Tamariki at Cromwell Primary School (CPS) have been working as a team from the ground up displaying school values as part of an enviroschools project.

The ecological building project is a cob wall made of mud and it has taken two terms to construct.

It has been led by CPS student enviro-warriors group with the support of Enviroschools facilitator Lucy Francke and CPS year five and six teacher Barbara Caughey. 

Barbara said the wall was nearly at completion and the next stage would be to investigate how mosaic tile designs could be incorporated. 

“Park Güell in Barcelona was the inspiration [originally] . . . if anyone in the community has expertise in mosaic tiling, I’d love to hear from them. [The plan] is next term to do an art unit on mosaics.”

Students working on the wall are (from left) Phoebe Lucas, Kelsey Speight, Paisley Salmon, Ariadne McDonald. PHOTO: Supplied 

Barbara said that in term four of 2023 all of the children were rostered on to take a turn contributing to the wall.

“It’s become a whole school project . . . it’s been a wonderful activity for those who are more creative.”

CPS’s cob wall nearly completed. PHOTO: Supplied

Some students have contributed in their own time and she said getting their hands dirty and stomping in the mud, sand and water has “become their happy place.”

Benefits to tamariki have been improving teamwork skills, mental and physical wellbeing, tuakana teina (older children helping the younger ones), and embedding the school values of respect (whakaute), honesty (pononga), excellence (rawe) and contribution (hoatutanga). 

“It’s also been a learning process, [following] the mud recipe and getting the correct consistency. There’s been problem solving too as the irrigation came on and washed some mud away.”

For more information email Barbara at [email protected]