Grey Lynn 2030 Transition Community

Dear Grey Lynn 2030,

You may have heard about our Campaign, SOS Enviroschools.

Earlier this year, National decided to cut the $19million Enviroschools funding by the end of 2009, while simultaneously giving $35million of funding to ‘Private’ schools.

Enviroschools, as you are probably aware, is a sustainability education programme that helps students in primary and secondary school learn a variety of skills that will help them later in life- including how to sustainably manage resources and how to plan group projects. Enviroschools helps thousands of students, from 158 schools in the Auckland Region, plus many more across the nation. We believe that sustainability education is vital in our society, particularly in a country that prides itself on its ‘clean green image’.

As part of our campaign, we will be speaking at a public meeting on July 30th.This meeting is being hosted by the NZ Association for Environmental Education and facilitated by Green Party Education Spokesperson Catherine Delahunty. It is a meeting for all those parents, teachers and students who are keen to work together to try and get the funding for Enviroschools back from the government, or find an alternative source. We have 6 months until the funding runs out so we need to work hard and in a coordinated fashion during that time – please join us! This is not just a meeting for Green Party members so please pass it on to all of your acquaintances who you think might be interested.

Date: Thursday, July 30, 2009
Time: 7:30pm – 9:00pm
Location: Garden Room, Grey Lynn Community Centre
510 Richmond Road, Grey Lynn

If you are interested in being involved in this campaign to Save Enviroschools, but can’t make it to the meeting please email us at sosenviroschools@gmail.com.

We will keep you updated with our plans after the meeting.

Western Leader 26 June
Council cash saves schools’ green scheme

A council cash injection of $90,000 will keep the Enviroschools programme going in Waitakere city for another two years.

Twenty-six west Auckland schools take part in the nationwide scheme funded by councils and the government.

But the scheme, set up to promote recycling, sustainable living and to teach how to grow food, looked set to falter after the Education Ministry announced plans to slash funding.

The ministry says the programme doesn’t teach core skills like literacy or numeracy.

“Naturally we were concerned that without our support the programme may well fall over,” Waitakere deputy mayor Penny Hulse says.

The council will give the EcoMatters Environment Trust, which delivers the programme, $30,000 in 2009/10 and another $60,000 in 2010/11.

That’s on top of the $30,000 it already pumps into the scheme.

“Obviously we hope the government will see sense and reconsider its decision but we want to ensure the programme’s survival in the west for the next two years at least,” Mrs Hulse says.

Whether it extends beyond that is up to the new Auckland Council to decide, she says.

Education Ministry spokeswoman Mary Chamberlain says the programme is worthy but the ministry has to focus its resources where they will make the most difference.

She says raising achievement, particularly among Maori students, lifting literacy and numeracy levels and reducing the number of young people who leave school without worthwhile qualifications, are priorities.

The ministry would continue to provide support materials for schools that looked at topics such as sustainability.

2 July 2009 Taranaki Daily News


TARANAKI’S environmental watchdog won’t provide funding for a leading educational green scheme because it is fearful of ‘‘double-dipping’’.

Regional council chief executive Basil Chamberlain told a council meeting on Tuesday that it needed to be mindful of giving money to programmes already supported by the district councils.

The Ministry of Education announced last month an early withdrawal from its $4.6 million contract with the nationwide enviroschools programme.

The New Plymouth District Council has provided $15,000 over each of the past three years while councils in South Taranaki and Stratford allocate $7000 and $2500 respectively. The ministry had been giving the local programme $32,500.

The three district councils are not committing themselves to a funding boost for enviroschools, and say the programme will need to apply for extra money and its application will be considered.

Councillor Neil Walker said he would like to see the TRC support the scheme.

‘‘We do have a particular interest in this area.

‘‘It’s a valuable programme – it teaches students about the environment, the kids work in the community and do practical things like growing fruit trees and looking after waste,’’ Mr Walker said.

‘‘We need to make an effort to get the Government to look at this again.’’

Mr Chamberlain argued that education was the role of central government and the TRC needed to be mindful of the Government’s decision to cut the programme.

‘‘If the Government has decided to cut this, for whatever reason, does this mean the council authorities should stand up? ‘‘We’re all aware of double dipping.’’ Council chairman David MacLeod said the council had sent a letter in support of the scheme to central government and was happy to support them in that way.

A quarter of the country’s schools belong to enviroschools. In Taranaki 19 schools take part.

The programme sees students taught environmental sustainability and ecological issues in practical lessons often held outside the classrooms.

Schools say it will be harder to educate students about sustainability issues without the external support.

Meanwhile, national enviroschools representatives met with the ministry last Monday to thrash out details of the transitional funding between now and December. Negotiations were continuing.


Waikato Times 1 July 2009 (Editorial)

By any standards the Enviroschools programme has been a stunning success. Started in the Waikato over a decade ago, it now boasts a quarter of New Zealand schools as part of its network with hundreds more waiting to join. No-one makes them do that – they can see the merit in the scheme and the benefit to pupils. Enviroschools has met none of the resistance and angst associated with introducing the likes of new assessment standards or a new curriculum. Instead it has grown organically – and is now even being exported.

The Enviroschools Foundation, which is based in Hamilton, also makes the point that for every dollar of government funding, it secures another two dollars from regional partners and supporters.

That’s not good enough, according to Education Minister Anne Tolley, who has abruptly pulled next year’s funding, apparently without warning, leaving a shortfall of more than $1 million annually which the foundation must scramble to replace if it is to continue functioning at the same level.

If it can’t, 16 jobs may be lost, seven of them based in Hamilton, but that is not the point. The point is the pupils. The foundation assists schools in providing education that suits students who don’t flourish in a classroom environment, and stretches those who do. The innovative programme is based on the children themselves identifying what they want and going about getting it. That may involve working with budgets, making presentations, writing funding applications and so forth, along with the practical aspect of perhaps digging and maintaining a vege garden if that is what the school has decided it wants. The minister has put the spotlight on standards of numeracy and literacy – she should be able to see just how valuable the Enviroschools programme would be in contributing to that. The scheme will also be setting up students for the future in other ways. As we bemoan the loss of traditional values, it doesn’t get much more traditional than learning how to grow vegetables or plant trees or conserve energy. But these are not just skills of the past, as our future is about to develop a much greener tinge. The eco sector is set to be one of the major growth industries of the next 20 years, and those who are well schooled in it will have a head start.

Enviroschools is likely to be able to find alternative funding sources, since the government only started chipping in 21⁄2 years ago. Going cap in hand to possible

2 funders will be difficult during a recession, though, and there is another problem around the corner. Councils have been happy to continue their funding, but Local Government Minister Rodney Hide’s planned scaling back of council activities may put a squeeze on them and at that stage the programme really does face uncertainty.

To diminish the programme’s effectiveness would be a shame; to lose it altogether would be disastrous.

The Government’s axing of funding is short-sighted and mean spirited. It should reconsider.

Waikato Times 27 June
Enviroschools’ staff are lobbying the Government in an effort to stop their funding being cut and save 16 jobs – seven of them in Hamilton.

Photo: IAIN McGREGOR.

Education Minister Anne Tolley announced this month the Government would no longer contribute $1.6 million a year to the popular Enviroschools programme.

The programme, in which dozens of Waikato schools are involved, sees students taught environmental sustainability and ecological issues in practical lessons often held outside the classrooms.

The concept, developed in the Waikato in the 1990s, has since been extended to schools across New Zealand.

Heidi Mardon, Enviroschools Foundation’s Hamilton-based national director, has been in Wellington this week lobbying the Education Ministry to continue the Enviroschools funding.

Enviroschools directly employs 16 people, seven of them based in Hamilton.

‘‘We’d all be gone if the cut goes through,’’ Ms Mardon said.

They would know next week if their lobbying had been successful.

Ms Mardon said that through local councils, funding at grassroots level remained secure, but the Government’s funding cut would affect facilitator training and development work and presented the programme with a major problem.

‘‘We didn’t see it coming quite as quickly [as this]. We had a contract until mid next year, and we expected that contract to be honoured . . . we did not expect to be cut right now.

‘‘It’s very hard to understand why they’re doing it.’’

The cut in funding has been called shortsighted by Waikato principals, who have hailed the benefits of the scheme.

Most schools have specific Enviroschool teachers and are regularly visited by Enviroschools co-ordinators.

Tirau School principal Leo Spaans was ‘‘fairly much devastated’’ by the ‘‘shortsighted’’ funding cut announcement which, he felt, was not well thought through.

‘‘I was quite disappointed. As part of the new curriculum, we’re looking at giving back to the community, sustainability, environmental issues, etc, and then funding gets cut – it doesn’t make things any easier for the school.’’

He believed the Government’s decision to cut Enviroschools funding was at odds with its

Te Miro School’s flourishing vegetable garden is a product of the newly-pruned Enviroschools programme which has had its funding axed as part of Government cost-cutting because it is not a ‘‘core spending’’ priority. messages about New Zealand’s Te Aroha Primary School prinneed to plan for a more cipal Kevin Johnson was sustainable future. unhappy about the funding cut,

Enviroschools had engaged the and felt it was strange for the entire community. Government to promote sustain

‘‘We’ve done quite a bit in the ability in the curriculum when it two years we’ve been involved in was pulling money from the the project – we’ve got sustainEnviroschools programme which able gardens which provide food helped achieve the sustainability for the foodbanks, we’ve planted goal. ‘‘It has come as a shock. the native gardens throughout There are all kinds of programthe schools with the support of mes which have been axed, and the Enviroschools team, and this is just another cost-saving we’re working to replant bush. measure.’’

‘‘It’s a big initiative. The imMr Johnson said Te Aroha Pripact (of funding cuts) will be mary was a very keen Envirohuge in small rural schools.’’ school, and he pledged to press ahead with the school’s environmental work because it benefited the wider community.

Enviroschools lessons were particularly beneficial for students who struggled with conventional learning, or had special needs, a point also made by Nick Quinn, principal at Hamilton’s St Peter’s Chanel Catholic School.

‘‘It’s absolutely practical learning at its best,’’ Mr Johnson said. ‘‘It’s not a one-off learning thing, we’re teaching kids a way of life.’’

Teachers and students thrived on the Enviroschools learning, Mr Johnson said, praising a ‘‘wonderful’’ Enviroschools coordinator who regularly visited Te Aroha Primary.

Education Minister Anne Tolley did not respond to specific Times questions, but a statement from her office said: ‘‘The decision was taken because in tough economic times, the Government is focusing on its core spending priorities for the education system of raising literacy and numeracy and increasing the numbers of pupils leaving school with educational qualifications. This programme does not contribute directly to these priorities.’’

Prime Minister John Key, who visited the lower Coromandel this week, also defended the decision to cut the Enviroschools funding, saying his administration had redirected the money to literacy and numeracy.

‘‘Obviously, no-one likes cutting programmes,’’ Mr Key said.

He said he believed a lot of what was taught in the Enviroschools programme would be picked up by teachers, and said its website would continue to offer on-line learning.

As some of you may or may not be aware – Enviroschools are going to be loosing their funding this year as the government has decided to cut and focus on core education such as reading, writing and maths.

Many parents are very saddened by this news as we know what a great programme Enviroschools is.

A quarter of New Zealand schools are Enviroschools, reaching 212,870 New Zealand children. The programme is positive, practical, and wildly successful – another 210 schools are on the waiting list to become Enviroschools, including early childhood centres.

Enviroschools relies on the wonderful Education for Sustainability Advisers whose jobs have been cut, and Matauranga Taiao the tikanga Maori Enviroschools programme for kohanga reo and kura kaupapa has also been cut.

Our children learn to respect and value the natural environment, save energy and water, recycle and compost, grow their own food, and understand the connections between their actions and the future of the planet. These are essential skills for young people in today’s world, and to cut what should be core learning in the name of financial belt-tightening is spectacularly narrow and short-term thinking.

http://www.enviroschools.org.nz/

Ruth MacClure who is involved with Pt Chev Transition Town and Pt Chev Primary is looking for people who would be available should a journalist be interested in covering the story. Please leave a comment on this page on what you can offer.

Here is a short video clip made by a school in Dunedin.

Enviroschools

Not surprisingly the Greens are picking up on this issue ( it was a successful Green bid that secured funding for the programme initially) and are asking you to make the following actions:

Take action to save Enviroschools:

• Visit your local National MP, and express your disappointment that this successful programme is no longer supported. Keep it positive and personal – if you have a child at an Enviroschool, talk about what environmental education has meant for your child and your family. Ask that the funding be reinstated.
• Write a letter or email to your local National MP and cc John Key – we need to keep it on the Prime Minister’s radar.
• Write letters to the editor outlining the importance of environmental education in NZ schools and calling for Enviroschools funding to be continued.

Points you might like to include in letters / emails

• A quarter of our schools are Enviroschools, reaching 212,870 New Zealand children. This is a positive, successful and popular programme that it is achieving great things at a low cost to government.
• These days, knowledge and skills in sustainability is not a luxury ‘add on’; it needs to be an integral part of our children’s learning.
• Enviroschools are delivering on the government’s priorities:
• Economic growth and jobs: Sustainability is a major growth area and young people need to be eco-literate to survive in the global economy today.
• Science and innovation: Enviroschool programmes foster children’s interest in environmental science, technology and primary production
• Literacy and numeracy: Enviroschool programmes regularly utilise other learning skills, such as reporting, surveys, and analysis.
• Enviroschools enable children to become in the educator in the home, sharing their new found knowledge and skills with their family.
• Teachers need the curriculum support, professional development and resources to effectively teach environmental education. They cannot adequately deliver this programme without external support from the government.

Tena koe

The work of 670 other Enviroschools around NZ, is seriously threatened by recent central government funding cuts

The recent central government budget included cuts to programmes and projects currently supported by the Ministry of Education, including:

• The Enviroschools Foundation (who coordinate the programme nationally)
• Education for Sustainability Advisory Services (Team Solutions EfS Advisors
• Matauranga Taiao (EfS supportfor Kura Kaupapa Maori)
• The Environmental Education Guidelines Review Project

“The Enviroschools Programme is a partnership programme between the national Enviroschools Foundation, EfS Advisory Services, Regional Councils, Local Councils and NGOs.  The funding cuts proposed above will have an impact on the overall implementation of the Enviroschools Programme because there will be no more funding for the national Enviroschools Foundation (office, staff & projects), and there will be no more EfS Advisors who directly facilitate up to half Enviroschools across the country.

These cuts will impact directly on schools in the Auckland region

The schools will lose facilitation support

Without the EfS Advisors (Bridget Glasgow, Beryl Oppert, Sandy Bell, Trish Irvine, Evan Shewchuk, Marty Taylor & Carol Young) there will be a 50% decrease in the direct support available to Auckland’s Enviroschools. This will mean significant changes to the nature and level of support available to all Auckland Enviroschools. The remaining 50% of facilitators are funded through local councils. This adds extra uncertainty in Auckland as we do not know if the new ‘super-city’ council will provide funding for the Enviroschools programme during these leaner economic times.

You will lose access to Enviroschools teaching resources and programme support

The Enviroschools kit, DVD, handbook, scrapbooks and website are all developed and published by the Enviroschools Foundation. These will no longer be available due to the central government funding cuts. The Enviroschools Foundation also directly fund other initiatives that you may value, including:

• the Measuring Change internet tool for schools to track their progress and compare themselves with other schools nationwide;
• ecobuilding and energy projects and resources; and
• support for secondary schools through the Youth Jam and Regeneration projects.

These projects are unlikely to continue due to the central government funding cuts.

You will lose the opportunity to participate in a successful, nationwide programme that is internationally recognised

670 Enviroschools across New Zealand are able to connect with other schools in the network to develop best practice, and to share ideas and achievements. This national network will no longer be supported due to the central government funding cuts.

At the same times as the Enviroschools programme is being cut in New Zealand, governments in Chile, Brunei and Singapore are working with the Enviroschools Foundation to develop the programme in their countries. Opportunities for your students to network internationally and to share their knowledge and experiences will no longer exist due to the central government funding cuts.

You must act now to ensure Enviroschools continues

What we need you to do

Enviroschools across the country share a vision – of a generation of innovative and motivated young people, who instinctively think and act sustainably. We believe that if you act now to protect this vision, and let politicians and the public know why you support Enviroschools, that the government will listen.

Across New Zealand, hundreds of Enviroschools and their communities are going to act. This is what you can do.

1. Distribute this message as soon as possible to everyone in your school community and beyond (staff, BOT, PTA, school newsletters, parents, friends, sponsors, local businesses, friends, neighbours and supporters) encouraging them to take action.

2. Write a letter by Friday 19 June (preferred date) urging the government to continue to support these programmes. Please use your own words and make your letter positive, focusing on the benefits you have personally seen for students, their school and your community. Describe examples of environmental, economic, social and educational benefits. It would be especially valuable to describe examples of how Enviroschools has contributed to student achievement. If you can’t meet this deadline still write the letter as questions will be asked in the house in late June.

3. Send copies to the following people:

1. The Prime Minister. RT. Hon John Key, (Freepost Parliament, Private Bag 18 888, Wellington 6160 john.key@parliament.govt.nz)
2. The Minister of Education, Hon. Anne Tolley (Freepost Parliament, Private Bag 18 888, Wellington 6160, anne.tolley@parliament.govt.nz)
3. Your Local Member of Parliament (Freepost Parliament, Private Bag 18 888, Wellington 6160) . Particularly target NATIONAL Party Members http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/MPP/MPs/MPs

4. Support other people in your school community to write their own letters (parents, staff, teacher aides, BOT, and if appropriate, students), with a goal of at least 4 people in each Enviroschool writing a letter.

Numbers of letters received by Government matter!

5. Write a letter to:

a. Your local paper

b. The New Zealand Herald (short and to the point)

6. Go and visit your local MP to discuss your letter. We all know that talking with people one-on-one can be very effective at communicating your message.

Yours sincerely,

Hilary Chidlow & Shirley Dephoff

Regional Enviroschools Coordinators (Auckland Regional Council)

Nicky Elmore – Auckland City Council

Chris McLean – EcoMatters Environment Trust, Waitakere

Jo Newman – EcoMatters Environment Trust, Waitakere

Anna Baine – Manukau City Council

Cate Jessep – Auckland Regional Council

Kate Jackson – North Shore City Council

Monique Zwaan – North Shore City Council