Rural Bid Success

Yahoo!

We have been successful in a second round bid to Government to extend the project to 150 Gisborne rural whanau through 10 Gisborne rural schools over 2 years. This is fantastic news for our region.

Te Runanga o Ngati Porou through their E Tipu E Rea education partnership has also been successful in an East Coast project for 250 whanau through East Coast schools. Ka mau te wehi!

But wait there's more.
Wairoa District Council has also been granted funding for 250 whanau through Wairoa schools.

Te Tairawhiti is right at the forefront of whanau - school technology initiatives.

New Schools Start Project

Te Hapara and Kaiti schools are kicking off their training sessions this week.
Thanks to the schools project champion and trainers for making it happen within your kura.
Ka pai koutou!

Will keep you all informed of their happenings.

Elgin - St mary's - Makaraka

Elgin, St Mary's and Makaraka Schools have recently graduated.

All graduation evenings were a choice event with a combined total of 41 whanau graduating in the three schools.

I will tender my apologies now for having major technical hitches with my digital camera and losing photos from your graduation evenings. I do have a video below from St Mary's and Makaraka to make up for the loss of some neat photos. If any of you managed to take some photos I would love to have a copy. Once again my humble apologies.
I have also managed to save all of the audio files from the Elgin graduation thanks to those parents who spoke to me.

Raina.mp3

Kelly.mp3

Wainui Beach School Graduation

Thanks to all of the participants who attended the graduation ceremony.

Sonrise Christian School

The last week of term had 4 schools graduating in 3 days. It was a fantastic week of celebration. The following pictures are from Sonrise Christian Schools evening of celebration.

PowerPoint Photo Presentation

Sonrise Christian ...

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St Mary's Catholic School Training Evening

I visited St Mary's Catholic School recently and caught up with some of the families who were hard out with their training.
They are all looking forward to their graduation this week.

Check out the Podcasts from Quannah, on of the participants and also Michelle, the project champion.

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Makauri School Graduation

Makauri School was the scene of another exciting graduation ceremony where 13 participants completed their training programme and received certificates.

Makauri completed their training in extra quick time as they all elected to do two training sessions per week. Well done Makauri for your commitment and enthusiasm. A special thanks to Caroline Butland who was able to commit to all of the sessions as trainer.








Project Chairman - David Langford and Makauri Principal - Judy Nicholl thank participants and discuss the huge benefits for the school and families as they forge stronger learning links between the school and home.

Check the Podcasts below from Makauri School Graduation!

clive kingsbeer.wm...

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Di Lucas.wma

Lynda Brodie.wma

caroline butland.w...

Judy Nicoll.wma

Central School Graduation Photos

Photos from last terms graduation ceremony. Deputy Mayor Margaret Thorpe congratulating Computers in Homes participants.

Makaraka Participants in Training

A recent visit to Makaraka Schools saw many of their participating families hard at work improving ICT skills and enjoying a relaxed learning environment.

Thanks to Rose Finucane and Roz Kelly for giving up some time to talk to me on the below podcasts.

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Mayor Meng Foon Speaks at Te Wharau Graduation

View this short video of Gisborne Mayor Meng Foon addressing families during their graduation ceremony at Te Wharau School.

Te Wharau Graduation

What an awesome graduation ceremony at Te Wharau School last week.

Family and friends gathered to celebrate Te Whara whanau collecting their computers and strengthening the learning ties that have been created with their fellow school families.

Mayor Meng Foon was at hand to present participants with their graduation certificates and spoke about the fantastic opportunity Computers in Homes for Gisborne households.

Comments that some participants made to me were:
"This has been so good for me and has opened up lots of opportunities"
"I can't wait to get my computer as I have learnt so much"
"I have a far better idea of what the computer and especially the internet can do for me"

The last photo shows one of our older participants, Whare Toko, recieving his certificate from Mayor Meng Foon. Whare commented that it has been a great learning experience for him and how awesome it is sharing the computer with his mokopuna.

Comic Life

Here is a cool little software programme to download to your Computers in Homes machines.

Go to the "Comic Life" website and download the software. Download to a folder in your hard drive then open it to install

It is a fantastic bit of software to help the kids with story writing. Very easy to use and they will pick it up in no time.