School's history website gets award

Mahana School has won one of three national awards for a local history website.

At an award ceremony at Te Papa last night, year 7 student Briar Smith-Waddell and administrator Jenny Robinson accepted the Living Heritage Taonga Tuku Iho Award on behalf of the school.

The school's project involved everybody in the school sharing what they had learnt about the school's history, from games their grandparents had played at school to an interview with a pupil from the school's first year, 1915.

Principal Justin Neal said the 2007 project had been linked to their school production and drew on a range of historical resources, from trips to Founders Park to families' pictures to interviews with early pupils.

All three of the school's classes chose different aspects of their school's history to showcase and Mr Neal said they had been greatly assisted by local woman Tricia Cuthbertson.

Chairman of the Living Heritage steering group Laurence Zwimpfer said the judges had been impressed by the "lovely, clean easy-to-read layout", the use of mixed media, such as incorporating a podcast and a slideshow into the site, and the creativity displayed in putting the stories together.

"Living Heritage, Taonga Tuku Iho Awards celebrate our country's heritage and our treasures," said NZ National Commission for Unesco chairman Bryan Gould.

"Unesco recognises that living or intangible heritage provides people with a sense of identity and continuity. Helping young people to learn from their past is a key way to help prepare them for the future."

A link to Mahana's Living Heritage project can be found on the school's website, mahana.school.nz.

- © Fairfax NZ News