Opoutere School principal Vaughan van Rensburg, accompanied by teacher Jan-Marie Kellow and Kopu project facilitator, Wayne Howes, donned their best bib and tucker for the Computerworld Excellence Awards held in Auckland recently.
Nominated in the category Excellence in the Use of IT in Education: Primary and Secondary, Opoutere School was up against some stiff competition and the eventual winner was named as Samuel Marsden Collegiate from Wellington.
Wayne was philosophical about the loss saying the team could take pride from their achievement in reaching the finals.
"I was a little disappointed that Opoutere did not take the prize, but honoured to be a part of a team of people who were recognised as one of the four finalists in this category of a nationwide competition for excellence in ICT," says Wayne.
Vaughan said the school should take heart from making it into the finals as the Judges had an extremely difficult job in just choosing the finalists.
Putting aside their disappointment, Vaughan, Wayne and Jan-Marie were gracious in defeat and went and personally congratulated the team from Samuel Marsden Collegiate.
However, the mood soon lifted and the Opoutere table, which also included DigiOps' project manager Garry Falloon and editor Jane Thomson, and Vaughan and Wayne's wives, was rocking again to TV personality and singer Frankie Stevens' world-class cabaret act.
Congratulations again to Wayne, Vaughan and Jan-Marie for their outstanding effort in reaching the finals in this hard-fought category of the Computerworld Excellence Awards!
