This Way Up for Saturday 3 March 2018
This Way Up for Sat 3 March
Bits+Bytes: Spotify, Sky slashes prices and Apple cable failures. Also we visit a school for teen parents.
A school for teen parents
He Huarahi Tamaraki (HHT) is a school for teenage parents set up in Linden, north of Wellington, more than 20 years ago.
Simon Morton spent a morning meeting staff, students, and their children.
He Huarahi Tamaraki was the first teen parent unit set up in New Zealand: today there are 25 around the country, offering education to students who were unable to complete school because of pregnancy or childbirth.
With a current roll of 34, the focus is on smaller class sizes and less homework, and an on-site childcare facility means students can focus on school knowing their children are being cared for just next door.
“We’re a secondary school, we provide an academic education for our students,” Principal Helen Webber says.
“The combination of the childcare and the school – I think that’s the magic.
“Often there are stresses with delivering or finding childcare … and it’s tough organising a child.”
Many of the students have challenging lives; more than half are living independently and there are often difficulties with housing.
The flip side of the challenges and a life that's different to other teenagers is the “joy of having a little person” she says. “That’s what we witness daily – the connectedness of the mums and dads to their children."
Bits+Bytes: Spotify goes public
Photo: 123RF
Bits and Bytes with Peter Griffin helping you navigate the world of tech and analysing the latest news from the digital world. This week, Spotify goes public (well sort of!). But can it continue to dominate in the world of streaming? With over 70 million paying subscribers, it has nearly half of the global music streaming market, and users average 25 hours on the platform per month. Sky TV slashes prices this week as it loses subscribers and revenue to competitors like Netflix and Lightbox. And finally a listener questions about charging cables: why do Apple cables seem to fail so frequently?