3# New Zealand School visits - smilarities and differences

The third school I visited was Rangikura School in Porirua just a few miles away from Wellington.

Driving out of Wellington along the coast we headed up to the top of the hill where the view was quite breathtaking over the harbour the water shone in the brilliant sunshine.
Rangikura is a primary school with children from a wide range of backgrounds, which according to their website is -
41% Pasifika, 38% Maori, 14% European, 4% Asian and 3% Others.

We received a warm welcome from Ondine, the teacher I had been in touch with and with the help of another teacher the school hall was soon set up for my talk.;

First I spoke to the younger children about my picture book What Colour is Love? and then we shared a Hamish McHaggis story.

The second session was with the older children and focused on my teen novels. As often happens where you have long country roads and a more sparse and spread out population, there are unfortunately teenage drivers taking extra risks resulting on deaths on the roads.

 

So there were lots of questions which sparked off much discussion.

I really enjoyed meeting the obviously dedicated and enthusiastic staff and great children in Rangikura school that morning.


As often happens photographs don't really show the scene as well as you might wish, and this was taken from the car as we left the school. There wasn't much time before the second school so we didn't really have time to stop and enjoy the view, which was a pity.