Green-Gold Enviro School

In 2010 Henderson Valley School was awarded Green Gold status as an Enviro School.   This was a wonderful achievement and was a result of lots of hard work over the last few years.   

In 2010 we won the Sustainable Schools category at the ARC Sustainable Environment Awards.  This followed on from success in 2009 at the Ecowise community awards where we won the Puriri Award for the best school grounds and the Rata Award for the caretaker who is making a difference to the school environment.  

Our school is involved in several key projects such as:-Wetland Restoration Project, Edible Gardens Project, Woodchip Boiler Installation, Waste Minimisation Systems, Waste Water Management Systems Project, Solar Panels Project, Native ID Trail, ‘The Wall’  and the Green Team Leadership Project 

Our school’s commitment to reuse, reduce, recycle as well as compost, worm farms, and litter free lunchboxes means that we send only “one bag a week” to landfill.  Most households produce more waste per week than the 400 students and staff at Henderson Valley School. 

Members of the school’s Green Team grow vegetables including broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, spring onions and beetroot in its ‘Autogro’ garden.  This special garden has an innovative self-watering system and was designed and donated to the school by parents Trevor and Ana Carpenter.    Excess vegetables are sold at the ‘One Stop Garden Shop’, along with seedlings and plants.   Money raised goes straight back into environmental projects. 

Every class in the school works on environmental action projects.  These projects include medicinal gardens, a chicken run and even a school orchard.    

Henderson Valley School is indeed a leader in environmental education.