Prince Harry Visits Schools Around New Zealand

Monday 11th May 2015

Prince Harry made a special visit to schools around the country when he dropped into an online class at Halfmoon Bay School, Stewart Island. This morning’s German class is taught by Stephanie Michel from Kaimata in Taranaki and has students from Stewart Island as well as Orere, near Auckland, and Kaponga School in Taranaki. The students, and staff of the participating schools were very surprised and excited to hear of their visitor when they arrived at school this morning.

The students all greeted Harry in German and he was asked whether he knew any German. He replied that he can’t speak German, that he had learnt French at school but had forgotten most of it and that he would love to learn Spanish. Harry’s advice to the children about learning another language was repetition, repetition, repetition and write to things down. His experience of German speaking countries had been from his skiing holidays. Harry stayed for 10 minutes chatting to students before he had to leave to join with the activities planned for him at Halfmoon Bay School.

Halfmoon Bay students learn German, te Reo Māori and lead a Rural & Remote Schools Project. In previous years they have also been involved in Spanish, French, and Mandarin language classes and Astronomy, Maths and Physics classes. Students in remote and isolated areas such as Stewart Island have access to a range of learning opportunities through the Virtual Learning Network Primary School which is a virtual schooling initiative supported by the Ministry of Education. http://primary.vln.school.nz

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