Waikato schools celebrate $10k each from Telecom

Waikato schools celebrate $10k each from Telecom towards technology

Ngaruawahia, Taupiri, Fairfield and Melville primary schools are this week celebrating each receiving $10,000 from Telecom towards technology for their students.

Telecom’s Waikato-based employees recently chose five worthy schools to be the recipients of $10,000 towards improved technology for their classrooms, after an internal national competition.

These four schools, as well as Kea Street School in Rotorua, which provides education for students aged five to 21 years, with intellectual and physical disabilities, were those chosen.

The schools, which were all thrilled with the news, are putting on assemblies this week for a Telecom representative to present them each with their $10,000 cheques.

Anne Johnson, Principal of Fairfield Primary said, “I was really surprised at the donation and thought it was great. We’ll be using it to assist the IT manager with his current (very long) shopping list! With a growing roll, and the need for more space, we’re considering moving to more in-class computers, or iPads, rather than an IT suite, so this will help a lot.”

Dianne Pollard-Williams, Principal of Melville School said, “When I found out, I was so excited by the news, I interrupted a planning day to let my staff know! We’ll be using the money towards COW's – for Telecom that means Cell sites On Wheels, but for us its computers. We already have two sets of 15 and will now be able to add another 10.”

Sheralyn Cook, Principal of Taupiri Primary says: “I’m so excited that my small school has been chosen and that we’ll be able to upgrade our IT.

“We will be using the $10,000 on an interactive whiteboard to enhance student engagement and support students with their learning; we will also be using the funds to reconfigure the 16 donated desktops and laptops we have, which will allow more students to access IT at once. “ We’ll also be joining Knowledge Net which will allow students to work with increased independency and will enable them and their whanau to access their learning from home. The funds will also allow us to access on-line learning programmes which support student progress in reading, spelling and maths,” she says.

“Our children are really excited about Telecom gifting us this money and would like to give a huge Taupiri ‘thank you’ to Telecom Waikato people region in selecting us as one of their schools,” says Sheralyn.

Emma Blackmore, Telecom’s Community Relations Manager, echoes the excitement for helping these schools out with this new technology. “Kiwi kids are hungry for knowledge and these days there is so much amazing technology out there to help them get to it quickly.

“Telecom is committed to enabling our children and young adults to have the access to information they need to amplify their education, particularly in this year when ultrafast broadband is being rolled out. For these reasons we are thrilled to be helping these worthy schools invest in the technology they need to help their students learn for their futures,” Emma says.

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