“This kit was fantastic. Our Year 7 &; 8 department signed up for a christmas box project. Our aim had been to fill 10 to 12 boxes for families and children - instead we filled 25 boxes with a surplus of goods that was used to help fill more. This kit helped give our students the tools with which to collect items and run a successful project.”
“An inspiring activity for Term 4 as our 'new' Year 7 students are now part of the school community and ready to give back - and also our seniors have left so it gives our younger students a time to really step up. The team decided to do a project around cleaning up the borders of our school that border with an industrial area, a river walkway and a retirement home and a swimming complex. They absolutely loved the roles, and although there were preferred roles initially ( and some disappointment in missing these) they all quickly adjusted to the assigned roles. It was great for the girls to be liaising with so many people - school senior management team, key contacts at each of our neighbours. Despite a a wettish day the girls gave it heaps and it was a great success. We did this kit last year too and I love the community aspect of it. It connects beautifully to SVA and the 'real' events that sparked this act of giving time and energy back to a community in need. Thanks for the opportunity to be able to use the kit again this year. Cheers
Ross”
“We had a fantastic time with this kit. Christmas is the perfect time for our school to do some community outreach and SVA fitted in perfectly. We had students out and about on our Day of Action. They visited retirement villages and played petanque, sang songs and exercised with the residents. They visited the early childhood centre next door and sang Christmas carols. They baked cupcakes for our police and fire fighters and delivered them as well as making and delivering Christmas cards to small businesses in our community. Thanks SVA. It was a great day and the students were thoroughly engaged in the planning and implementing of the action.”
“Unfortunately due to a busy term with camp and activities we have not finished our SVA. We plan on doing this at the start of 2020. The students are very excited about this and have nearly finished planning for the activities. We have worked across Year 7/8, splitting students up into their interest groups and this has been successful”
“This was a wonderful day where the year 8 students chose to clean the park SYlvan park. When we walked in we thought there was nothing to clear but having divided the park into grids it wasn't long before broken surf boards hidden in bushes and old tyres were found and brought to the ever growing pile by the collection point. It was wonderful with Auckland city council also coming up with help by arranging disposal of the objects and coming down to speak to the group before we started. This rounded off a year of eco focused curriculum including an eco fashion show based on upcycling and also a christmas market with zero waste policy. Thanks for the pack the students had a great time planning and executing their plan. The main feedback was that in a park where it looked tidy and well kept if you start looking a huge pile of rubbish can still be found and ";how can people do this hiding things in the bush? - its disgusting. Students are far more aware and community minded as a result of this task. Thank you for a fantastic kit.”
“My Year 3 class completed the SVA Kit this year. They absolutely loved doing it, and were so engaged from the beginning of the process. The kit gave us a great opportunity to talk about our local community and figure out what some of our local needs are. The kids were really keen to help some people in our community, and ended up deciding to make stationery kits to donate to those in need. They ran most of the process and wrote letters to local businesses, put together notices and posters to appeal to our school community, and of course made a wee assembly line to put the packs together! We were able to tie this into our math sessions to decide how much of everything we would need, and how much we could buy within a certain budget. The class was so excited when a Red Cross volunteer stopped into our class to collect the kits we made and talked to us about the refugee children who would be receiving them. This has made my students so much more aware of the wider world around the and they have been asking very interesting questions about the needs of others in our community. We loved this kit, and I would definitely do it again!”