Last week was New Zealand Tech Week, a week that celebrates innovations happening in the New Zealand technology sector.

Jobs in the tech sector are plentiful and well-paid with lots of exciting opportunities to connect and work globally. However, women are desperately under-represented in this exciting field. This is a very real problem for many reasons but the one that concerns me the most is that women and girls, whether intentionally or inadvertently, are being excluded from the amazing opportunities that working in technology offers. This problem is prevalent in all STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and it is worrying that girls are somehow getting the message that these fields have nothing to offer them.

St Margaret’s College is committed to enabling our girls to have access to these opportunities as well as ensuring they are equipped with the creative, critical thinking and digital skills now needed in most careers. I am continually impressed by the incredible work done by Audrey Campbell to equip our girls with the digital skills necessary to thrive in this ever-changing world.

It is imperative that if girls are to see a place for themselves working in the technology sector, we need to start them young, using technology and seeing its benefits from a young age. I am not suggesting iPads for babies or hours of screen time for five year olds but by the time our girls reach school, they begin to develop an appreciation of how technology can be used to make our lives better. Audrey has devised a developmentally appropriate technology curriculum that ensures our girls are comfortable with technology in its many forms from the beginning of their school years. For Year 1 and 2 girls, this is about integrating the concepts of computer science and computational thinking mainly device free into their current programmes.

Audrey is in classrooms every week for Digital Technology lessons. Here’s what the girls are currently working on-

Year 1- Learning about Minibeasts; Using Computational Thinking to follow the steps to create their own minibeast.

Year 2- Focus on the SPCA, learning about the five domains of animal care- creating a mini-documentary

Year 3- Google Day- learning about the Ocean- own individual Google research

Year 4- The Antarctic- Green screening for documentaries

Year 5- Antarctica- Interactive posters using Makey Makey electronics

Year 6- ANZACS- Creating an Anzac information cube using Augmented Reality

Audrey and her team member, Linda Chong are doing amazing work in the Centre for Innovation. The enormous amount of extra-curricular clubs on offer is a testament to the passion and commitment these amazing educators have to ensure our girls continue to flourish in the digital technology space.

Here are some of the clubs on offer-

• EPro8 - Building & problem-based learning
• Coding - Computational Thinking
• Tech Ninjas - innovation & applying skills to new situations.
• Minecraft - includes failure, flexibility, construction dynamics

A huge thanks to Audrey for her creativity, the hours of research she does exploring engaging tools for our girls and the amount of time she spends supporting all the members of our Junior School team as we grow our skills.