Our mission: Supporting young people and educators to connect with people and the environment in our place
We are a collaborative group of educators working in Wānaka and the wider Upper Clutha area, including Hāwea, Tarras and Makarora.
After coming together in 2022 to host a local connection day for the NZAEE conference, we have continued to work together to offer teacher professional learning and facilitate learning with young people from early childhood through to secondary.
Experiencing Our Place: Professional Learning
We offer free after school sessions for educators, with multiple sessions each term at different locations and on different days, to ensure that something will work for everyone!
Term Two sessions will be open here for registration soon...
Special guests to our region: Otago University Marine Sciences Centre are bringing their Aquavan to Wānaka. They are planning to run this PLD session on Wed 3rd April going through the programme and resources and then bring the Aquavan to run their interactive primary and Yr 9-11 secondary programme in Term 2.
Term One 2024
We are started this year with a focus on water, and what happens in and around our catchment. In March we explored the Wānaka lakeshore with the Lake Wānaka Grebes team and WAI Wānaka touched on different environmental pressures and what thrives and survives in this place.
Grow Wānaka also invited us to their fabulous community garden in February, to celebrate the harvest season.
Our Group: Organisations Involved
We work on collaborative projects, such as our professional learning sessions, but also deliver our own programmes for local ECE centres and schools.
Click on the names of the organisations to visit each website and find out more.
Highlights from 2023
We started 2023 with visits to some of our organisations, including the Grow Wānaka community gardens and the Te Kākano nursery. We also explored the learning opportunities at Penrith wetlands, including some time watering and caring for native plants and reflecting on how to connect with te ao Maori and the history of the area.
Plastic Free July was the perfect opportunity to visit Wastebusters and learn about tips for reducing waste from Enviroschools and local research on microplastics from WAI Wānaka.
In October we connected with Wānaka Backyard Trapping at Mount Iron to discuss trapping, lizards and the public submission process for Mt Iron.
In November we headed to the Food Forest at the Hāwea Domain for a session about food resilience, community gardens, propagation opportunities and biodynamic gardens.
We finished the year with a celebration event in November at the Wānaka Watersports Facility. This was a chance to reflect on the year, provide feedback about what teachers enjoyed and what they'd like to see from Natur-ED in 2024.
