Tauranga City Council's Learning Through Discovery programme is fully booked for the school term starting this week and is filling up fast for terms three and four.

Tauranga's first outdoor classroom is open for business and nearly booked out for 2010 at Gordon Carmichael Reserve in Bethlehem.

This comes after a booked out first term in the programme that consists of four learning topics: forestry discovery, estuary discovery, coastal discovery and wetlands discovery.
Students on the wetlands discovery course now get to use the new City Care funded and built Gordon Carmichael Reserve outdoor classroom facility that opened last week.
Tauranga City Council sustainability coordinator Michelle Elborn says this is the first of its kind in Tauranga.
"The programme enhances awareness of habitat types, the value of them, how we can look after them and how we minimise impacts."
It is a landscaped amphitheatre with seating in a central hub and includes walkways and disabled access leading to a timber platform, providing easy access to the wetland area.
Students get to participate in activities such as competitions to see who can spot the most different kind of birds in a set time.