Northland school wins national technology competition

Te Kura O Hata Maria School in Northland has been awarded $10,000 worth of HP products and support for their entry in the inaugural HP Rural Schools Competition.

Earlier this year HP New Zealand (Printing and Personal Systems Group) teamed up with Rural Women New Zealand to give rural primary schools the chance to win a share of $20,000 worth of HP products and support. To enter, rural schools were asked to submit an entry explaining why they needed a technology boost and how it would benefit the students.

Te Kura O Hata Maria’s entry was one of more than 60 creative submissions from schools across the country. A panel of judges, including a Rural Women NZ representative, had the tough job of narrowing down the entries to five winning schools, including Te Kura o Hata Maria, which received the largest share of the $20,000 prize.

Members of the judging panel visited Te Kura O Hata Maria in September to interview the principal, meet with students and understand the technology needs of the school. HP and principal, Maraea Herbert-Pickering, are now working together to select the technology the school will receive and educate the teaching staff on how to use it as an effective classroom tool.

“We’re thrilled to be the winners of the HP Rural Schools Competition,” Ms Herbert-Pickering said.

“We’re a small school with limited resources so having new technology will make a huge difference to the digital literacy of our students.”

HP category manager Victoria Mahan said HP gained real insight into the need for technology in New Zealand’s rural schools through the competition.

“It was humbling to see the effort schools made to enter the competition and to see the real need for technology in rural schools. Every school deserves access to technology to inspire students and support teachers.

“No matter what career path these students want to follow in years to come, students will need strong technology skills in an increasingly digitally driven world and we hope these HP products will get them off to a great start,” Ms Mahan said.

Rural Women NZ education spokesperson, Kerry Maw, said they were delighted to be a part of this initiative.

“The HP technology boost is going to make a real difference to the winning schools.”

Other winning schools included: Ruahine School, Kopuarahi School, Tuturumuri School
and Pokeno School.

Each school that entered the HP Rural Schools competition was also gifted an HP action camera.

Schools that missed out on major prizes this year will have the opportunity to enter the HP Rural Schools competition again next year. Details about next year’s competition will be released mid-2015.