This year over 300 events throughout the country will highlight the many aspects of The Link between New Zealand and Britain. One of these will be solely directed towards school children under the heading The Schools InterLink Project - or InterLink for short.

• InterLink will comprise a series of activities which schools in New Zealand and Britain will undertake during Terms 1 & 2 of 1997 (January - mid June 1997);

• 12 New Zealand schools and 12 schools in Britain will be invited to participate directly in the project. These schools will be paired to undertake the activities and communicate and share their discoveries with each other via the Internet facilities of e-mail and the World Wide Web;

• the schools will be asked to identify a Form 3 class or group of students (13 year-olds) to carry out the activities;

• the activities will be progressive and will be designed to ensure that the paired schools need to co-operate and share in order to achieve the objectives. An example of an activity might be:
  • the British school is asked to discover information about the whereabouts of a chalk kiwi drawn on a hillside in England near their school; at the same time the New Zealand school is asked to research the "other side of the story" - that of a New Zealand army unit based in Britain for a period of time which created the image during their time there;

• this activity, undertaken by a pair of schools, would assist students to discover with a new perspective some of the historical links that exists between the countries. Similarly activities which explore contemporary themes will also be designed;

• as well as a national focus, the activities will also encourage students to explore their communities and gain information and insights from their local businesses, arts, museums, institutions and from the people in their midst;

• as much as possible activities will be developed to be curriculum-based, and will, for example, reflect the aims and objectives of the English, Social Studies, Technology and Science curricula;

• the project will be showcased on an Internet site which will include profiles of the participating schools, and the activities and ensuing outcomes published for the interest of a national and global audience.

• in addition it is anticipated that promotion of the project will occur in a variety of media.

The aims of InterLink with respect to students include:

• promoting in students an awareness of partner schools, cultures and countries within a relevant context;

• utilisation of the Internet as a means of communication, as a research tool and as a source of information;

• encouraging students' personal communicative skills whilst developing data-analysing, problem-solving and team-building skills;

• providing students with an enjoyable and motivating activity which also increases their levels of knowledge and experience.

CWA wishes to thank the participating schools and associated contributors who have agreed that their material may be published on the InterLink site without restriction for the worldwide Internet audience to enjoy.