Te Puke Primary School students have been doing good out of the classroom.

The Year 5-6 Future Force team has been learning about community service and putting what they have discovered into practice.

A week of activities included performing at early learning centres Giggles and 4Woods and rest homes CHT Glynavon and Carter House. There was also a can drive to collect non-perishable food for The Hub Te Puke’s foodbank and a litter collection.

Te Puke Primary School associate principal and Future Force team leader Mike Douglas said the Out for Good unit was something new for the students.

“For us, as teachers, we’ve noticed that kids have a natural inclination towards helping which is what we’ve found with the kids in our school, so we wanted them to just take that a little bit further and take it to the community.”

Students had demonstrated a pride in being part of Te Puke, said Douglas.

“We just wanted to build that connection with the community and give them a sense of pride in being where they live and giving back to the community.”

Success for Ashriya and Noah at the can drive. Photo / Supplied

Douglas said the unit ties in with the school values of manaakitanga (care, respect, generosity and kindness) and kotahitanga (togetherness).

There was a flyer drop a week before the can drive.

“The kids were really excited [about the can drive]. It was like a treasure hunt. Obviously some residents didn’t do it, so they were pretty excited to find cans.”

In preparation for the week, Douglas said students had written different types of letters and designed flyers and posters. The students and elderly people alike appreciated the rest home performances, Douglas said.

“And for the little kids, seeing the older kids in their space – the older kids just loved it.

“It was great to see the energy that the kids brought and they were able to encourage each other to get excited about doing what they were doing.”

Many of the students are from cultural groups within the school so it was relatively easy to put the performances together.

The next step is for students to learn, under the banner of being an influencer, how to write influential social media posts.

“So we are looking at hash tags and our language around creating positivity in the digital world,” said Douglas.

“They’ve got their information, how are we going to push it out to everyone?”