NORTHLAND COLLEGE AND KAIKOHE INTERMEDIATE GRADUATE FOR CHRISTMAS:

Northland College and Kaikohe Intermediate took part in Computers in Homes over Term 4 of 2011.  This term was a tight squeeze to get the 20 hours of training completed as it was only an 8 week term.  The schools were still keen to get things underway and both schools were allocated 20 whanau places each.

Kaikohe Intermediate was the first to get underway having their launch at the end of Term 3 on the 7^th of October.  We had several excited families come along and Jon Smith the tutor (and also teacher at the school) was there and very organised.  The classes began on the 26^th of October.  Jon ran two groups of 10 on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Graduation day came for Kaikohe Intermediate on the 16^th of December at 12:30 pm.  There was a fantastic turnout and Jon and the whanau did a great job getting everything organised from decorating PC’s to arranging a beautiful kai.  The graduates had created their own certificates in one of their classes which were randomly given to another member of the class.  This was great to see what they had learnt and also gave everyone a bit of a giggle at what some of the graduates had come up with.

 

 

After a few short speeches and handing out the certificates we then enjoyed the kai.  Unfortunately the online surveys were not done during the classes so I asked if the graduates could stay behind to complete these, all but one were able to do so.  A huge thanks to all of you for making time to do this.  18 families successfully graduated from Kaikohe Intermediate, what a great group of people.

We also had the pleasure of the company of Geoff from Town and Country Newspaper, so hopefully we will see all of the graduates beautiful faces in the newspaper soon.  Thanks to Adele Gardner and Charmaine Foster, Trustees from the 2020 Far North ICT Trust, who attended this event with me, it is always nice to have support from the Trustees (and some company for the drive also). 

Northland College combined their launch with their first class on the 26^th October.  We were off to a bit of a rocky start here with only half of the families committing to the programme.  Because of this only 12 graduated from this school.  Those 12 did a fantastic job through their training, even coming back for more when they had already finished their 20 hours requirement.

These whanau graduated on the 15^th of December at 5:30 pm.  We gathered in the schools restaurant, The Hub.  Everything was beautifully arranged with flowers and all.  A huge thank you to Kushla who arranged everything, even with two sprained ankles.  She was absolutely wonderful to work with.  These families were so pleased to finally be taking their PC’s home, thank you to the graduates for their commitment to the programme.  Mike Sabin was to attend this event but there was heavy rain and flooding on that day so he was unable to fly back in from Wellington.  I barely made it to Kaikohe myself from Kaitaia!

Welcome aboard the team Lyston Williams, who is our Technician for Northland College and to Neville Alexander who is Technician to our other schools in the Kaikohe area.  It is great to have you both on the CIH team.

And finally, we had the launch for the small but full of life Mangamuka School.  With only 8 families in total belonging to the school we were able to give them a POD of 3 PC’s with 6 families able to take part.  We are so pleased to be able to help this small rural school and the families are so enthusiastic to get involved.  With support from the Principal Maryanne Beddgood and a very techy tutor Dean Munden I’m sure the families will benefit greatly here.  There will be no mucking around in their classes which begin on the 7^th of Feb as Dean is an ex-cop, so I’m sure he will keep this lot in line.  I look forward to working with this school and these families.