Facilitating Visioning: an approach at Ashley Rakahuri

As part of the Term 3 Regional Spotlight Huipota for the facilitator network, the team from Waitaha Canterbury presented an inspiring reflection on their journey and celebration of success and learning.

Part of this was an approach to visioning in a primary school given by Siobhán Culhane (Waimakariri Enviroschools Facilitator). You can access the zoom recording here. Siobhán has also shared her workshop plans below.

Working with Ashley Rakahuri School, Siobhán supported a kaiako who had classroom release time and so was able to meet with each class for an hour every 2nd week for Enviroschools mahi. Leading up to the vision process, a term was spent on focusing on the Enviroschools Guiding Principles. This set everyone up for the visioning process.

Visioning Part 1 – Staff / Enviro group Meeting

3:15pm Karakia, mihi, remind them of Enviroschools kaupapa – to make the school more sustainable.

Purpose: To create an Enviroschools vision using ideas from kaiako/students, with the aim of replicating this for the students in the rest of the school to gather ideas for a whole school vision.

3.18pm Introduce Sustainability through the Sustainable Living image (see below). (Note from team: You could also use the Exploring Sustainability Activity).

• What do you think Sustainability means? Taking care of people and the environment now and for the future.
• What can you see that is sustainable on the sticker? Why?
• What would you add to this place to help it thrive? This is a vision!

3:25pm Sustainability Icebreaker – Walk the Talk

3:30pm What is a vision? – summarise Handbook p47-48. Have a few print-outs of the school map with a key.

3:35pm Read ‘My Patch’ My Patch- Nel Smit– ask the group where is your special place at their school?

3:40pm Sound Map (p83) at this place.

• Give out a sound map upside down with a pencil – 1min to get to your spot, 1min to lay down & listen to the sounds you hear.
• When returned – Hands up, what positive sounds did you hear? Who heard a positive sound? Share it with the group. Would you like more of that sound? e.g it is better for them to write “bird song” rather than “more trees or bird nests”.
• What negative sounds did you hear? Is this a sound that we want to lessen or get rid of OR celebrate (e.g. wind)?. e.g. “less traffic noise”. We just want the WHY which is ‘less traffic noise’, not necessarily “buy EVs to reduce traffic noise”. You could share an example of Springston Sch who found the consistent wind negative, so they built a wind garden to celebrate the wind!

3:45pm Atua Qualities (use atua cards) – optional (see Enviroschools Kit or team area)

• Are any of you familiar with the atua? Have the creation story with you.
• Do you want to celebrate the cultural aspects of place and practises at school? Or how do you?

3:45pm Word Hunt – optional (see Enviroschools Kit or team area 

• Choose one or two words (depending on time). Go outside with this word and find a place to place it on the map.
• Where did you go? How did it go? Picking the word ‘wild’ – is that something you want in your school?

3:50pm Split into two subgroups giving them the option to go through enviro surveys or flick through pictures from scrapbooks for ideas:

1. Enviro Surveys (Place – Yr 4 up) – ideas that could move one from to but not to a double happy face. Kit p145-148
2. Scrapbooks – Chatterbox, 2014/15 Canterbury scrapbook

4:00pm On a print-out of the school map e.g. use google maps or school’s map, add new ideas to this vision map using post-it notes or small slips of paper. Ensure that they stick them on to the map where they think it would go, but okay if they don’t have an exact place for it.

4:10pm You have built a vision. Could you do this with your students/classes? How would this look with your classes? MiME – do as many of these activities as possible with your class to layer onto your class vision map. Capture new ideas. Any pātai? What support do you need?

4:15pm Closing karakia – karakia whakamutanga

Visioning Part 2 – Visioning into themes

Purpose: To enable the students to create a vision for their school that is based on the Enviroschools Theme Areas. Students to sort their ideas based on the Theme Areas and then visualise their school’s vision. Then they draw their vision, title it and write a short sentence about it. This vision can then be shared with the rest of the school, teachers, BOT and the community whereby it can be adapted to incorporate everyone’s ideas (whole school approach).

Instead of the ideas gathered during the Me In My Environment stage being a tick list based on surface-level understanding, the creation of grouped ideas into titled and described themes provides an opportunity to go deeper and thus develop deeper action ideas.

E.g. at a surface level making bird feeders is the initial project, an inquiry around biodiversity may allow students to think deeper and start to inquire about what birds live here, which ones don’t, what do they need etc which may lead to a creation of a forest as a bird supermarket – ultimately a lot more sustainable than building bird feeders.

Opening karakia – whakataka te hau

Icebreaker – Finger game, or a round of introductions relating to birds (Garden Bird Survey poster)

Instructions:

1. Review the theme area pictures which are located at the start of each Enviroschools theme area from the folder.

Within the theme area pictures, what activities can you see happening? What do you notice? Discussion on: How would you like your school to be, sound, smell, look, make you feel?

2. As a whole group or pairs, sort the whole school vision ideas (cut outs) into groups (you can use the theme areas pictures for the groupings). Get rid of any duplicate ideas and discuss any ideas that are deemed ‘impossible’ or are not focused on Sustainability. And pose the question is expensive impossible? May need to re-define understanding of Sustainability.
3. Now review the ideas that are set around the theme area pictures. Start to imagine all those visions as if they were to come through. Lead a closed-eye visioning exercise where they can imagine their sustainable Enviroschool:

Close your eyes and imagine yourself coming to school with all these ideas /visions as if they have happened. Imagine walking through the gate…entering this Enviroschool…finding a place to meet your friend…looking around you, noticing things, seeing what people are doing and expressions on their faces. How does the school environment look, feel and sound? What does it smell like? What would be different? What would be the same? How would the ideas be done?

4. Based on the vision you have in your head of what your school could look like, draw a picture of that vision realised (labelling part of the picture as needed).
5. Once pictures are drawn, give each picture a title. E.g., Nurturing Nature, Green Life, Greener Living, Why Wai?, Eco for Life, Sustainable Kai, No Wastopia.
6. Under each title, create a sentence to go with it. E.g., Lincoln Primary School creates and cares for all native flora and fauna, At Ashley-Rakahuri School, we aim to grow, care for and gather produce.
7. Stick original ideas underneath.
8. Share with school, teachers, Board of Trustees, community to redefine and get their input too.
9. Share with community at another community event to showcase the Enviroschools vision for this school.

You can access this plan here or as a download below. 2024_ES_Canterbury_Facilitating Visioning_an approach at Ashley Rakahuri