'He's from their world,” says Merivale Primary School principal Jan Tinetti. 'So he will fit in just beautifully.”

‘He' is a shorty, just 200mm tall, so he will stare most of the Merivale kids right in the kneecaps. He has piercing blue eyes, exaggerated movement and a distinctive, monotone speech pattern.

Waiata-Aroha Hemopo, Tuara Heke and Rayvin Adamsnoda with the robot. Photo: Daniel Hines.

But Jan is still picking he'll be probably be the most popular kid on the block.

‘He' is Meccano Meccanoid G15, he is an android, a robot. And he started school lunchtime Tuesday. He dances, tells jokes, has a thousand phrases and voice recognition.

Well, he will soon. G15 arrived in a box and it'll take the kids of Merivale about 20 hours to put his 600 modern Meccano pieces together. Then he will probably be christened with a new name and he will get on with it.

'He is not a toy, he is a tool; and one the kids can especially relate to,” says Jan. 'We have been looking at ways of getting involved in programming or coding, thinking outside the square, looking at alternative thinking; and programming allows them to do that.”

Coding, in the simplest of terms, is telling a computer what you want it to do by typing in step-by-step commands. Computers aren't very clever but they are obedient and will do exactly what you want as long as you tell them precisely what and how.

It's been likened to learning a foreign language and is part of the national primary school curriculum in the United Kingdom.

Jan has seen the robots at conferences.

'And the kids have watched them online and have been really, really intrigued. And they will engage with the robot when they might not engage otherwise.”

'Robots are from their world and they are very, very excited. We are pushing our science and technology education; and this connects with it really well.”

G15 had to be head-hunted so Merivale Primary went to the newly formed Donors Choice Charitable Trust in New Zealand for $400 worth of help. Its mantra is ‘teachers growing learners' and is based on a successful American concept.

When schools like Merivale need something and there's no money through normal funding channels they can call make a case to Donors Choice.

One trustee Ken Knott says he was expecting to be called on to assist growing a market garden and learning about vegetables.

'That's what I thought our first project would be, but a robot?” The American trust has provided more than $350 million by matching up sponsors with teachers and schools.

The local trust is also assisting 30 Bellevue pupils with the $20 they each need for a web licence for a year. 'It apparently lifts their literacy and numeracy to whole new levels.”

Ken took G15 to school for his first day. Now he's being unpacked and pieced together and soon Merivale Primary pupils could be pondering new careers opportunities.

Coders are said to be the architects and builders of the digital age. In the UK during the next decade there will be an estimated 1.4 million jobs in computer sciences and only 400,000 graduates qualified to do them. Perhaps G15 will assist some of our Merivale kids into those jobs?