Empowered Students

 

Green Squad

 

The Green Squad are our "enviro leaders". They show visitors around the school all of our hard work for the environment and present to team assemblies when there is an issue to share with the school. They help support younger children to learn about the environment through running activities and games.
They are working on a vision map to share their plans, with ideas from classes and the community.

 

Experiencing Marine Reserves (EMR)

 

Our year 5 and 6 students regularly take part in a marine reserve programme where students investigate ways of supporting marine conservation. Our EMR volunteers visit each of our classes and teach us about the local history of our waterways and share with us how we can make changes for the better.

 

EMR Projects

 
Our Years 5 and 6 team commit to learning about local issues involving our waterways and investigate what actions they can do to improve these. This has involved actions such as writing to local community leaders, innovating and inventing new technology, developing better systems for people to use, and exploring ways to promote our messages to a wider audience. At the end of the projects, the EMR team come so that we can present our new ideas to them. One of our hard working young environmentalists will also receive a trip with another family member to go diving at the Poor Knights' islands!

 

Water Testing

With our EMR volunteers, we headed down to our local stream at Kohuora Park and conducted several special tests to evaluate our water quality.

Clarity

We measured the clarity of the water in our local streams. We used a special transparent tube to make our measurements. Unfortunately, we weren't very happy with what we found. Our average clarity was about 25cm.

pH level testing

We used special (harmless) chemicals to test the pH level of our water. The chemical would change the colour of the water when we added this to it. This would give us a pH level. We were happy to discover that the pH level of our stream was quite safe.

Macro-invertebrates

This test involved taking a sample of water and looking at the creatures that live within the sample area. We matched these against an identification chart and found that they each had a special number allocated to them. Animals with low numbers could survive in more polluted environments, and animals with higher numbers thrived in cleaner habitats. We were hoping to find a diverse range of these animals but discovered that the animals in our stream were all low scoring. This means that only the animals that enjoy a more polluted environment lived in our stream.

 

 

 

Goat Island

Sixty of our students will travel to Goat Island for the day to snorkel around this marine reserve and see the diverse creatures in this magical natural habitat. It is a special experience that they will never forget.

 
Supporters and Sponsors

Parents, please support our local businesses

New World Papatoetoe Papatoetoe Cosmopolitan Club Prisca Dental Centre Papatoetoe KIDS Early Learning Centre Perfect Cleaning Services MJ Breen Panelbeaters Angel Transport Kratos Homes Limited Finance Bloom Papatoetoe AFC Grass Groomers Amit Kumar- Barfoot & Thompson Jerusalem Music Shop
QR code for downloading the app

Scan this code to download the app

Get the Skool Loop - School App

Download our Skool Loop App, a simple and free download. In Google Play & App Store search ‘Skool Loop’ and choose our school once installed.

Download on the App Store Get it on Google Play
Hand holding phone

Login to Papatoetoe West School