The opening of an outdoor learning space at Hilltop School doubled as an emotional farewell for Kids Greening Taupō lead education coordinator Taupō Rachel Thompson on Tuesday (November 10) afternoon.
Thompson will be leaving the organisation to take up a position with the Waikato Regional Council.
School students presented a history of the project’s genesis in the school hall – rather than outdoors due to rain – and thanked all those who had helped, as well as farewelling Thompson with song and haka.
Thompson and her environmental lessons had been a huge part of the whole Taupō school community, said Hilltop principal Andrea Hunter.
Outside on site, once the rain had stopped, Thompson said the drive for the outdoor classroom area had been largely student led.
“When this fence went in the students and a teacher approached me and said, right, we're fencing this area off. And it was just hard packed soil because the kids were always under here.
And I said, now it's going to be protected from the kids a wee bit could we do something with it?”
What followed, she said was students brainstorming a whole lot of ideas.
“They wanted artwork in here. They wanted to plant it all out with a sub canopy. They wanted to be able to sit down here at their class and do work, they had all these requests. And to be honest, I thought we might be lucky to get a few of them in, but we're very lucky that we managed to make most of them happen, which is cool.”
She said it was nice to be signing off from the organisation by celebrating the completion of a successful outdoor classroom project.
“To be honest… we don't usually do this. We don't usually have a big opening, because most of our projects are ongoing, and we're always pottering away at them and adding to them. We don’t really finish a project. And this is still not finished, but because I was finishing, we actually turned it into this opening, which has been really special.”
She described it as a project of love which came together through the contributions of lots of different organisations – funding came from Contact Energy, artist Sue Graham helped the students paint the murals funded through the Creative Community Scheme (with some murals also used for the school production.)
Towncentre Taupō provided paint left over from their Graffiato stock, and parents chipped in as well, she said, with two working for New Zealand Forest Managers helping source some ponga logs, and a local Hire-a-Hubby building the tables and benches.
“So overall it cost very little.”
Ever the educator, Thompson said the outdoor classroom should provide benefits for years to come.
“Research shows that kids do better learning outside, even children sitting in an exam do better if they can see a green space out the window. And you just feel good being outside.
“On one of those sweltering, hot, stinky afternoons, the teachers can bring their class down here and sit out here to do their maths, their reading. What better place to be?”
