Rotorua's John Paul College students recognised for website on diversity

The winning team of John Paul College girls took away $1,500. Photo / Supplied

John Paul College students have taken out a top national award at this year's Tahi Rua Toru Tech in-school challenge.

The 2019 National Winners were announced in Wellington, following 10 regional finals held across New Zealand in October.

As part of the Tahi Rua Toru Tech Challenge, teams of three or four students found a problem in their local school or community and had to use digital technologies to solve it.

John Paul College team ShumbaLeon took out the secondary level for year 9 and 10 students for their creation of a website that showcased cultural diversity at school.

The website was also a platform for students to share their stories and culture with other students.

The team, made up of three girls, was awarded a cheque for $1500.

Other schools to win their divisions were from Hāwea Flat, Morrinsville and New Plymouth.

More than 6500 students participated in this year's challenge.

The Ministry of Education's deputy secretary for early learning and student achievement Ellen MacGregor-Reid said a "huge scale of learning" had gone on in the challenge.

"The majority of the students didn't know how to write any code at the start – and yet that was such a stand-out feature of the innovations I've seen."

Partnering with the Ministry of Education, the IT industry was supporting the introduction of the new Digital Technologies and Hangarau Matihiko curriculum into schools and Kura with the 123Tech Challenge.

Tahi Rua Toru Tech is being delivered by a partnership of not-for profit organisations led by IT Professionals NZ and started in its current form in 2018.