Schools Behind Our River
Schools Behind Our River was launched in 2020 to support teachers and students with hands-on conservation and restoration projects that connect youth with their local ecosystems and environmental heritage.
In 2025, the Ruamahanga Restoration Trust engaged with 23 schools, providing the following deliverables:
- Gifted 2000 native plants to nine schools
- Sponsored 'Water Analysis' and 'Forest Health' House of Science kits
- Supplied 11 schools with predator traps and tracking equipment
- Delivered five multi-school workshops in collaboration with Enviroschools Wairarapa
- Funded Ruud Kleinpaste (AKA "The Bugman") to visit six schools
- Awarded 19 Conservation Award certificates for school prizegivings
- Produced three educational videos
- Supported part-time role of Environmental Education Lead
- Supported part-time role of Mātauranga Māori Educator
As our long-term signature project, SCHOOLS BEHIND OUR RIVER continued to expand its reach and effectiveness throughout the school year. In 2025, the Trust engaged with 23 local schools, providing a combination of native plants, Predator Trapping workshops and equipment, Noticing Nature workshops, a Teacher workshop, conservation awards, planning for future restoration work, and outdoor classroom experiences with Ruud Kleinpaste.
Restoration Plantings
Two groups of students from Chanel College planted 560 native trees at Hidden Lakes. This was followed by another two groups from Douglas Park School, who together planted a further 500 trees at Hidden Lakes.
Lakeview School received 80 plants for the council reserve wetland located on their school boundary. Enviro Team students at Fernridge School continued previous years work rewilding their school grounds. Solway Primary School students returned to their favourite QEII site at
the nearby Solway Showgrounds to plant 75 native trees.
Featherston School students returned to the Waihinga QEII block to plant 50 trees, while students from Ōpaki School returned to their favourite site at Dunvegan Station to plant 155 trees. Masterton Intermediate School continued their good work planting 200 natives along the Kuripuni Stream that runs alongside the school grounds.
Newcomers to our program, the Tūranga Rau (Rangitāne school) planted 50 trees on their school grounds.
All sites are inspected in advance by our planting advisor, Trevor Thompson, who advises what to plant and where.
Receiving the plants is one thing; taking good care of them is another. For this reason, our Education Lead, Karin Stillberg, has prepared planting advice materials for the students and teachers.
Learning Resources & Workshops
In 2025, the Ruamahanga Restoration Trust added a new programme, ‘Mātauranga and Climate Change’, with Joseph Potangaroa. These free sessions, designed for use by local schools, include a strong emphasis on local iwi knowledge of the river and discussions around protecting biodiversity that is unique to the Wairarapa.
Support and funding for these resources allows schools to save on costs and provide students with access to practical learning materials that engage their curiosity for outdoor learning and environmental conservation.
Exploring the Outdoors
In 2025, the Trust focused on funding a week-long visit to the Wairarapa by the renowned naturalist and entomologist Ruud Kleinpaste AKA “The Bugman”. Ruud engaged with six schools, two of which included visits to Waihinga and Dunvegan Station.
Educational Videos
The Trust continued filming the UNDERSTANDING NATURE video series in 2025, interviewing students from Rathkeale College and Chanel College. Now in its third year of production, the interviews with students from across the Wairarapa will eventually be edited into a feature-length documentary examining how youth perceive and relate to their environment and the possible impact that climate change may have on their futures and communities.
In 2025, the New Zealand National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) approved a grant in support of the series, which underscores the role and importance of what the Trust is recording.
The Trust has also filmed a documentary about the Ruamāhanga River, presented by Ruud Kleinpaste. Filmed over three days, A RIVER’S JOURNEY explores how all living things, including forests, wetlands, farms, and communities, are interconnected with the life of the river. The film will be entered into wildlife and nature film festivals and will be freely available for educational use.
Conservation Awards for Environmental Leadership
The Trust issued 19 hand-signed certificates for students who received the 'Conservation Award for Environmental Leadership' certificates in 2025. The certificates are awarded to students who “best demonstrate principles of kaitiakitanga and leadership skills in environmental conservation, restoration, or innovation within their school and community”.
Project Plan 2025
Our restoration plantings in 2026 will continue to help local schools rewild their school grounds or support off-site restoration. In addition, the Trust will continue to support landowners with the rewilding and restoration of QE2 covenants and other forest remnant blocks deemed worthy of conservation.
Our 2026 Plan for SCHOOLS BEHIND OUR RIVER includes:
- Production of a trifold brochure to introduce schools to what support we can provide, mainly focusing on planting at school and/or off-site. The brochure will also include info about planting/ecosystem class sessions, and the kits and workshops we support/fund.
- A how-to guide for teachers and school ground staff about planting techniques and aftercare. This aims to avoid unnecessary loss and damage to the plants that we provide.
- Working together with Enviroschools to support schools develop a vision for their school grounds on how to incorporate more wild areas for play and restoration.
- Working together with Trevor Thompson and community/catchment groups to identify public reserves and other wetland areas that need restoration plantings, and then supporting schools to get there to help restore the mauri of the awa and ngahere.
- Continue to deliver class sessions focused on biodiversity, ecosystems, restoration, and proper planting techniques.
The Trust continues to see the value and benefits of investing in outdoor learning resources and materials for students and teachers, supporting schools and helping students better understand and appreciate biodiversity and the value of their natural world. In line with our collaborative efforts, the Trust will continue to support the following:
- Predator Tracking & Trapping materials and equipment
- Noticing Nature kits
- Seed Propagation kits
- Stream Exploration & eDNA Kits
- Special Event Days
- Restoration Plantings
- Outdoor Learning School Field Trips
- Mātauranga & Climate Change with Joe Potangaroa
- Visits and field trips with Ruud Kleinpaste
- Conservation Awards for Environmental Leadership
Te Ao Māori recognises the need to consider the connectedness of all things, including the past, present, and future. In considering how climate change transitions could impact our future and our community, we must consider where we have come from, as well as the wellbeing of current and future generations. This means we must take an inclusive approach to understanding our place and our heritage over time.
The Trust will continue to look for opportunities to fund field trips that support the concept of tiakitanga – being a good guardian or steward of the land and waterways – for the wellbeing of current and future generations of New Zealanders.
In consultation and with the participation of local iwi, we will support field trip activities that invite teachers and students on field trips to natural heritage or historical sites connected to the Ruamahanga – or its tributaries – to help students understand how and why early Maori chose particular sites and how they worked with the land and its resources. This also helps address the values of whanaungatanga – being mindful of the relationship between all things, our connections to each other, and how we connect to our land and manaakitanga – having a deep ethic of care towards people and the whenua, acknowledging their role in the ecosystem, and how they could be affected by future outcomes.
In 2026, the Trust will continue to support school visits to sites and places of interest that provide stories about early Maori presence along the Ruamahanga and its tributaries and to engage in conversation and restoration, including school field trips to the Pukaha National Wildlife Centre.
As such, we hope to make younger people more aware of their environmental heritage; to learn and understand sustainable use of our waterways and lowland forests and to share their own stories in a way that helps others appreciate the need to restore, protect, and sustain our environment, including how to prepare for and mitigate the effects of climate change.