Police target unfinishedhomework
Police have been executing a new type of search warrant in one of Porirua’s toughest suburbs.
Staff from the Royal New Zealand Police College have been volunteering an hour a week to help children from Russell School – a predominantly Ma¯ori and Pasifika decile 1 primary school – with their homework over the past year.
They have built relationships with a core bunch of 18 year 4 to 8 pupils, and helped them with everything from learning to read to upping their speed on the beep test as part of the Who Did You Help Today Trust’s homework club initiative.
Russell School principal Sose Annandale said the ‘‘big win’’ for her was seeing at-risk kids developing positive relationships with authorities.
‘‘It’s being able to access the good things they experience with them in an environment like a school homework class, against some of the things they see in the street,’’ she said.
Many pupils excelled at the school in Porirua’s east, exemplified in a glowing Education Review Office report released in October that found a ‘‘sustained upward trend’’ of improvement in reading, writing and mathematics.
Senior constable Renee Per- kins co-ordinated the project after the Who Did You Help Today Trust’s founder Stacey Shortall spoke to staff about how successful the homework club had been at nearby Holy Family School.
‘‘This is a prevention initiative. We build trust and confi- dence so if any of these kids are having difficulty they know that they can approach a police officer to help,’’ Perkins said.
‘‘Some of these children ... for example, are refugees, and so haven’t ever had interactions with police.
‘‘Some might have had nega- tive interactions with police so to see police in a positive, friendly light can only be a good thing.’’
Pupil Solomon Pule, 10, said police helped him improve his reading and writing.
‘‘Once when they came, I was struggling with my reading,’’ he said.
‘‘They gave me advice like when I don’t know a word, they tell me to sound it out.
‘‘The next week at Homework Club I got better,’’ he said.
‘‘I want to be like police, but work at the dog section because it was pretty fun training the dogs and being with them.’’