Location:
East Taieri School, Mosgiel.

Team:
Lisa Morrison, John Toomer, Caron Hodge, Kate Cotter, Betty Wilson, and year 5 and 6 children Connor Morrison, Alice Toomer, Kristen Hackfath, Shontelle Smith, Claudia Aitken, Josh Leonard, John Watson, Ryan Livesey, Logan McLennan, Jacob Galbraith.

Accessible to public:
Yes.

Mural theme:
Living in Aotearoa - our homeland. A panel mural with five different New Zealand themes.

Background to mural creation:
Recently the school had built a new carpark, which changed the entrance to the back of the school, exposing the side of a teaching block that looked dull and unloved. The Extension Art Group of Year 5 and 6 children with three parents decided to design and paint a mural for the entrance that would incorporate objectives from the draft NZ Curriculum. The full project took 6 months of work by 10 children and five parents.

Using the school and local environment as a motivation, students worked together co-operatively to create a mural that reflects the unique nature of the school/environment. Students explored and applied the elements of line, shape, colour and texture as a basis for their mural.

The five panel mural features Kiwiana, wildlife, school life, Maori culture and literature/movies.

The wildlife panel features the Owhiro Stream in the centre, which actually runs through the school. The Southern Rata, the Kowhai and the Kauri tree are significant as they have a new multipurpose building at the school - the Owhiro Centre, which has three rooms named Kauri, Rata and Kowhai. The yellow-eyed penguin and albatross are important birds as the school is close to the Otago peninsula where these birds nest. Other wildlife was chosen as being significant and common to New Zealand in general.

The school life panel was chosen as the central panel because it incorporates many of the school activities. The 'hats' are part of the school curriculum, which uses six coloured hats to represent different types of thinking - strengths, weaknesses, feelings, information, new ideas and thinking about thinking. The little old schoolhouse is a replica of the original school, which was built in 1853.