FAQ's

Health & Safety Risks

Our environment has risks. We reduce risk where practicable but all children and whanau acknowledge that minor hurts are inevitable.
We deem minor ailments to be small burns, cuts, grazes, splinters and bruises that do not require major medical attention and do not impact on the child’s enjoyment of the day. These are ailments that may be incurred through normal childhood play in the bush. Our team have a fully stocked first aid kit and with your permission at enrolment, will administer over the counter medication or treatment such as creams, plasters, cold packs, heat packs, wet flannels.
Major ailments cannot be treated with a plaster and a cuddle, and require your child to be picked up or taken to an external medical provider. Without being too scary, these could include larger cuts and grazes, bruises, larger burns or other big injuries like a break or sprain that our team cannot treat. In this instance, one Guide will call for medical treatment and support as necessary whilst tending to the injured child with the resources we have available. The other Guide will group together the remaining children to ensure their safety, and call the Tuhura Trust trustees to arrange for another Guide/supervisor.
One Guide will accompany your child to the medical professionals that they have deemed necessary whilst making attempts to contact you as the whanau. The remaining Guide and newly arriving supervisor will attend to the remaining children as appropriate. The Trust trustees will review the incident and make any appropriate changes to the programme.

Health and Safety Information

We collect health and safety information pertaining to your child only that is relevant to their day. We’re especially keen to know about any allergies, intolerances, diagnoses or medical history that may affect your child or that our kaitiaki might need to be aware of.

The information you have supplied is necessary for the safe and effective undertaking of activities under the Tūhura Wilderness Trust. Personal information will only be released or made available to another person if they are a health professional working with us for the best interests of the child (i.e disclosure).We will use and disclose your child’s information only in accordance with the Privacy Act 1993. Under that Act you have the right to access and request correction of any personal information we hold about you or your child.

We hold this information on site during sessions to ensure our Guides can access it at all times. This information is removed from the site at the end of the session by our Guides to ensure privacy.

Sometimes we cook or prepare kai with our children. Please tell us if there is any kai we should not give your child.

Any medications (now or if prescribed in the future) need to be provided to the kaitiaki with written instructions of the medication name, child’s name, dosage, times given, and a contact phone number in case we need to check anything.

When enrolling, you will agree to the following Medical declaration:

Small ailments, including but not limited to, insect bites (unless there is an allergy), stings, small burns, scrapes and scratches, blisters, small bruises, splinters will be treated using our onsite first aid kit. Our kaitiaki are first aid trained and may administer plasters, arnica cream, kawakawa balm, aloe vera or other rongoa treatments, ice packs, water, paracetamol, over-the-counter antihistamine to our young people and then carry on the day. If your child is feeling very upset or unwell, you will be contacted.

Our team will only administer prescription medication upon written authority from caregivers (see above).

Injuries that are considered serious will require immediate medical attention. Our team will seek this from medical professionals and you will be phoned as soon as we can. You will be responsible for paying for any of this care sought.

Personal Safety

Our aim is to provide a high quality session that encompasses a holistic approach to wellbeing and safety of our children and Guides. We have a duty of care to our whanau to ensure we have taken all reasonable steps to mitigate risk, and we prioritise safety and health at all times.

Any children who are acting in a way that is unsafe to themselves or others will be removed from the group and whanau will be called for immediate pick up. We work hard with whanau to mitigate these issues and will make every effort to ensure your child is included in our space, however if your child is asked to uplifted twice we will terminate the enrolment with no refunds given. You give us permission to act in a way that ensures the safety of your child and the other children, including removing them from our space, physical restraint if the threat is serious, and calling for support from our Trust members or law enforcement. We consider this a very very low risk but you understand we need to have a plan.
Any children that require one-on-one support that are accepted into our sessions may have their support person with them at all times This person will need to understand and accept our safety procedures to ensure the wellbeing of our children, our Guides and themselves.

Appropriate Equipment

Coming in the appropriate gear is essential to mitigate health and safety risks. Whanau must be responsible for ensuring that gear is suitable for the conditions (and any foreseeable weather changes for the season). If your child is unprepared, we will contact you immediately to bring the appropriate equipment or pick up your child.

No matter what the weather, good clothing will ensure a great day. Please see our terms and conditions for specifics. You agree to send your child with seasonal-appropriate clothing, changes of clothing, lots of water and food and anything else they require to ensure a successful day. You agree to keep electronics and toys at home.

All children must arrive with two large full bottles of clean drinking water.

Our Guides will explain and show our children the boundaries of the space and clear expectations of behaviour whilst in sessions. We hope you can share in and reiterate these guidelines with your child. We demonstrate and practice safe tool handling.
At the start of every session, we undertake to advise the children of these safety rules, inform of any changes to the environment and show any new tool handling skills. We supply PPE gear as appropriate. Any children who refuse to wear the correct PPE gear will not be able to use the equipment.

Fees & Costs & Session Times

We operate term by term. Session dates, times and fees are set before the next term starts.

You understand that you will pay the term fees as per the terms and conditions. This amount is set in the enrolment form and is subject to change each term.
For families joining throughout the term, our admin will issue an invoice for the remaining weeks of the term.

Enrolment is per term, for the whole term. Our staff ratios are set for the number of enrolled children and the whole term commitment is required for the safe running of our service.
We supply an invoice/receipt and accept payment into the Tūhura Trust bank account. Upon payment, your child’s place is confirmed.

We are onsite from 8.40am until 3pm.
We will charge an additional $10 per 10 minutes if you have not made any previous arrangements with us for being late. Please do not leave your child dropped off early before our Guides arrive, as we cannot guarantee their safety and cannot be held responsible for their wellbeing, as the site can be unmanned.

Any fee changes for our service will be made prior to the commencement of the following term. All registrations are per term. Non payment of fees is an automatic notice of withdrawal.

We offer a wait list if our sessions are full or for the following term. We prioritise enrolments for previous children and their whanau.

Once payment is made and the enrolment form accepted, your child’s place is confirmed. Changes can only be made by mutual agreement. We may offer a transfer of enrolment to the following term at our discretion.

If you need to cancel your enrolment, you may do so in writing at any time. We will not refund any fees. This is due to us only operating sessions with small ratios and needing a required number to operate to be financially viable.

If your child is unsure about committing to our service, you are welcome to make a visit to a session before deciding. We will also work with your whanau to support your child as best we can, including welcoming whanau to sessions for a long transition, half days etc.

If we have to cancel a session, we will offer you an extra session or swap day in the first instance. Alternatively, where possible, we will credit you for the following term. This has only happened twice due to sickness within our team. 

We only cancel sessions for unforeseen circumstances such as extreme weather forecasts where health and safety is compromised, or to follow Government orders as we have seen in recent years, and as such, we will not refund if we are unable to run a session.

Contacting our Team

We call a roll at the beginning of each session and note any recorded absences. Please message us via Facebook if your child will not be attending a session. Please also message us to advise if someone else will be picking up your child.

Our team members only check their phones sporadically during the sessions to ensure the full focus is on the children and not devices. This is why messaging is a more appropriate way of communicating with us than calls or texts, as several of us will be able to access the messages and ensure the information is passed on.

If your child is enrolled in mainstream school, please advise us if your principal/Board would like us to contact them to confirm their presence each session.

We take photos during the sessions for use in marketing and media. We make every attempt to only publish photos without faces. We do not put names with the photos on social media.

We manage a private group of whanau to share more intimate photos that we take. You will need to advise if you give your permission for photos of your child to appear on our social media pages or website and if you want photos of your child shared in a closed Facebook that only has current whanau members in it. We will not use children’s names on any of our documents or sites.

Working with Whanau

We appreciate our whanau and value open communication. Please talk to our guides or email our admin team to discuss any issues or concerns.

If you have a skill to share with our tamariki, please let us know!

Tūhura Wilderness ensures all kaiarahi/guides are suitable to work with children, are capable of reasonable first aid, will not put children in a vulnerable position, support children with their individual needs, and communicates in a timely and respectful matter with all children and their whanau.

Tūhura Trust cannot accept responsibility for the suitability of whanau who attend sessions in drop off, settling of another child, or pick up. Guides will not leave children with any additional adult unattended.

Final declaration upon enrolment

There are inherent risks to an outdoor environment, including but not limited to water, fire, insects, falls, bruises, cuts, weather changes. Health and safety is our most serious priority and we will undertake all measures we can to mitigate risk.
Parents enrolling their child understand that risks do exist and consent to the activity of a playgroup in the forest for the purpose of holistic wellbeing and exploration, notwithstanding the risks that come with this activity. Participation is voluntary and you give your consent at enrolment for your child to attend and participate in our activities whilst understanding the elements of risk.

You are always welcome to ask questions about our programme, site, and activities to better understand the risks involved. You agree to inform your child that compliance with our instructions is necessary as part of mitigating the risks and hazards of our space and activities.

We cannot be held responsible for your child property although all reasonable care is given. We are not responsible for injuries or harm as a result of the planned activities or common play that your child undertakes in our sessions.

Whanau are asked to sign the following to indicate they have read and understood:

The Tūhura Wilderness Trust endeavours to promote exploration and creativity in a safe and healthy manner. We mitigate serious risk wherever possible but acknowledge low-risk activities are inevitable in a natural setting.

You agree to these terms and conditions upon enrolment and understand you can ask for more information at any time.

Please indicate below that you and your whanau accept the risks that come from playing in natural bush. As per the terms and conditions, you agree to pay any costs incurred as a result of our team seeking medical treatment in the instance of injury occurring (such as a doctor or dentist bill).

I declare that all the above information is true and correct to the best of my knowledge. I have read and agree to the terms and conditions of the Tūhura Wilderness Trust. I give my consent and approval for my child to participate in all activities of the Trust on the day/s my child attends.