A busy international month with groups from Japan and China and 2 short term exchange students from France. There was lots of laughter and friendships made. 

Shirley Boys' was very happy to welcome back our longstanding sister school, Toho High School from Nagoya, Japan for their annual 3 week study programme. This year the group was the largest we have hosted in a long time. there were 37 students and 2 staff, Mr Yuiki Kawai and Mr Steve Allen.

Their arrival is a keenly awaited event every year. Our students enjoy having them on site and the level of interaction seems to increase every year as our students and those from abroad are increasingly global and culturally aware. This is a great thing to see!

Toho students take part in a an ESOL programme which is supplemented with class visits and interaction and local outings. They were welcomed to school with a powhiri performed by our outstanding Year 11 Te Reo class. For many of the students this proved to be one of their most memorable highlights of the trip. 

 My favourite memory is learning about Maori culture. When I saw the Haka I was very moved - Sakura Watanabe

I enjoyed seeing the haka. I had heard about it but I have never seen it before. It was so cool and strong - Mao

The students enjoyed a city tour, boating on the Avon, a visit to Willowbank, a day trip to Akaroa and an overnight trip to Hanmer. The day spent at Marian College was great fun. The boys enjoyed meeting the Marian students and the Marian students took quite a fancy to the Toho uniform and have asked if they can have a new uniform based on it.

The Toho students prepared excellent presntations on Japanese culture and presented them to both Marian and Shirley students. These were very well received and greatly enjoyed by the Kiwi students.

Their time here ended in a very warm Farewell party in which they danced and sang for us. They made heartfelt thank you cards which were presented to their wonderful host families. There were some tears but mainly lots of laughter and fun.

Shirley Boys' and Avonside Girls' also welcomed 26 students from 3 schools in the Sichuan region of China on Wednesday 2 August.  14 boys spent mornings here at SBHS and  in the afternoon attended a Youth Innovation and Technology Summit organised by Christchurch Educated and Ministry of Awesome.

In the morning programme the boys attended SBHS classes, made chocolate chip biscuits and also attended ESOL lessons.

 The Youth Innovation and Technology Summit  gave 5 SBHS students  the opportunity to work together with the Chinese students to solve a ‘global grand challenge’ using innovative technology.

 On Day 1 of the Summit students were welcomed by Mayor Lianne Dalziel and Consul General Jin, before they toured the Innovation Precinct and other attractions central city attractions. They were then introduced to local entrepreneurs who supported the teams and gave them tips on thinking creatively and problem solving.

The final three days of the Summit programme were jam-packed with developing teamwork skills and developing their solution to the problem. The programme culminated in each team ‘pitching’ their solution to a judging panel.

The five students from SBHs who attended the Summit and were excellent International Ambassadors were: Jayan Goldsworthy, William Ross, William Pirker, Noah Walle and Callum Worthy.

Christchurch Educated is looking at making this an annual event and to also look towards opportunities for NZ students to attend similar opportunities in China. We hope SBHS will continue to play a part in this amazing international oportunity.

We also farewelled Vincent Cabare and Antoine Garbus from France. They were only with us for a short month and we hope they enjoyed themselves. They seemed to fit in well. They found the teaching style and learning very different from France. They were friendly and outgoing and made contacts with not only our Kiwi students but with our visiting groups.

Our long term students were outstanding. It was great to see them helping the students find their way around and explain things about life in New Zealand. The groups were impressed with their level of English proficiency and one girl commented in her diary that Yusuke was so good at English and she hoped that one day her English would be that good!

I think Chisato from Toho nicely summed up the wonderfull feeling and buzz that was around school this month in her thank you letter to Mr Laurenson, our principal. She said 

"The temperature was totally different but the people's warmth was the same".