Oruaiti School are committed to contributing to their health and their environment and have put it in writing. Go Oruaiti!

Oruaiti School has a vision of being packet free by 2020 and has included it in their school strategic plan with the support of the BOT and wider school whānau.

The vision was born from being committed to reducing their waste, especially in the playground and is also a next step from ending the school canteen in 2018. The school also made it a goal, following their Silver EnviroSchool accreditation. Waste has an impact on the environment as well as the health of the school community as less packaging also means less processed food, sugar and additives.

To kick off this campaign, the school has introduced a reward system. Students with a packet-free lunch go into a draw to win a lunch at Little Kitchen in Mangonui. For now, the rules for a packet free lunch are quite grey as they introduce the idea. The school has been doing lots of mahi in this space, with students not only learning about the environmental aspects, but also the nutritional benefits of having less packets in the lunchbox. Teacher Rob Arrowsmith hopes that whānau will start to make their own muesli bars, yoghurt and general lunchbox items to reduce waste going to landfill. 

The school is very proactive and innovative at infusing learning into their fundraising ventures.  A great example was on the last day of school last year, each child took home a “Christmas Kete” which was made up of products that had been integrated into their learning throughout the year e.g. the Kete included reusable beeswax wraps, Kawakawa balm, a jar of Oruaiti School honey, an upcycled bag and a copy of the Hakuturi Guardian of Puketi Forest story book, which was a joint venture between Oruaiti School and senior students at Taipa Area School. All of this learning throughout the year contributed to students and whānau being prepared for the packet free vision to come to life. The Hakuturi book can be purchased at the school and doubles as a school fundraiser. The publishing of the book was possible after the school raised $3,000 through the selling of oyster chairs, made by the students, which is just another awesome example of learning and healthy fundraising coming together.

“We are getting chickens as an integrated inquiry-based approach to lesson delivery. We will incorporate maths and technology with health, wellbeing and social studies. The end result will hopefully be eggs on the menu for breakfast club!” says teacher Rob Arrowsmith.