Our schools and ECE centres participate in our core programme for three years, before joining our graduates. This enables our education coordinators to reach as many of these local education providers as possible over time.

In 2024 our core programme includes 41 schools/ECE centres, 36 of which have restoration projects supported by us. We have a Kairuruku reo Māori, a coordinator to work with kura kaupapa and kōhanga reo. We are now officially working with every school in the Taupō township, many rural schools, and in 2024 we started working with Tūrangi kura and kōhanga too.

This year we have four student leadership teams, two junior teams, one Intermediate Team, and one senior team. This means that we have over 100 students from schools all across Taupō working with us outside of school hours to develop leadership skills through conservation education.

We work with teachers at schools/ECE centres in Taupō, helping them to connect tamariki with nature, and to plan and carry out student led restoration and conservation projects. We also have extra curricular student leadership teams. 

Every term, with our partners from the Taupō Environmental Education Collaborative (EEC), we host at least one teacher professional development workshop for local teachers. We also hold a range of fun events for families and schools/ECE centres to be involved with. Check out our calendar to see what is coming up this year!

We aim to educate our community about New Zealand’s biodiversity crisis and what they can do to help. We support tamariki to take action for te taiao through planting native plants, weeding, and carrying out predator control.