Under the guidance of New Zealand resident “Bugman” Ruud Kleinpaste, the project aims to help the rural pupils become more nature literate.

The pupils have primarily been learning about the short-haired bumblebee which was one of the four species of bees imported into New Zealand from the United Kingdom in the 1800s.

The bee is now considered extinct in its native homeland but is very much alive and well in the Mackenzie Country.

Lake Tekapo School principal Simon Waymouth said Mr Kleinpaste had contacted the school with the idea of protecting the bumblebee.

“It was 100% a surprise to have him reach out. He has done stuff in other schools and from a school’s point of view, you try hard … to meet learning needs.

“We’ve been trying to establish some sense of kaitiaki [guardianship] sustainability, so the fact they approached us has allowed us a platform to do so.

“It allows us to broaden our curriculum and have some pretty high calibre people delivering the science component to our teaching.”

The programme was also locally funded. A local man, Dennis Viehland, had been putting money into having more science in schools, which allowed Lake Tekapo Primary to get access to the Bugman.

Mr Waymouth said three sessions had been held at the school so far.

“The first thing Ruud did was have the kids spend a day with bugs.

“He brought a variety of New Zealand bugs and that was actually acclimatising the kids to get used to bugs. Even his staff were like ‘we don’t want that on us’.