A Future Focus

Our Stories: Issue 55 

Opunake Primary is putting its focus on the future, with hands-on learning exploring the STEAM subjects (science, technology, engineering, arts and maths). The school in South Taranaki teaches children up to Year 8.

Lorraine Williamson, Principal, said each year the school runs a community event, either a STEAM open day or digital awards. “We want our kids to be advantaged, so that’s why we drive this sort of learning and it’s also highly motivating and engaging.” The last Open Day was held in November 2019 at the Sandfords Event Centre. It is a joint project between four schools: Kaponga, Matapu, Auroa and Opunake.

“We want to showcase to the families how we use technology, because we want parents to realize that it’s not about playing a game or using an app. During the year, we do different modules or activities that lead towards a product that we can show at the open day.” 

“For example, we take the students through what it may be like to live on Mars. We ask them to design a habitat for human beings on the planet, using Tinkercad and a 3D printer.”

Lorraine said around 1200 people came to last year’s event. “The communities benefit from that sort of community spirit. You get a nice feeling with all the families coming through.”

A grant from the TSB Community Trust of $30k enabled Opunake Primary to purchase technology to support STEAM learning. “This year, we spent $100k on technology, and the contribution from TSB Community Trust was very important. TSB Community Trust is one of the only organisations that schools can use to access funding in Taranaki. If we run a gala, we would get around $4k, so we’re not in a position to do a lot of fundraising for huge amounts."

“Every child in our school has access to an ipad. Every child benefits from robotics. We’re fortunate to be able to offer that right down to our new entrants,” Lorraine said.