One Golden Bay school is embracing change as it knocks down walls and moves kids into outdoor classrooms to light fires, tie knots, build tree huts and chop wood.
Takaka Primary School is one of numerous schools around the country moving towards a modernised open-plan learning space where students have more flexibility to choose.
Some classes are now held in the outdoor makerspace where they learn through using their bodies.
Chopping and sawing wood helps build team-work, communication and collaborative skills.
Principal Jenny Bennett, who has been head of the primary school for two years, said she had been inquiring with the students, parents and community about what they wanted more of at school since she first started.
“The kids all said: more art, more hands-on, are able to work with a range of different teachers and they wanted to be outside more,” she said.
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