The creation of Te Ranga School's outdoor classroom wasn't to combat overcrowding at the school.
The bush classroom is a valuable addition to the resources the school has at its disposal. Its value is well known by the school community - and is also being recognised further afield.
Recently, the initiative won Rabobank's Good Deeds competition for 2022, the prize being $5000 plus a day of labour provided by local Rabobank staff.
Other funding has come from the QEII Trust and the Bay of Plenty Regional Council to purchase traps, native trees, pest monitoring equipment, a shed and other work.
Recently, a team from Toi Ohomai has built an observation deck overlooking Ōtanewainuku and the Waiari awa (river).
"We have connected with Makahae Marae as our mana whenua," says principal Brendan Wilson. "Dean Flavell came up and he seemed genuinely excited about this. So we talked about creating a karakia for our students for when they enter the bush and creating an entryway - to give the sense of entering something that's taonga."
The bush classroom is on a 2ha block of native forest on the Marks Farm.
As well as creating a space where students learn about New Zealand's native flora and fauna, a track is being built around the area that includes a boardwalk and steps.
Teacher Sarah Peake put the competition entry together.
"We hope to engender a love and appreciation of the bush by educating our students on the value of sustainable practices, biodiversity and sound ecological management.
"We hope to educate students - some who will one day take over their family farms - about what a healthy piece of bush looks like and how to manage it as a resource for the future," she wrote.
But the bush classroom isn't something that sits in isolation.
There are major kiwi and kokako projects in the area with the outdoor classroom part of the bush corridor between Ōtanewainuku and Kaharoa forests.
The hope is that the corridor will become a "highway" for the endangered birds to move between the two forests.
There is a significant tie in between the bush classroom and the Paraiti Catchment Group with Carmel Smale and Sky Richardson from the group providing their expertise as "bush class teachers".
"We are working with community groups towards the wider picture of conservation in our area, but also as a school. We are so lucky to have access to this natural environment and love to use it as a classroom. The children are involved boots 'n' all. They are in charge of the trapping and have multiple projects running in the tract," wrote Sarah.
Baiting the traps at Te Ranga School's bush classroom.
The Kaitiaki Crew has been formed for those students who want more bush classroom experience.
"It's tricky, as teachers, to find the time to squeeze everything into your programme," says Sarah.
"I'm particularly passionate about the bush programme and I love taking kids down there, but I can't do it in my day-to-day programme as much as I would like."
The Kaitiaki Crew members came up with their own name.
"They are the guardians of our bush area. Every Monday we go down and do the mahi in the bush area. They are the ones doing the trapping and checking the trail cams, they are the ones that are planting, cutting tracks and really being the guardians of that space for the rest of the kids at school to use."
The crew is made up of students from across the school's age groups.
"We have a goal and we are trying to reach that goal, and we are working with other people who also have goals, and it's giving the kids a reason for looking after it. This is why we're trapping here, this is what we are interested in, what's growing around us and this is why we want to know all of these things - it's not just to look at and play in the bush - they can be citizen scientists in the space."
Brendan says there are other benefits, with the bush area also having a noticeable calming influence on some students.
Sarah says the money won in the Rabobank competition will be used to further develop the area for the community.
She says the labour will be as valuable, possibly even more so, than the money.
Brendan says the bush classroom is an ever evolving place.
"As principal I get to see some of these things (at other schools) that are thought to be cutting edge and I come back to Te Ranga and I think 'we're very blessed to have what we've got'.
"Ultimately the hope is that it's embedded into all the teachers' practice and it just becomes normal - it's just who we are and what we do."
Plans are being made to have a community day in conjunction with Te Ranga Hall Committee, possibly some time in March, with the Rabobank staff working in the bush classroom and the local community working on the hall
The Good Deeds competition has been running since 2017 in conjunction with the Country radio show and was set up by the bank as a way to identify and support worthy rural community projects across New Zealand
This year there were 80 entries from rural community projects around the country. Rabobank CEO Todd Charteris says the school's bush classroom project stood out as the top entry for a number of reasons.
"The school ... is doing a great job of developing this natural resource while at the same time using it to teach their students about a whole range of topics including sustainable practices, biodiversity and sound ecological management," he says.
"We really liked that the kids have taken ownership of various mini-projects within the tract, like the trapping.
"We were also really impressed to hear the area is being used by the wider rural community, with a local catchment group recently hosting an event in the tract which focused on how to effectively trap and plant out bush areas.
"Finally, we felt the bush classroom project could be significantly advanced by the competition prize money and labour support. We're currently liaising with the school on a date for a labour day early next year and our local staff are really looking forward to spending a day at the school and seeing how much progress they can make to further develop the area."
