Karetu School

Karetu School in Northland, have a passion for exploring their local, natural environment. Together with TREEmendous Education Programme they are developing a programme to connect students with the biodiversity they share the area with

This scientific project will enable students to record and log all of the organisms that can be found on their school grounds.  iNaturalist will be one of the major, on-line tools that they can use to discover and identify the plants, trees, fungi, mosses lichens, birds, invertebrates, skulls, bones, droppings, tracks, spiders, and all other life-forms they encounter.

Kenneth Timperley, Karetu School’s Principal, said “I had heard about what Riley does through the media and television but didn’t know much at all. To walk into his session and notice how quiet the kids were, to see how they were hanging off his every word, was amazing. When I stepped into Ruud’s session, I was instantly at ease because once again the children had been “captured” by a man who was passionate, spoke to the kids in their language, and just knew how to impart awesome knowledge through humour.

The children that attend Karetu School are from families that are passionate about the ocean and the bush. The visit from Ruud and Riley has lifted the children out of their winter “blues” and has injected a level of excitement to get out and explore every tree, every piece of bark, and to create mayhem for their teachers!”

RECIPIENTS BY YEAR