Enviroschools is not an add on or extra frill – it is part of every day life at Otama School. From creative writing about the weather, and its effect on the environment, to graphing and reporting on water quality results, Enviroschools is in everything Otama students do, every day.

Rich learning experiences play a big part at Otama, and all students are included. These experiences outside the classroom form the basis of much of the school’s curriculum delivery. Everyone is involved in the school’s action projects and they are now part of school and community life.

Students have a wide range of suitable choices about what and how they will learn and this is planned each year by staff and students for the following year. Staff ensure that Enviroschools is woven through regardless of the unit.

Otama School studied water through Environment Southland’s Stream Connections programme, some years ago. Students learned about their local water way, and were so enthused that they decided to take on some ongoing monitoring of their local creek through the Environmental Monitoring Action Project (EMAP). The school has now been monitoring at three sites for four years.

Initially the school had an EMAP facilitator to assist with this monitoring. The monitoring is so well embedded as part of school life, that students teach each other how to monitor their local stream sites. Parents or a teacher take the students to their sites twice a term to continue with this ongoing monitoring.

As part of their monitoring, the students decided to undertake some riparian planting to see if it would help to improve the water quality. They have planted trees at one site and continue to monitor the water quality at all sites.

After measuring the water quality at the three sites for some time, the students began to wonder where their stream was flowing into, and what was happening further down the catchment.  The school has worked with the Hokonui Rūnanga which has a restoration project at the mataitai on the Mataura River.

Otama School pupils buddied up with Mataura School pupils and taught them how to plant plants, as many had never done it before. 700 plants were planted in 2009 year, and another 700 were planted in September this 2010. Otama School also undertook a clean up at the site in 2010, and were amazed at the ghastly rubbish there. Photos taken on the planting days are useful in the school’s ongoing reflection on the project.

With 1400 plants already planted they only have 700 to go! But in typical fashion, Otama School is now looking at next steps. They are looking to undertake EMAP monitoring at the Mataura River mataitai site, to compare with the health of their smaller tributary stream with that of the Mataura River, and are exploring the possibilities of undertaking a cultural health index.