Kaitao Intermediate's new edible garden. Photo / Supplied
Kaitao Intermediate's new edible garden. Photo / Supplied
Kaitao Intermediate recently completed a new edible garden as one of 10 winners in this year’s inaugural Keep New Zealand Beautiful Kai Garden Competition.
The competition gives schools and ECEs nationwide the opportunity to create a small kai or rongoā garden to help their students develop a greater understanding of the natural world, and to gain hands-on experience gardening for their school.
Kaitao Intermediate’s garden design was new, and the students named it Heart and Soul to reflect the place the garden has in the school.
This new garden supplemented one that was harder to access, and therefore not used as often or integrated into the daily lives of students.
Regan Connor, hard materials teacher at Kaitao Intermediate, says a huge driving passion of their concept is that it becomes a part of normality.
“Students see, use and are a part of the living garden. They are able to identify when plants need tending to, and when work needs to be done to maintain our environment and take pride in its appearance.
“They are able to reap the rewards of fruiting trees and vegetables and share them within our kura and our community.”
Kaitao Intermediate’s garden design was new, and the students named it Heart and Soul to reflect the place the garden has in the school. Photo / Supplied
A lot of thought went into how the space can also serve as an outdoor classroom, big enough that several classrooms can be in a space at once.
“The food technology teacher will use the garden to gather ingredients to use in her cooking, the ECO tech teacher will use the area for photography, and the hard materials teacher will use the space to encourage students to design furniture/planter boxes,” Regan says.
“All other classroom teachers can openly use the space for learning and recreation.
”Being selected as one of the winners for the Kai Garden competition allowed our school and students an amazing opportunity that we otherwise would not have been able to experience.
“It has been a rewarding journey seeing the growth of the area and also the students.
”Initially, students at our school had the impression that we were pohara (poor) because we were growing our own fruit and vegetables, so it has been a journey to change that mindset.
“We look forward to continuing on what we have started and have now been given the go-ahead to run an enviro class next year. Exciting times ahead.”
Kai Garden is a fun and educational competition that is open to all New Zealand ECEs, kindergartens, primary and intermediate schools. Students are given the opportunity to collaborate and design a garden that features edible and/or medicinal plants, and which is constructed using sustainable and reclaimed materials.
This is a way for tamariki to learn how easy it is to reduce their environmental footprint by growing their own food, cooking seasonally, and composting food and garden waste.
Once established, students are encouraged to share their learnings and achievements by harvesting, preparing and sharing the produce from their garden with the wider school community and their whānau.
The 10 winning schools each receive $1000 to put towards building a garden that beautifies and enhances their grounds, with a further $500 on completion to put towards its ongoing care.
