groups.

Fairfield College Tree Planting

Year 9 Stars students from Fairfield College who put in the hard mahi this week on the slopes of the Kukutaaruhe gully, planting the first 400 of 1600 trees that our schools will plant over the next 2 weeks.

Everyone will get a chance to be a part of this great project by coming to our Community Planting Day on Saturday the 12th of August.

Join us in this initiative for a greener, more sustainable future.

 

Graeme Dingle Foundation Waikato supports the Stars programme.

Waikato Regional Council climate summit for student leaders.

“The young people here aren’t just dreaming of a better future for our climate and environment, they’re taking action today to carve out a better tomorrow.”

- Waikato Regional Council Senior Education Advisor Michelle Daly

“The Waikato Climate Summit is all about equipping them with the tools to do that – inspiring and empowering them to connect and make their voices heard together. “This year, we’ve seen the momentum and enthusiasm absolutely take off, with attendance more than doubling.” Part of the summit enabled student leaders to get hands-on learning about urban biodiversity and gully restoration at the Fairfield Project.

Taking action today to carve out a better tomorrow | Waikato Regional Council

2024 School Planting

We have had an amazing second week of school planting days. We had students from St Joseph’s Catholic School and Waikato Diocesan working hard to plant over 600 trees in wetland, on steep sloped sections and on the stream edge.

We want to give a big special shout out to those organisations that have supported these planting days – to the Stars team at Graham Dingle Foundation for the mahi with students at Fairfield College, to Halle at Trees for Survival for her work with the native plant units and growing on native trees, and to the fantastic crew from Ventia who sponsor Trees for Survival and came for a day to help with planting and then did some extra work with weed clearing.