Category Archives: NZ Media

Report veils junior school violence

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From the Family First NZ Weekly newsletter:

Report veils junior school violence
The Press 06 August 2008
A Ministry of Education report trumpeting a fall in school suspensions has overlooked a 37 per cent surge in primary school disciplinary actions. …the number of primary school children stood down and suspended has grown from 4800 in 2000 to 6595 last year. In 2007, 945 primary school students were suspended and 5650 stood down …Educators say those numbers reflect an ongoing trend for increasingly violent misbehaviour by children as young as five.

Minister of Education Chris Carter released the ministry report heralding a “concerted effort by schools supported by the ministry”. Family First national director Bob McCoskrie, who pursued the ministry over the data, said he could not believe the report did not even touch on a nationwide problem. “We need to be asking ourselves some pretty tough questions about why almost 1000 kids are being chucked out of primary schools for behaviour that is just so bad that schools have got to the point where they won’t even work with it,” McCoskrie said. READ MORE
Also: Troubled pupils kept on at school – to make government look good! READ MORE

Policeman takes girl to school each day

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http://www.stuff.co.nz/4642055a11.html

Policeman takes girl to school each day

By JOHN HARTEVELT – The Press | Monday, 04 August 2008

A Christchurch mother has been prosecuted over her daughter’s truancy in the first Canterbury case before the courts under a new scheme designed to cut wagging.

The mother of the 14-year-old Linwood College student was given a six-month suspended sentence on Thursday in the Christchurch District Court.

If the student is caught wagging again within the next six months, the woman will go back to court and be sentenced again.

Police are so keen to prevent the student going astray again that an officer is taking her to school each morning.

The police district co-ordinator of youth services, Senior Sergeant John Robinson, who is doing the daily pick-up, said the girl had been getting her schooling back on track.

She had told him her relationship with her mother had improved, and she was enjoying being back in school.

“Like any programme, there are plenty that we’ve got hassles with, but currently she’s doing really, really well. I’m exceptionally proud of her,” Robinson said.

The girl’s mother went to work early, and Robinson said he was happy to do the school run to get the girl back in the habit of going to school.

“If it’s what it takes to get her back engaged in school, then that’s great. It’s really, really good,” he said.

Parents have been prosecuted over truant children in the past, but this is the first case to have been brought in Canterbury under a new scheme called Rock On, which has six steps before a prosecution is made.

The girl’s mother was sent two letters from Linwood College. “And then there’s a knock on the door by the police, who serve a letter,” Robinson said.

The district truancy service takes the matter to the school.

“There’s an informal conference held at the school, where some of the agencies get together, along with the school, and discuss what the issues are.”

A further letter was sent informing the mother there would be a family group conference.

The family group conference put in place a series of steps, and when those failed to work the prosecution was made.

“We don’t want to prosecute parents for not having their kids at school, but we also want them to buy in to the process to get their kids ultimately re-engaged back in to school,” Robinson said.

The scheme was designed as a 16-week programme but had dragged on longer, he said.

Linwood College principal Rob Burrough said the student was back at school and doing well.

“She’s not a bad kid; it’s just she hadn’t been turning up to school,” he said. “Sometimes the tough-love approach is the best way because it is a shock to students when mum or dad is going to get prosecuted because they’re not going to school.”

He was delighted with the support of the police in taking the girl to school each day.

“They haven’t just dumped her. I knew he was doing that, and it’s great,” Burrough said.

Linwood is one of six schools in Christchurch trialling the Rock On scheme.

Robinson said further prosecutions were likely, with many students going through the family group conference stage.

Home schoolers swap teaching tips

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http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4633178a7694.html

Home schoolers swap teaching tips

By JOHN HARTEVELT – The Press | Monday, 28 July 2008

Parents who home school their students compared notes on a surge in their number at a gathering in Christchurch at the weekend.

Home schoolers from Christchurch and around the country met in Bishopdale for a curriculum fair and a series of workshops.

National director of the Home Education Foundation Craig Smith said about 50 people attended and visited seminars which covered topics ranging from classical education to how home education could prevent burnout.

Home schooling appealed to many parents because of the “administrative bullying” of teachers and the public education system in general.

“I hear a lot parents tell me my child’s been at school now for three years and they haven’t learned a darn thing,” Smith said.

The number of children home schooled has grown from about 5280 10 years ago to 6500 in July last year.

Home-schooled children must obtain a certificate of exemption from regular schooling.

The Ministry of Education said home-based schooling must meet the same standards as registered schools.

Kathy Duncan said her four children, aged between five and 12, mixed with a lot of other children who were home schooled.

“Certainly our children wouldn’t socialise with 30 other children the same age as them every day but they do have friends they see regularly,” Duncan said.

Home schooling was a a lifestyle choice, she said.

“It’s not just like having school at home … all of life becomes an education. It’s really hard to separate our life from the education.”

Duncan does not have any teaching qualifications but she said she had “a lot of experience”.

Home schooling is most popular on the West Coast, where 1.9 per cent of children are in home schooling.

The Canterbury Home Educators group has 230 members, representing less than 1% of students in the region.

Smith said aspects of the national assessment programme (NCEA) were “anti-intellectual” and the school curriculum needed to get back to basics and cut out political correctness.

Smith did not want any more Government funding because he feared it would take control of home schoolers.

“The ERO (Education Review Office) is sitting in judgment on the way you as a parent relate to your own child,” he said.

Owen Walker “Akill”: World at the fingertips of NZ’s young and lucky geek

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It would seem that Owen Walker was home educated.

By putting this news item on this website we do not endorse the wrong that he did but want to highlight the skills that he gained through possibly being home educated and self taught.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10522457

By Jane Phare and Carolyne Meng-Yee

Owen Walker (left), with friend Richard Simms. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Owen Walker (left), with friend Richard Simms. Photo / Sarah Ivey

The Whitianga computer whiz kid who masterminded an international network of computer hacking has become something of a local hero, flooded with international job offers and celebrated by fellow geeks.

Last night local geekers organised a birthday/freedom party for Owen Walker, who turned 19 yesterday. The party, a LAN (local area network) night of playing computer games, was to celebrate Walker’s discharge without conviction in the High Court at Hamilton last week.

Walker has yet to make a decision about his future but his stepfather Billy Whyte told the Herald on Sunday that his son had been inundated with job offers from overseas.

In an extraordinary move backed by the police, Justice Potter last week discharged Walker without conviction on some of the most sophisticated crimes seen in New Zealand. The judge took into account that Walker could have a brilliant future using his talents overseas. He was ordered to pay $9526 towards his share of damage to Pennsylvania University’s computer system, give his computer and related assets to the police and pay costs of $5000.

In April, Walker pleaded guilty to six charges, including accessing a computer for dishonest purpose, damaging or interfering with a computer system, possessing software for committing crime and accessing a computer system without authorisation. The crimes carry maximum sentences of up to seven years in prison.

In a poacher-turned-gamekeeper scenario the Crown acknowledged that if Walker escaped conviction he could use his skills to help law enforcement agencies. The police have expressed interest in considering him for a job.

Walker told the court he was interested in forensic analysis and securities systems and would be interested in working with the New Zealand Police should an offer arise.

For the moment he is still working part time in Whitianga as a computer programmer, and living at home. His only asset is a computer he bought to replace the one seized.

Whitianga Year 13 student Ella Grierson said yesterday that she and a group of computer friends had decided to hold a birthday/freedom party for Walker to celebrate the court’s decision.

“I was glad he wasn’t convicted because people needed to focus on what he didn’t do. He is really a nice person, I mean he wasn’t hurting anybody. He is a really smart guy.”

Grierson said Walker had become a local celebrity.

“I think he will go down in Whitianga history. It’s pretty exciting, especially because he didn’t go to school and when he did he was bullied. It’s great that the world has become aware of him and his amazing skills.”

Added later:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10501518

Self-taught Whitianga computer whiz Owen Walker………

Home-schooled in his high-school years and with no formal training in computers, Walker taught himself computer programming and encryption.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=93&objectid=10522449&pnum=0

His mother says he was diagnosed at age 10 with mild Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism often characterised by social isolation but great intelligence…..

But he was taunted, and, by the age of 14, he had been pulled out of school by his parents.

“He was bullied by the ‘cool’ kids, especially the boys. Also because he was a computer geek. They were boys being boys but they were mean to him.

“Self-taught, he developed skills and knowledge which impressed even the FBI investigators who closed in on him. As he hit his mid teens he became increasingly fascinated by what he could do with computers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AKILL

Walker was home-schooled from the age of 13, removed from school due to bullying. He received no formal computer training, instead teaching himself programming and encryption.