Katikati College students who have studied in the school’s GrowHub facility shared their horticulture learning experience with the Education Minister last Friday.

Senior students spoke face-to-face with Erica Stanford while showing her around the horticultural hub, which opened in May 2023.

The afternoon began with a pōwhiri by the college’s kapa haka group, to welcome the minister and Coromandel MP Scott Simpson to the facility and school.

Stanford met Katikati College principal Louise Buckley and her leadership team then chatted to students about the hub and its impact so far.

“It’s great to be at Katikati College and to see the horticulture centre,” the minister told Katikati News.

“Actually, the most impressive thing is how passionate the kids are about what they’re learning and how it seems to have influenced what they want to do in the future, and that’s what we’re here to do, right? Inspire kids and make them confident in their learning and give them future pathways.”

A testament

Stanford said it was also exciting to see “all the amazing equipment that they have in this amazing new building – so it’s a testament to the school”.

Education Minister Erica Stanford and Coromandel MP Scott Simpson were shown equipment and projects inside GrowHub facility by senior student Millie Lochore Photo / Merle Cave

GrowHub was the brainchild of now-retired Katikati Innovative Horticulture project manager Hilary Johnson. She designed a flexible, cross-curricular and future-focused horticulture programme where students could personalise their learning by picking their own subjects.

She then realised there were people who didn’t have access to this sort of training and education – and something was needed for the whole community.

The result was Katikati Innovative Horticulture Trust – which fundraised to build the horticulture block on the college grounds to educate school students and local youth alike.

The trust worked heavily with local horticultural industry and businesses to support the concept and fundraise for the venue’s creation.

The minister said it was excellent that local industry and businesses played a part in creating GrowHub.

“We need more of that, frankly, all around the country when we’re looking at vocational pathways; to make sure we’ve got businesses involved and setting what those standards are, what the knowledge and the skills are that are needed to work in their industry. That really has to be driving what we’re teaching at school. This is an excellent example of that.”

Proud

Buckley said hosting the Minister of Education at GrowHub “makes me really proud of what we’ve achieved”.

“And that’s the work of so many key people, and also reflected the support that we’ve had from local companies and local industries and just the community to put together this amazing facility with amazing opportunities for the young people of Katikati – so it’s great for it to be recognised at that national level”.

Katikati College senior students talk to Education Minister Erica Stanford outside GrowHub on July 25. Photo / Merle Cave

She said much work was done for GrowHub to stand there today.

“You can’t talk about GrowHub without talking about Hilary Johnson, and the amazing amount of work she did to put the project at the forefront of people’s thinking and to get them behind to realise what an amazing opportunity it was for our school and our community.

“Really, I have tautoko the work she did over a seven-year period.”

This term, 72 senior horticulture students, from Years 11-13, utilise the GrowHub facility led by teacher-in-charge Kate Sutherland.

Pathway for all

Sutherland said it didn’t matter what a student’s aspirations or passions were because GrowHub offered everyone a pathway to achievement – whether it be tertiary education, trade skills or employability via horticulture knowledge.

“That’s where we’re really lucky because we do have such great external support – so we get students out to local businesses, we get speakers to come in. From this they get a closer connection to industry.”

Years 11-12 and 13 – Levels 1, 2 and 3 – innovative horticulture students have the chance to choose what they study, just like Johnson designed, said Sutherland.

“For Level 1 students, it gets them into the vein of what we do here. It’s a big change for them because the learning structure is self-led, and it’s delivered through an online portal – so the teaching resources are all there from the start. They work in a digital space as far as their Achievement Standards go.”

Sutherland said Level 2 is a big course “with lots to choose from for Achievement Standards and Unit Standards”.

Unit Standards are achieved using workbooks supplied by the Horticulture & Agriculture Teachers Association, Sutherland said.

“For those, students do things like growing from seed, monitoring germination and it’s lots of note-taking, photo-taking etc. By the time students get to Level 3, they usually have to decide between Unit Standards, Horticultural Standards or Agribusiness Standards.”

A smorgasbord

Buckley said students have “a real smorgasbord” of topics to choose from, which they can follow down whatever pathway they enjoy.

“There’s something for everyone.”

Sutherland said Johnson was amazing in her ability to source so much quality equipment for GrowHub.

“You can’t underestimate having that – it’s brilliant what the student have access to – we’re very lucky.”