Leithfield links into Taranaki
Hurleyville School in Taranaki is tiny with a roll of seven pupils. Earlier this year principal Sarah Hampton put out a call for a pen pal for her only Year 6 student – Samara.
The call was answered by Leithfield School teacher Kerry Aitken and year 6 student, Ivy.
Leithfield School principal Sharon Marsh said
what started out with just the two was so successful they tried to do it for others.
‘‘The inter-school connection, spanning 400km, soon grew to add a further three students from each school.’’
Rather than the traditional wait for letters, the modern technology meant the four children are E-pals, jumping online weekly to catch up and share work.
‘‘It started out with formalised sessions twice a week, but now the students manage it themselves.’’
The other three students also have E-pals from either Westport or Mount Cook, doubling the school’s ‘‘online roll’’ to 14.
‘‘We have 131 pupils and we think of ourselves as a small school so it was interesting for the children to see we are a big school compared to some in New Zealand,’’ Marsh said.
Last week the Hurleyville pupils visited Christchurch on their school camp and the four e-pal girls made the short drive north to Leithfield to meet their e-pals in person.