The Campus came about through Vicki Buck, cofounder of both Discovery1 Primary and Unlimited Secondary schools in the early 2000s, which were merged post earthquake to create Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery. In 2019 she wanted to create a Campus where school students could focus on any aspect of climate change.
Originally, the idea was to create the campus under Section 156 of the Education Act, the same as Discovery and Unlimited. However, roll growth in Christchurch city was insufficient to support that. The request to found a new school resulted in a meeting with the head of the Ministry of Education for Canterbury, Coralanne Child. She explained how satellite schools work and how that would be suitable for the campus. Coralanne has been so helpful all the way through and we thank her hugely for that.
The next step was exploring potential sites available in Christchurch post earthquake rebuilds and decanting. One included the lovely site that was formerly Avonside Girls High School - close to the city, on the river and adjacent to Christchurch’s Red Zone. This was the obvious choice because we had secured 4.5 acres of red zoned land adjacent to the Avonside site. Vicki persuaded the Eden project that they could live happily without that site, as the lease was promised to them at that time. Vicki’s next mission was to find a school to be the ‘lead school’.
Happily, Steven Mustor, the principal of Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery at the time, saw the amazing opportunities it would provide and agreed to be the lead school. The initial schools interested in being involved included Avonside Girls High, Christchurch Girls High, Hagley Community College, Rāwhiti, Te Waka Unua, Waitakiri and Pareawa Banks Ave. Anita Yarwood took over as Director of Ao Tawhiti in 2021 and has continued the amazing support.
In May 2020 the 4.5 acres of red zoned land on Cowlishaw Street was finally leased from the owners, LINZ (it has now gone to the City Council in the Global Settlement) and work began to source funding for gardens, greenhouses, water connections and much more and getting them on site. We would like to thank in particular the Rātā Foundation and the CCC Sustainability Fund who have been amazing in their support, as well as Canterbury Landscaping who help us each month with deliveries of lovely, rich compost. We are also grateful to Te Tira Kahikuhiku, Matapopere (for our cultural narrative), Riccarton Rotary Youth Trust, Christchurch Casino who have all supported us to set up projects.
The school is a state school, free for other schools to use. We are happy to share this methodology and what we’ve learned along the way with anyone who is interested in setting up something similar. As of 2023, Vicki has dedicated four years of work - the majority of it voluntary - to establishing the campus, so we’d love to make it easier for others by sharing our learnings.