Our Community

Cultural Community

Kapa Haka

Our whole school kapa haka gets together every Wednesday and Friday with kaiako Damian. The name of our performance group is Ngā Manu Tīoriori ō Manukau. We also have a junior kapa haka group and every class learns and sings waiata daily.

After taking a group to watch other kura perform at Kia Hukere Te Hoe 2024, our goal is to take the stage for this event in 2025.

Pasifika Group

We were so excited that Kaiako Amy started a Pasifika group at Birchwood mid way through 2023. Whānau come in to support our learning each week. We made our public performance debut at the 2024 Pasifica Festival in Blenheim and then joined the Pasifica Stage at the 2024 Masked Parade in Whakatū.

Matariki

2023: We invited whānau in to Birchwood school for the afternoon and then moved on to Nayland College where our kapa haka performed. Backlit art from Matua Simon's class (Kahikatea) was displayed in the entrance and our parents's group sold kai.

2024: We stayed at our own Kura this year, selling fry bread and soup to raise money for Garden to Table and hosting whānau in our classrooms and hall.

2025: We had our very own hāngi!

Our Cultural Journey (so far)

Check out this beautiful book that shares a bit more about who we are and what we do at our school.

This work was completed in collaboration with Kurahaupō and it documents our learning journey over the last few years in developing our cultural capability and our local curriculum.

Getting out and about in our community

Mana Whaitake

Moturoa Mission

Community Events

Schools are at the hearts of communities. We regularly host events and create opportunities for people to come to our school and enagage with our learning.

Community Compost

Our compost system is available for whānau to contribute food scraps using our bucket return system. This will be promoted more with our new compost area.

Community Consultation

We regularly collect whānau voice around what was going well with environmental learning and what they would like to see in the future.

Community Crew

We are fortunate to have a postive, active parents' group who regularly get jobs done around the school - like spreading new bark on our playground floor and turning the soil for our new mara nui.

Naumai, haere mai. Community coming together

We are lucky to be able to offer a range of support, therapy and enrichment for our students. This is run through a mixture of paid manuhuri and volunteers. We aim to boost and strengthen our ākonga in the areas they need it so these opportunities change as need arises.

Breakfast Club

Volunteers from our school whānau offer breakfast every morning from 8-8.30.

Methodist Church

Learning Boosts

In response to a need to boost interest in literacy among our boys, our volunteer Philip started coming in each Thursday. This was so popular and successful that we have also welcomed Royden and Cheryl who focus on maths with a range of tamariki.

Kindy Connection

Birchwood Kindy is also committed to the Enviroschools kaupapa. We visit each other whenever we can. This photo is from their recent visit to find out what we do with our recycling.

Connecting to College

Senior students from Nayland College run sports sessions in term 4, giving us the opportunity to try something new.

During the year, we regularly invite our whānau in to engage with what tamariki have been doing at school. These annual opportunities have included a rainbow run, Matariki celebration, learning conferences and a community consultation evening.

Titiro Whakamuri - Looking Back

Shelley and Kaitiaki Karen took two teams of tamariki from our school to the 2024 Tasman Mission - a sustainability race at Whenua Iti. The teams needed to work together through a range of sustainability challenges to earn points. They worked very well together, were respectful, polite and offered to help volunteers. They came back to school with lots of rich experiences and ideas for what’s next for us as an Enviroschool at Birchwood!

Cultural Inquiry

For the first half of 2024 our school wide inquiry was 'Who We Are' - focussing on the cultural diversity in our kura. Whānau came in to share their art, food and stories with us. We held a cultural diversity celebration at the end of term two with whānau visiting classrooms to see our learning, sharing kai from our home countries and a concert in the hall showcasing Bollywood dancing, Pasifika, Kapa Haka and Ukelele.

Q&A with whānau

Whānau pop into school to share about their home country and answer some of our questions about what life is like overseas. We are so curious about the world around us how different people live.

Cultural Performances

We love to see traditional performances from the different cultures represented in our school whānau. This Bollywood style item was a bit hit with a follow up session on how to join in with the moves.

Shared kai

Everybody loves kai! There is a lot of learning in sharing kai from our home cultures, why certain foods are important in different countries and how climate influences what we eat.

Community recycling

When they heard that soft plastics could be recycled, students in Tawa wanted to encourage our school community and make it easy for them to recycle. Kaiako Susan Richards already had a relationship with Grassroots Recycling and offered to drop off the things we collected at school.

This station in the hall accepts plastic milk bottle lids, empty medication blister packs and soft plastic.

We have just started accepting used mobile phones to be recycled as part of the clean water project.

Used batteries, e-waste and polystyrene are collected at school and taken in by resources manager Jan to be recycled and repurposed.

Enviroschools Newsletter

It is exciting to see our kura regularly featuring in the Nelson regional Enviroschools newsletter. Example #1. Example #2

Our commitment to the Enviroschools kaupapa is often showcased in our school newsletter. Students in the Enviro Fri-Yay group have started writing their own articles. Example #1. Example # 2. Example #3

Facebook

We keep in contact with our whānau through regular Facebook posts.

Bioblitz Crop Swap Celebrating staff. Good Sorts Waharoa.

Waharoa Blessing. . Student leaders. Celebrating learning. Kapa Haka

Kaitiaki Karen and Gardening Gran!

World famous in Aotearoa... "Our whole school was so excited when Jordan from Good Sorts made a surprise visit to Gardening Gran. We loved sharing the story of our special caretaker Kaitiaki Karen and her mum Gardening Gran and telling the viewers all the generous things they both do to help us and our environment." Kelly and Ella (Manukura o te Taiao 2023).

Community Enviro Challenge 2023

In 2023 we challenged our whānau to join us on the Enviroschools journey.

During the holidays, students made small changes to their lifestyles

They sent us pictures of bike tag, beach walks, bush foraging, fishing

Art Therapy

As well as our school chaplain, Marie, students could spend time with art therapist Lynda - creating art and sharing their feelings.

Planting

For many years our kura planted native seedlings in the public areas near our school. This collaboration with the Nelson City Council is currently on hold as all areas tagged for planting are full.

Pawprints

"Every Thursday these patient dogs came to visit us. Kids got chosen to spend time caring for them and walking them." Violet

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