Help 10,000 Children Thrive Beyond the Classroom!

Ten years ago, I stood at Papatoetoe East School in South Auckland watching a bunch of volunteers build Oke's first official outdoor classroom. My son Taylor was there too, although at 13 months old he was considerably more interested in his tiny shovel than what his dad was trying to achieve. Back then, I was just hoping we'd built something the school would actually use.

Fast forward to June 2026 and Taylor is now 11, in his final year at the same school, and that outdoor classroom is still being used every single day. Those first raised beds have grown into gardens, fruit trees, beehives, chickens and The Garden Shed, a dedicated environmental learning space. Thousands of children have passed through the school during that decade, each inheriting something built by their community ten years earlier.

That's the bit about Oke I'm probably most proud of. We don't build something, take a nice photo and disappear. We create permanent outdoor classrooms that become part of a school. Places where tamariki grow food, learn where it comes from, connect with nature, get their hands dirty, build confidence, work together and sometimes simply find a different place to learn and breathe. One working bee can create a space that impacts children for a decade or more.

We've now supported more than 80 school communities across Aotearoa New Zealand, reaching more than 40,000 tamariki with the help of over 10,000 volunteer hours. When you start thinking about each of those spaces being used year after year, the real impact becomes much bigger than the number of outdoor classrooms we've built. Every new group of five-year-olds arriving at those schools gets to inherit what the community before them created.

In June, we saw that cycle continue at Pakuranga Intermediate School. Students, staff and volunteers came together for Oke's 81st working bee, revitalising their outdoor learning environment with a new tunnel house, refreshed raised beds and growing areas. Watching everyone getting stuck in, I couldn't help thinking about Papatoetoe East ten years earlier. What we were building wasn't really for one group of students. If we get it right, children who haven't even started school yet will one day learn in that space.

That's what makes these outdoor classrooms so powerful. A working bee might happen on one Saturday, but its impact can last for thousands of school days. Ten years after our first one, kids are still planting seeds, getting muddy and learning beyond four classroom walls. And somewhere in Pakuranga in 2036, I hope another bunch of kids will be doing exactly the same thing.

Links:

• Pakuranga Intermediate School Working Bee