Nature School Sessions
Thursdays during term time.
Riverside, Lower Moutere
4.5-12yrs
9am-3pm
$42 per child for the day.
We ask for a full or half term payment to be paid before the start of the term, to secure a place.
These programmes will all be nature based and child lead. At In Nature Education we like to facilitate and follow the child's natural interests, supporting and assisting in their natural inclinations wherever possible. Our Tuesdays have a big focus on play as well as incorporating bushcraft skills, such as whittling, crafts, plant knowledge and foraging and hut building and fire lighting in the colder months.
Native Skills
Fridays during term time.
Riverside, Lower Moutere
6ys-12yrs
9am-3pm
$45 per child for the day.
We ask for a full or half term payment to be paid before the start of the term, to secure a place.
Native Skills runs as weekly sessions in the forests at Riverside. The sessions are created to support the development of tamariki and rangatahi into becoming resilient and responsible beings, by using survival/native skills. We will be following the principles and the philosophy of the Tom Brown Tracker School (Grandfathers Lineage) and John Youngs Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature. We strip things back to the basics and use games, activities and primal skills to help tamariki find a deeper connection to the natural world. These sessions are more structured than Thursdays but we still have time for free play and crafting within the day.
Information If Your Child Attends School
If your child attends mainstream education under the New Zealand Education Act Section 25B and 71 students are allowed to have time away from school to attend alternative education with the permission from their school. Parents must seek the approval of their school and the principal will choose how to mark the child’s absence.
The New Zealand Education Act section 25B Release from school states: 'The principal of a State school may, if satisfied that a student will receive outside the school tuition acceptable to the principal, release the student from attendance at the school, for a period or periods agreed with a parent of that student, to receive the tuition.' Section 71 states that you can have courses, work experience and visits outside of the school premises. We do not have anything for the school and parents to sign, as this is a negotiation solely between parents and the school. We do however have a letter that you may use that will inform your principal of who we are, what we believe in and what the benefits are to your child's learning at In Nature Education. Our goal is to work in partnership with your child's school, and for your child's school to see us as a complementary programme that benefits their students' progress and learning by meeting New Zealand Curriculum Learning Objectives and Key Competencies.
We recommend that you let your school know that you are thinking about sending your child to our One Day programme by having a kōrero with your child's principal to discuss why this programme would be beneficial for your child. We, In Nature Education won't do this for you, but we can support you in the process for example we can supply evidence-based research and resources to support you with this.
We are happy to support you in whatever way we can, as well as offer you any of our policies that can help with the application. Nature based One Day programmes are becoming common in New Zealand now so hopefully we will start to see some wide spread change occurring in how schools currently operate.
Cancellation Policy
If a Nature School Session registration is cancelled by an attendees more than 7 days before the start date, you will receive a full refund. If a registration is cancelled less than 7 days before the start date, you will receive a refund less an administration fee of $20. If a registration is cancelled 48 hours or less, before the commencement of the Session, or there is failure to attend- NO REFUND will be given. You will still be charged the FULL daily rate.
If In Nature Education is forced to close due to extreme, unsafe weather, or unforeseen illness of the facilitators occurs a credit or make up day will be issued, no refunds will be given.