Hutt City acknowledgement

We had a very special assembly today with special guests from Hutt City Council. We welcomed them to the school with a Powhiri followed by celebrations of the wonderful achievements Muritai has made in the journey to become a green/gold enviro-school. Jean Pugh (enviroschool facilitator), Sandy Beathcroft (Hutt City Environmental Sustainability co-ordinator) and Joy Baird (Hutt City Councillor) presented Muritai with a certificate acknowledging the hard work the school has been making. Joy delivered a well received speech which made mention of all the class and school activities. Hutt City Council has provided invaluable support to Muritai over the last few years as part of the enviroschools programme.

Armistice Day celebrations

We are very lucky to have a war memorial on the school grounds. It is a significant feature of our school environment. We were pleased to be able to be part of the Armistice Day celebrations at the War Memorial this year. The Eastbourne RSA invited the senior students to be part of the proceedings and we chimed in with haka and waiata to show our appreciation of the contribution our armed services have made to our countries history. Feedback from the RSA has been hugely positive and it is nice to be able to continually play our part in our community celebrations.

Attracting Wild Birds into your Garden

Room 11 with the help of Rebecca Neal made clay bird feeders to sell at the carnival. Students went in small groups to Rebecca's studio to make their own creation with the help of a few keen parents. After they were fired students painted the bird house lids with their own designs.Rebecca glazed them and fired them again.
We were all very impressed with our efforts and wanted to keep them. A few lasted till the carnival and we sold them along with some packets of luxury bird seed. The bird seed will help attract wild birds into our gardens which is good for both us and the environment.

Why Paper Isn't good for the Environment!

Today we had a special visitor, Murray Sim, who told us all about paper production and what was involved. Murray worked as an industrial chemist at the Kawerau paper mill in the late 80s. It was amazing to learn how different types of paper were made. We didn't really know about all the nasty chemicals used to bleach and clean the wood pulp to make special kinds of paper. Did you know that shiny thick glossy paper like in the real estate magazines has latex in it?
Murray showed us how different types of paper burn and what was left afterwards. Newsprint burns almost completely but the thick glossy paper smelled like plastic and quite a lot of it was left after burning. What was left was the latex.
This afternoon we are making a brainstorm about the environmental issues involved in paper making. It really isn't a clean and environmentally friendly process at all. This has made us really think about how much paper we use.
Thank you Murray for giving up your time to talk to us!

Greater Wellington Regional Council Awards

Yesterday on the fifth of November 2008, Mr Eames, Mrs Berry, Ned, Phoebe and I, went into Wellington, to the Greater Wellington Regional Council meeting room. Muritai School got through to the finals of The 2008 Environmental Awards- Meridian School Sustainable Project Award.

A few weeks after being nominated for the award, some council members came to our school, for a walk around, so we showed them around, all the projects, and the progress.

They said they were impressed, and they would get back to us (Muritai). So they did. During the awards the three schools which had made it to the finals were waiting patently, for a winner. The award went to Fernridge School, for their awesome part in the protection of the environment. We received a a merit certificate, and a baby Kowhai tree

We did really well to get into the finals, and next year we can hope to get our projects, finished, and we might even get the award.

Sophie McElwain-Wilson