Northland’s Te Kura O Hata Maria School has been awarded the winning prize in the inaugural HP Rural Schools Competition.

The school has won $10,000 worth of HP prizes, ahead of over 60 entries from rural schools throughout New Zealand. For their entry, the school explained why they needed a technology boost, and how they would benefit from additional resources.

Principal Maraea Herbert-Pickering is now working with HP to select the technology and educate the staff on how to create effective classrooms using the tools.

“We’re thrilled to be the winners of the HP Rural Schools Competition," Herbert-Pickering says. “We’re a small school with limited resources so having new technology will make a huge difference to the digital literacy of our students.”

The competition was a partnership between HP New Zealand (Printing and Personal Systems Group) and Rural Women New Zealand, and gave rural primary schools the opportunity to win a share of $20 000 worth of HP products and support.

The judges, including a Rural Women NZ representative, narrowed the entries down to just five winners.

The other winning schools were Ruahine School, Kopuarahi School,
Tuturumuri School, and Pokeno School.

Te Kura O Hata Maria School received the largest share of the $20 000 prize pool. Each school entry was gifted an HP Action Camera.

HP has gained insight into the need for technology in rural schools, says Victoria Mahan, HP Category Manager.

“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.”

Kerry Maw, Rural Women NZ education spokesperson, says the organisation was delighted to be part of the initiative.

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

The HP Rural Schools competition will return next year, with details to be released in mid 2015.