OLD Education Programme

Kia ora koutou Gardeners!

Welcome to the Kelmarna Gardens Education Programme page! This online portal is your access point to tons of fun, nature-based learning, as well as a way for us to collaborate, schedule sessions, and otherwise keep in touch!

In full cooperation with the standards of COVID-19 Alert Level 1, our education programme will be complying with the guidelines for physical distancing and PPE relevant to the current restriction period (ongoing).

We continue to do our best to share ideas and keep busy by gathering responsibly and exploring our own local corners of the environment!

Have a look below to check out the latest news from our Education Team, to get in touch with our Education Coordinator, and to see the latest rundown of our operations under the current COVID-19 Alert Level.

We hope to help you connect with your local environment, to learn something new, and have fun while you're at it! Let us know how you're getting on by dropping us an email or tagging us on social media.

To all of you out there, thank you for everything that you are doing to help care for one another. We know these are challenging times, and we want to extend our gratitude and share the pride we feel for the dedication and compassion we see in our community and across New Zealand!

Aroha nui

COVID-19: Education Update

Our Farm Education Programme under Alert Level 1:

We are excited to accept bookings & enquiries for educational sessions in the gardens! Please visit our Bookings & Enquiries page to learn more, or get in touch with our Education Coordinator at education@kelmarnagardens.nz!

All educational staff, volunteers, and visitors are asked to be mindful of reasonable physical distancing, that everyone wash hands as frequently as needed, to please wear a mask if at all possible, and most importantly to stay home if unwell or have any signs of illness.

All educational staff, volunteers, and visitors are asked to sign in to our site on behalf of your group to help with contact tracing. Our unique QR Code is posted onsite for you to check in using the NZ COVID Tracer app.

How Can We Help?

Recent weeks have brought big changes as we continue to take important steps towards a safe and healthy New Zealand. However, we understand that there is still a lot of work to do and that it might be a wee while yet before we see you all here in the gardens.

So we want to remind you that there are other great ways that our programme is available to help you, your school, teachers and students to explore and interact with the natural world.

We would like to ask for your help in understanding how we can best adapt to support you at this time. In addition to our online resources, we would like to explore more ways - safe, responsible, effective and convenient ways - for us to work and learn with you!

What Works for You?

We would like to hear from you directly about your ideas for your school, your teachers and your students:

What kinds of nature-based lessons and activities do you want to see or take part in?

What learning areas or objectives can we help you connect to activities that involve nature, the environment and the garden?

What concepts do you want to investigate and discover more about or what themes get you most excited?

What methods or approaches would be the most useful and beneficial for us to support and work with you in light of the current circumstances?

Get in Touch - Let's Chat!

We look forward to safely welcoming your groups back into our gardens, but until that time, we are keen to discuss with you other practical and effective ways to collaborate and learn.

Our Education Coordinator, Sean, is keen to chat with you - to learn more about your situation and how we can work together to keep everyone active, curious and inspired!

Drop Sean a line at education@kelmarnagardens.nz to set up a chat, or share your thoughts, ideas, questions and any other feedback on how we can collaborate more and better moving forward.

Bookings & Enquiries

Local Learning

We will continue to help provide interactive, nature-based learning opportunities that you can access from home or at school to help you continue to explore, discover and have fun while you're away from the gardens.

With permission, check out our education pages and stay tuned for updates as we bring you awesome info, activities and other resources to help you have fun, be productive and think creatively about the world around us!

Click the button below to head over to our 'Local Learning' page where you can explore creative ways to engage with your space, learn about the environment and discover new wonders right under your nose!

Let's Get Learning!