ANOTHER GROUP OF GRADUATES FOR KAIKOHE:

Tautoro School and TKKM o Kaikohe participated in the Computers in Homes project over Term 3 2011.  Both schools were allocated 14 places each for whanau to participate.  Only one participant was unable to complete training at TKKM o Kaikohe due to obtaining full time work.

Tautoro School were eager to get underway having their launch on the 4^th of July (at the end of Term 2), we had a great turnout with the very keen participants rearing to get started in Term 3, only one person was unable to make it.  We had fantastic support from the school to get the project underway here, the Principal, Jane Lindsay, expressed to me how keen they were to get the community and the whanau involved with the school.  Computers in Homes were a great way to get the whanau into the school and become familiar with it.  Dawnette Neho who usually is the Office Administrator took on the role as Tutor and has been an absolute gem to me since we began.  She regularly updated me with how the groups were getting on and did such a wonderful job with the whanau, creating a real bond with the groups.  They were off to a flying start on the 1^st of August at the beginning of Term 3.  All the participants completed their online survey during week 8 of their training and we have some great feedback.

TKKM o Kaikohe got underway in the first week of Term 3.  I meet with some of the participants on the 4^th of August before they began their first lesson with tutor Hyrum Wikaira.  Although Hyrum was nervous about tutoring adults for the first time he got over that pretty quickly and became very passionate about their whanau learning.  A huge thank you to Donna Hippolite is much deserved also.  She is the school IT person who helped out a great deal with lesson plans and such.  And also I have to mention Marea Timoko the Tumauki who had such enthusiasm to make this project happen in their school from the moment I first approached her.

On the 7^th of October both of these groups graduated their whanau from the course.  Tautoro School graduating 14 and TKKM o Kaikohe graduating 13.  We started the day off at TKKM o Kaikohe where we attended a Powhiri at the Kura.  We managed to get along the first MP to one of the events organised in my time, Hone Harawira, who is quite involved in getting Kura up and running in the Far North.  Eric Shakelton, Trustee for the 2020 Far North ICT Trust also made the trip along with me from Kaitaia to attend the graduations.  Eric is a very busy man who has huge involvement in the community so I really appreciated him dedicating his day to the graduations.  We were treated to wonderful performances from the Tamariki at TKKM o Kaikohe and the certificates were awarded to the families by Hyrum and Hone.

We then attended the graduation at Tautoro School at 1 pm.  The school had actually arranged a full day of ICT fun for all of the whanau of the school with the tamariki showing off their skills and then the participants of the course doing the same.  The entire school was packed into the library for the awards and the children proudly presented the certificates with a special little gift to their own parents stating how proud they were of mum/dad.  The graduates had two huge celebratory cakes to cut to end the event.

We had the pleasure of Geoff McDonald from the Mid North Town and Country Newspaper at both the graduations taking lots of photos so we hope to see something in the paper over the next few days.

Eric and I also managed to squeeze in a launch for Kaikohe Intermediate on the same day.  They had a good turnout and we answered a lot of questions for keen parents.  They will begin their training in the first week of Term 4 with 3 hour lessons as it is a short term.  We set a tentative date for their graduation of the 16^th of December at 12:30 pm.  Jon Smith, a teacher from the school, will be taking the course and is very organised with lessons plans already well in place.  He had even already had a briefing with the whanau before the launch so all were quite well informed by the time I got to them.  I can’t wait to work with Jon, I’m sure he will be another gem tutor to work with.

Northland College are going to have their launch on the 26^th of October and dive straight into their lesson with their tutor Kushla, who works in the school office, in Term 4.  I look forward to meeting all the whanau here also.  All the PC’s are in the schools ready to begin in Term 4.

So all in all it was another successful group of graduates in Kaikohe and I got to talk with the lovely people involved in the courses who really feel they learnt a lot throughout the term.  Thank you to the whanau involved for your time, effort and hard work to get to graduation day.  Congratulations to you all!