Wainui kids and their parents couldn’t fill in their enrolment forms fast enough at the recent July 2 week school holiday programme run by the Wainuiomata Family-Whanau Trust.

And with over 500 school kids who attended aged from five to 19, local folk were astounded by the response.

“This is an extraordinary result and it goes to show if you offer the children the right experience they will come.” says Ray Wallace Hutt City Councillor and Trust Chairman.

Through teaching children basic skills in a variety of areas such as guitar, singing, keyboard, badminton, painting, basketball, dance and rugby, the holiday programme was successful in creating a positive and fun environment for learning for the attendees.

Attributing the holiday programme’s appeal to the sporting and creative arts focussed activities offered; community leaders also equate its popularity with the renowned Outward Bound course at Onekiwa.

“We looked to build their personal values like friendship, character, confidence, problem solving skills and team work to name a few.” said Programme Coordinator Shazz Williams.

In addition to creating a fun environment for all youngsters, the educational issues and needs of local teens in Wainuiomata, was recognised. Programme Manager, Ken Laban and his team coordinated workshops with local WINZ staff and education providers to engage with the 15-18 year olds in career planning and goal setting.

One-on-one mentoring was given.  A job search focus programme run by Work and Income NZ local staff helped broaden their knowledge of how to succeed at winning jobs.  Local education/training providers came to share information about further education and trade training opportunities. 

“Giving the right experience to the wide age grouping of 5-19 years was an imposing challenge for my team.” Mr Laban said.  “We thought whatever the child’s age; the end experience has to be relevant and personal to him or her.”

The teens were also designated as Youth leaders and given roles that helped them develop the positive attributes needed in the workplace, while mentoring the younger children attending the programme.

“We could not give this experience to the children by ourselves.  A huge thanks to the mums and dads, and the koro and kuikui who came to help.  Also to our local supporters and friends who brought along their wealth of experience to be the programme tutors. And finally to the representatives of the local government agencies, the local businesses and the community groups who all gave generously in time and kind, a big thank you.”

Looking forward to the next holiday programme in September, Mr Laban is dedicated to further improvements to ensure building on the success and foundations set in July.

“From the lessons we had learnt in staging the first two holiday programmes earlier this year we have continued to mould the programme to suit the interests, abilities and capacity of the children. And judging by their feedback during the July programme we can continue to make improvements.  The next programme in September will include further refinements and I am sure that that programme will be even a more successful event.”

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