“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”
“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.”
“This was my first time using the SVA school kit. My students enjoyed having choice over the area they wanted to focus upon. They also liked having agency over how they would “give back” to the community. Beach clean ups, volunteer work and other service based projects took place. Thank you school kit for the resources and opportunities you provided for our students.”
“What a fantastic kit! Our tamariki were highly engaged in brainstorming ways to help our community. The kit provided some excellent resources to support their thinking and made the learning tangible. By outlining a range of roles in the kit, students could successfully analyse the benefit of delegating certain jobs to different people. This kit effectively supported students' understanding of the community and how the can be active participants.”
“We started our SVA project with a bang in Huarapa at Ararira Primary. Our children loved planning for the project and sharing their ideas for ways we could contribute to our community. We had so many ideas, we found it really difficult to decide. However, due to the high numbers of siblings our kids had at a local ECE, we decided it would be worthwhile to makes some books and visit the ECE to share these. Our kids made books about water in our community to support our recent inquiry on local waterways. Our project took longer than expected, but our children loved taking on the different roles and doing something valuable for our community. We ran out of time to visit the ECE ourselves, but the books will be shared with them this week. Kia ora School Kit!”
“Room 12 at Kawerau South School spent time cleaning rubbish from around our community food forest and then planted flowering plants and grasses around our swan plants. They have learned more about being a community volunteer, had some great discussions about what they could do in the future and that everything doesn't need a reward and sometimes doing things for others makes you feel good. Thanks School Kit - another awesome kit.”
“The students used the design process in the SVA kits to create a project to encourage everyone in the school to look after the school and community environment by removing as much rubbish as they can. The focus was on soft plastics before it washed into the waterways and out to sea where, combined with all the other contributing waterways, creates an environmental hazard, poisoning our oceans and the sea.life. They used the power of social media to spread their message to our school community and beyond with the hope to enthuse the school whānau to also join their commitment to preventing rubbish from reaching the ocean. The students earn whāre points by filling their whāre rubbish bin with rubbish found in the school grounds.”
