Community Inquiry

 STUDENT EMPOWERMENT!

3/4 Student Action 

In specialist Inquiry this year, we have been exploring some of the main issues and opportunities in the school to support students to be able to feel in the green zone more often. The main areas of focus are: addressing the problem of litter and negative behaviour in the toilets; and the opportunity to increase nature and our connection to nature to support wellbeing.

Now it's crunch time - students are carrying out their initiatives for the rest of term 4 and the impacts of these initiatives should be long lasting, we hope!

We're being rather ambitious so need all of the help we can get! Below is a list of items that we are seeking as donations, or people trying to find these things being given away for free online. If you have any questions, please contact Nerida or Kehani, who's kindly stepped into Community Inquiry this term to help bring the students' many ideas to life.

• soy sauce or tamari bottles (so that we can stop getting those mini plastic fish soy sauce in lunch orders)
• bench seat (to put outside the main toilets as part of a waiting area)
• outdoor seating (for calm gardens and bird watching)
• big logs and rocks (to form as seats and garden edging in wellbeing gardens)
• chicken wire
• arch way
• raised garden beds
• bamboo (to make teepees)
• large plastic pots
• hanging baskets
• bird bath
• old rugs and mats 
• old cushions (as above)
• storage tubs (ideally weather proof)
• stepping stones/tiles that (ideally) don't need to be cemented down...
• planks of wood for making signs
• water feature (ideally solar powered pump)
• buckets
• tongs

If you have anything else that you think might be of interest, please reach out! Please also spread the word, as people sometimes miss things in the newsletter and we'd love your help to get this message out there. Thanks so much!

1/2 action - Making our school a better home for more creatures

We are continuing to work on the habitat garden that we created near the veggie patch and rainbow benches, creating habitat primarily for small birds and native bees. For this reason, we are seeking:

• bird baths
• rocks (medium to large D)
• bamboo
• chicken wire
• wooden boxes or other structures that can be used to make native bee or insect hotels, or else planks/off cuts of wood that we can use to build a structure ourselves
• small logs or untreated wood with holes drilled into them for native bees (see this video from the 2min38sec mark till the 3min50sec mark for specifications)
• more watering cans
• weeding tools

If you have anything else that you think might help us keep improving our habitat garden (next to the veggie garden, near the rainbow seats) for small birds, native bees, and butterflies, please reach out!

Thanks community!

Nerida & Kehani - Community Inquiry teachers

PS here are some images that show what we're looking for in terms of structures or materials for creating native bee/insect hotels