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Proof that there is a lot more to education than books, computers and exams was in evidence at Mahurangi College recently, when dozens of students took part in a mass wetland planting exercise as part of the school’s Living Classroom project.
More than 100 students from all years volunteered to prepare and plant 2500 indigenous plants in the View and Falls Road Reserves, just across the Mahurangi River from the college rugby fields.
The planting took two days to carry out and involved countless journeys back and forth across the river on the school’s “express ferry” – a small pontoon powered by a student pulling a rope.
On the first day, a dozen senior students ferried hundreds of trays of grasses, reeds, sedges, cabbage trees, flax, kanuka, manuka, coprosma, hebes, putaputaweta and kowhai plants across to the cleared wetland area and laid them all out ready for planting.
Two days later, around 90 students of all ages and several members of staff made the trip across the river to get the plants in the ground, all under the watchful eye and guidance of wetland expert Philip Greenslade.
The initiative was organised by deputy principal Catherine Hutton, who obtained the plants with a grant from the Mahurangi East Land Restoration Project, the Government-backed $5 million, five-year sediment reduction programme to restore the health of the Mahurangi Harbour.
She said a lot of work had gone into preparing the wetland for the restoration planting.
“The ginger, privet and acmena immediately surrounding the wetland were removed by Year 9s in their Living Classroom experience,” she said. “The wetland area itself was too overrun with weeds and pest plants, so we sent some staff who volunteered on a council-funded spraying course and they cleared the area ready for planting.”
She said she had tried to get as many students as possible to volunteer and be involved.
“I want them to have skin in the game! Our Mahu vision is that everyone – parents, students, and staff in our school community – believes in the value of kaitiakitanga, or guardianship, and that we all need to get in and get busy,” she said. “This is tied to our belief that service is the basis of a grounded sense of wellbeing.”
The school’s Living Classroom project also includes an extensive trapping network, and pest and plant identification. Auckland Council granted Mahurangi’s Board of Trustees a community licence to occupy the nine hectares of native bush reserve in 2020.
