Tracking Changes in Photoperiod Around the Globe

Introducing Mystery Class #3

Hi! Kia Ora!

We are from a 3 classroom school of 71 pupils on the outskirts of CHRISTCHURCH. (Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and has a population of around 350 000. N.Z. has a population of 3 500 000.)

Our school has pupils from 5 years to 12 years. This means each classroom at our school has a mix of age groups. (Our room has mainly 9 - 12 year olds and 31 pupils.)

Our teacher is Mr Smith, who is also the Principal of Ouruhia. Mr Smith teaches us from Monday to Thursday and works in the office on Fridays. Mrs Smith teaches us on Fridays.

Christchurch is a flat city but has some hills around its port, Lyttelton, and higher mountains, the Southern Alps, about an hour's drive to the west. It is autumn now, and we have had a few frosts, but the cold weather does not usually hit us until July/August. (By cold, we mean frosts of around -5 to -10 degrees Centigrade; sometimes we get snow, but not very often. It is a bit of a novelty since it only settles on the ground once every year or two. There is plenty of snow in the alps, and skiing is a favourite pastime for many South Islanders.)

In summer, temperatures get up to around 25 to 35 degrees C; occasionally it has been as high as 40, but that's rare and very uncomfortable.

Our favourite sports are basketball, cricket, soccer, touch rugby or rugby, netball and hockey. Our national sports are rugby and netball, but as a rule NZ'ers follow lots of sports and are proud of their achievements on the sports fields and at the Olympics over the years. We feel we do all right for a small country.

Our school has mainly people of European descent (pakeha). We have one Maori family and one Afghani family at school this year. Last year we also had a Korean family (two boys who were learning to speak English). In the North Island there are a lot more Maori and Polynesian people. Increasingly we are getting a lot of Asian immigrants. It was a great experience for us last year to have the Korean boys at our school.

We have just had two weeks holiday. Our school holidays are as follows: 5-6 weeks from Christmas to the end of January (summer) 2 weeks in April; 2 weeks in July; 2 weeks in October. We also have the odd day off for our National holiday (Waitangi Day), Easter, ANZAC Day, Queen's Birthday, Labour Day and Show Weekend (which is our local area's provincial anniversary holiday).

Our currency is Dollars and cents. Sir Edmund Hillary is on our $5 note and the Queen is on our $20 note. Captain Cook's ship, the Endeavour is on our 50c coin.

Our Government is housed in Wellington. We have a coalition government made up of National and NZ First. Jim Bolger is the Prime Minister.

We would love to hear from you about your school and district.
Ka kite ano. Bye for now.

Regards,
Ouruhia Model School
Christchurch, NZ
msmith@nzonline.ac.nz