Taikura Rudolf Steiner School

The original Queenswood School was a home surrounded by a beautiful garden, lawn and a tennis court. From 1950 and the sale of Queenswood to the Rudolf Steiner community, as the school roll grew, so did the size of the grounds and the number of buildings. As neighbouring properties came up for sale they were purchased.  One of the largest pieces of land, complete with family home, and owned by Penn Scannell was purchased by the Rudolf Steiner School Hastings Trust.  The large homestead was sold some years later and shifted to a green site a few kilometres out of Hastings. The Scannell Garden remains today an integral part of Taikura Rudolof Steiner School life.

The Scannell Garden contains many mature specimen trees, five of which are protected; a Ginkgo (one of the oldest in New Zealand), a Southern Rata, a very large Pecan, two Magnolia.   
Trees and shrubs are continually seeding. The School gardeners collect the seed or seedlings from the trees; totara, pseudopanax, caprosma, renga renga, cordyline, kowhai.  These are potted in the School nursery until mature enough for planting out (usually as part of a community project).

Walking around the Campus, it is easy to forget that the school is situated in the heart of urban Hastings.  Fortunately, the school is situated on a site that is enhanced by many mature shade trees, natives, flowering trees, shrubs and pockets of garden that invite adventure play.

The Lower School has an active gardening curriculum and class vegetable gardens occupy any available space.

The gardens are all nurtured using biodynamic methods.

Edible Gardens

Vegetable and grains are grown on the property in small amounts. Most usually there are; grains – oats, rye, barley, wheat - (to be crushed and made into flour for cooking), brassica, lettuce, beans, silver beet, berries and potatoes.  Most crops are either eaten on the property by the children or sold to the extended school community from the Produce Cart every Friday.
At the end of their season, lupins, oats and mustard are dug into the gardens as ‘green manure’.
There is also a small herb garden that is tended by the children in Class I, and used by the teaching and cafeteria staff.

The Native Plant Nursery

The first native plant nursery was established at the school in 2003 to prepare native trees and flaxes for planting at Burbury Ridge (behind Taruna, 33 Te Mata Peak Road, Havelock North).  All seed was sourced from school trees, grown and potted out in the school nursery.  Planting took place over a period of 3 years with an objective of successfully establishing a minimum of 600 plants.  In achieving this goal, many, many more plants were prepared and then planted by Taikura students.

During 2007 and 2008 the demand for native trees and flaxes intensified with Taikura students planting 300 trees a year at Maraeatotara.  All seed has been eco-sourced, sown at Taikura, potted and tended ready for planting-out on site.  This project will continue in its entirety with students scheduled to plant on site at the rate of 300 trees a year.

A second and much larger native plant nursery was added in 2009 to help meet the increasing demands of community and school projects, and the requirements of the school curriculum.

Library Garden

In an innovative effort to extend the Library facilities into the garden, during 1996 Janet Molloy’s Class III, brick-paved an outside reading area adjacent to the front entrance to the Library.  A year later, Robert Ogilvie’s Class III added wooden seating.
This tranquil and reflective area of the garden has not only provided a quiet spot for outside reading and lessons, but at the time of construction gave the two Class III groups a practical lesson experience that to this day the school still benefits from.

Memorial Garden

The concept of a Memorial  garden started with Katherine Laing, a Eurythmy and German language teacher from Edinburgh who taught at our school for fifteen years through the 1970’s and ’80’s.  Katherine died in 1982 and her family asked as a special favour from the College of Teachers that her ashes be placed in the front garden of the school.  They could think of no other place Katherine would want to be.  The site was marked with a tree, no name, no plaque, just a tree, a Magnolia Stellata.
The memorial garden is recognised as an indication of how much our school and gardens are loved and remembered, and as families move and travel the world, the school is a reminder of childhood happiness, safety and beauty.  Of course, the school garden is not a cemetery and has no wish to be seen as a possible cemetery site, but special permission has been granted to these few and it is now time for us to mark each in an unobtrusive way, because after all, the space is primarily a children’s play ground.  In the short term the gardeners will fix some copper tags to the appropriate trees and bushes, but perhaps some time in the future the high school students may forge bronze plaques to make this more formal.
In 2003 Peter Lee’s class built a garden seat, and trellised arbour paved with a circle of bricks adjacent to the memorial garden.
It is a pleasant place to sit in contemplation and watch the children play.

• If you are interested please download our supporting document of trees on our campus.

Garden Structures and Art

Te Whaea O Te Matauranga - The Mother of Knowledge
Sculpture by Martin Selman
Te Whaea O Te Matauranga sits with all seeing eyes, nestled beneath pink flowering camellias, looking out towards the centre of the school.  Te Whaea is the Mother of Knowledge, carrying the baskets of knowledge on her shoulder.
Originally, upon completion of the work, the pepper tree, so long the heart of school gatherings, seemed the most appropriate place to position the mother/guardian figure and a spring of knowledge.  The pepper tree has now gone and Te Whaea was moved to her present site on the edge of Scannell garden, where she waits and watches …
She may move again as the school re-orientates to accommodate the new Learning Resource Centre that will be built in the garden.

Outdoor Kitchen

During Autumn 2008, Classes III and IV constructed a bread oven and outdoor kitchen.  Walls of rammed earth-filled sacks formed the basis of the structure over which was placed chicken mesh in readiness to be plastered with cob.
Class III teacher, Kelly Sutton, brought together the Class children and teams of parents who spent hours of voluntary time bringing the envisaged concept to a reality.
Days when the ovens are in use sees the area buzzing with activity and just as the kitchen is often referred to as the heart of the home, so the outdoor kitchen seems to be for the school.  
Future Classes will continue to expand the kitchen area.

Hut

Nestled away in the Class I and II playground is a small, hand-made mud hut for the children to play in. It has been part of the playground activities since the 1998 Class III built it. A favoured activity since its arrival, the hut sits snugly under the trees, has a functional structure of great beauty.
Mirra Arens, the Class Teacher at the time, wanted to build a play hut and the Class III children loved the idea!  Buying into the project, and applying the main lesson theme to allow children the chance to construct a building and appreciate the practical trades the community is founded upon, children, parents and teacher together, under the supervision of Michael Jaine, designed and constructed this lovely hut.