Our Fort Care Code

We’ve developed a student-led Fort Care Code to guide our adventures! This helps us keep our fort area a safe, respectful, and exciting place for all students to explore and play together. The slides show what each Rōpū came up with when discussing their ideas for a fort care code. We then put all our ideas together to come up with a Fort Care Code for everyone. This will be erected as a sign at the entrance to our fort.

Tiaki Taiao

We are excited to share that we have gifted our Enviroschools programme a new name: Tiaki Taiao – Caring for Nature. This name change reflects our heart for the land here at Kaniere. Tiaki Taiao is an integral part of our school programme because it empowers our tamariki to see themselves as guardians of the earth, ensuring our local environment thrives for generations to come.

Kahlo and the Whio

Our Weka Iti whānau grew a little wiser this week thanks to a very special story shared by Kahlo and her mum about one of our most precious local treasures—the Whio.

Becoming Nature Detectives with Tiaki Taiao

If you want to find a creature, you have to think like one! That’s what we learned on February 18th when Leigh from DOC and Laura from Enviroschools visited our Tiaki Taiao group. We spent the session learning how to use tracking tunnels to see what animals live around us. To get our "detective eyes" ready, Leigh showed us some real footprints that had been found in tracking tunnels. We had to look closely at the shapes and toe marks to see if we could guess which animals they belonged to! We found out that tracking tunnels help us see the footprints of the creatures we usually can’t find during the day. We even learned that some animals are "claustrophobic"—they won't go inside if there is only one door! They need an entrance AND an exit to feel safe enough to walk through the ink. After learning how to bait and position the tunnels, we set one up right by our school garden. We are so excited to take these skills to Lake Kaniere soon to see who is living in this area. Thank you, Leigh and Laura, for helping us become kaitiaki of our environment. We can't wait to share our new knowledge with everyone in our Rōpū!