Gore Garden Club and Gore Main School

Each year Gore Main School attends the Gore Garden Club Harvest Festival. Each classroom creates individual entries to enter in the festival. We love our connection with this wonderful group of people. They made us a beautiful appreciation morning tea for the teachers to say thank you for contributing to the Harvest Festival.

Enviro-Schools Hui 2018

On Wednesday the 21st of March Mrs M, Miss McKenzie, Dione Grant and Ali Copland transported all 16 Enviro-Councillors to Curio Bay to attend the 2018 Enviro-Schools Hui!  The day was drizzly but that did not dampen the spirits of the team!  We began the Hui with a welcome and chat with other Enviro-Schools who attended the event.  We then made our way to the beach, scrounging on the rocks and watching the porpoises in the surf!  We then wandered around the event run by Environment Southland and discovered many different stalls and learning activities.  There were rangers talking about pest control, coast guards talking about boat safety and ecologists talking about sea-lions/seals.  There was a touch-tank full of rocky shore creatures that the children enjoyed and the Curio-Bay information centre/museum was open for us to have wander around.  Loyd Esler was there doing activities with the children, also.  We ran out of time to get around all of the events but it was a really enjoyable day!  Thank you Dione Grant and Ali Copland, our wonderful parent helpers!  The children enjoyed themselves so much...  Here are some pictures from the Hui!

Do our Enviro-STARS align with the Enviro-School Guiding Principles?

There are a set of principles and guidelines to help guide Enviro-Schools.  These cover a range of core learning and values and they are...

Maori Perspectives
Respect for Diversity
Sustainable communities
Learning for sustainability
Empowered/engaged students

It is important that staff and students understand what these are and how to deliver suitable programmes in their own place and across their practise, and to empower people and participation.  (The 4 P's).

At the beginning of 2017 staff got together and adapted the guiding principles to suit Gore Main School.  Our motto is 'REACH FOR THE STARS' so we thought it would make sense to link the guiding principles with our motto, rather than having a huge range of things to follow and think about.

Here is what we devised...

ENVIRO-STARS

At a recent meeting with Pat Hoffman and Fiona Young from Environment Southland... we were challenged with the question "Do our Enviro-STARS help promote the same learning and beliefs that the Guiding Principles do?  The answer is YES!  We participated in a self-reflection activity to see if the Guiding Principles and Gore Main School's Enviro-Stars align!  Here is a photo of the reflection activity.

GREEN GOLD REFLECTION PARAGRAPH

This year Gore Main School will reflect to see if we are a Green/Gold Enviro-School!  It is very EXCITING!  This award can be given to Enviro-Schools who have sustainable practise and ideas embedded into their day to day lives.  To help decide if Gore Main is a GREEN/GOLD Enviro-School there is a helpful written paragraph.  This kaupapa (written paragraph) is like a set of guidelines.  Each sentence in the paragraph promotes discussion and can help students and staff elaborate their thoughts.  It guides the decision on whether Gore Main School is in fact, a GREEN/GOLD Enviro-School.  Here is a copy of the Green/Gold reflection paragraph.

 

Gore Harvest Festival 2018 - Glorious Gore

Gore Main School value our community.  We are really trying to develop strong links with our community as we understand how important people and their ideas and beliefs are.  The Gore Garden Club holds a yearly garden show and this year the theme was 'GLORIOUS GORE'.  Many children entered different crafts, vegetables, baking, colouring in etc, into the garden show.  Some of these creations were done at home and some at school.  Here is a photo of the Gore Main School display and some of Room 8's rock creations that were done for the garden show!

Making movies about Enviro-School learning!

Room 8 at Gore Main have been busy making iMovies.  Here is one that was made to show case some of the Enviro-School practises we have at Gore Main.  It was showed in Assembly!  Well done!

Welcome to 2018

Greetings!  Welcome to the Gore Main School Enviro-School blog for 2018!  This year is a BIG year for Gore Main School as an Enviro-School!  This year we are deciding if we are a GREEN/GOLD Enviro-School!  Currently, we have the silver Enviro-School status but we have come a very long way over the last few years.  Our environment inside and outside has changed dramatically as we have come to understand the Enviro-Stars in a more indepth way!  Our children are able to talk about the Enviro-Stars within different learning experiences.  Everybody is on-board which is exciting for our children and whole community.

Congratulations to the new Enviro-Council for 2018!  

Here is a photo...

From top left to right:  Briyden Turnball, Isla Wilson, Carter Grant, Quinn Morrison, Jai Pearce
Middle row left to right:  Devlin Grant, Jaimee Tonner, Alex Mardon, Maia Peterson, Sam Copland, Katia Collins, Bella Moody
Front row left to right:  Mrs M, Johnny Galog, Chloe Shackell, Jade Anderson, Miss McKenzie

ABSENT ANNELIE WILSON

We are looking forward to an exciting year!