A group of Hereworth schoolkids spent a few hours at Pandora Pond picking up rubbish and learning about the impacts of rubbish on local marine life.
A group of Hereworth schoolkids spent a few hours at Pandora Pond picking up rubbish and learning about the impacts of rubbish on local marine life.
A group of 5, 6 and 7-year-olds from Hereworth School headed to Pandora Pond to pick up rubbish as part of an environmental sustainability topic the students have been learning about for the past seven weeks, with a focus on the students being the kaitiaki [guardians] of the planet.
The whole school took part in learning about this topic, with everyone choosing different angles to focus on. Tania Potts chose the ocean and plastic impacts for her students, as they have been intrigued by sea animals.
Potts explained the enthusiasm and the interest from the kids have been lovely. “They are a great group of kids. It’s a trip to pick up rubbish, and they are genuinely keen and enthusiastic about it.”
Before they left for Pandora Pond, one student told Potts, “This is going to be the best day ever.”
While Hereworth is a Hastings school, Pandora Pond was the perfect spot for Potts and her students to get their hands dirty and physically see the amount of litter left around the estuary that could potentially have impacts on the local wildlife.
A Year 0-1 Hereworth School class with educators from the National Aquarium of New Zealand and Enviroschools, all doing their part to keep the oceans plastic-free.
Before the kids got stuck in, they had a little lunch of fish and chips, and Helen Howard from Enviroschools came and spoke to the kids about plastics and rubbish, as well as how long it takes to break down and how it’s bad for marine life and other animals around the Pandora Pond estuary.
Jacque Wilton, an educator from the National Aquarium of New Zealand, also spoke with the children, using pictures and examples of nylon and bits of rubbish that have been found on the beach to explain how such waste affects animals.
“It was great to have those two with us and have different voices for the kids to listen to.”
“The kids have been very interested and focused on listening,” Potts said.
When Wilton showed the kids the hooks on nylon that had been found in birds, it was a bit of a moment for the students, Potts explained.
“The kids didn’t actually find any of those items, which is a good thing if you think about it.”
The students spent roughly an hour cleaning up around Pandora Pond. They split into five groups, each with one big rubbish bag and gloves supplied by School Kits as part of the Nestle for Healthier Kids Sea Cleaners kit.
Hereworth students plan to sort through the rubbish they picked up at Pandora Pond and collect data on the most popular types of rubbish they found.
“The kids have been very keen, which was nice to see, and they love the little gloves they are using. They are quite intrigued with even the smallest bits of plastic and how they can harm the animals, which the aquarium had really good images of. That has got them quite motivated,” Potts said.
By the end of the day, the students had found a lot of plastic and were surprised by all the different colours that really shouldn’t be there among the foliage and stones.
When asked if the kids were more aware of the impact of littering and how it impacts the environment, Potts said absolutely, and that they have also been really good with being able to talk about and discuss what they had been learning.
Potts said the best part of her day was using local resources such as the National Aquarium, Enviroschools and the school kits.
“It’s just amazing what is out there to support schools when you look around,” she said.
Each group took their large rubbish bags back to school, where they planned to do a rubbish audit so they could see what types of plastic were most prevalent, and then will send their data to Sea Cleaners, which provided the clean-up kits.
Maddisyn Jeffares became the editor of the Hawke’s Bay community papers Hastings Leader and Napier Courier in 2023 after writing the Hastings Leader for almost a year. She has been a reporter with NZME for almost three years now and has a strong focus on what’s going on in communities, good and bad, big and small. Email news tips to her at: maddisyn.jeffarea@nzme.co.nz.
