...from the students of Queen's High School Dunedin

Greetings Earthlings!!!!!! We enjoyed the internet project when we were doing our profiles and getting our photos taken. It was fun writing on the computers. We liked it when the people from the news came. The funniest thing for us was listening to what they thought of New Zealand. Some other things we enjoyed a lot was making Docu.dramas and writing stories over the internet. We loved hearing about some of the Scottish language they used. It was interesting what they responded to some " kiwi" words we sent them. Such as "pikelet" = baby pike (fish) and "wop-wops" = feeling sick. For the next schools who undertake this project we suggest being paired up with one person each so that you really get to know them. We learnt a lot about life in the other hemisphere. We found it a challenge but very fun and interesting and hope that others have a chance to do what we did. From Hannah Webb, Rachael Harper and JoAnne Robinson

HELLO PEOPLES!!!!!! Our favourite activity during our Interlink Project with Britain was writing our profiles to put on the Internet. We wrote about our family, our hobbies, likes and dislikes and included a photo of our-selves. Fun activities included the news paper coming to interview and photograph us and Southern Television coming too. It was funny reading what the Milnes High students wrote about life in New Zealand. It was interesting to find that they confused New Zealand with Australia so much. We found most of the activities were stressful because we had to fit them around other lessons and subjects and our timetable, but they were fun and informative and we learnt a lot about Scotland. CATCH YOU LATER, BYE BYE. TRACY, SARAH, AMBER AND ANNA M.S. P.S Bye bye.

HI !!!!!!!!!!!! THESE ARE OUR COLLECTED IDEAS ON MAGIC MOMENTS DURING THE INTERLINK PROJECT. It was good when we................ Got all the computers hooked up to the Internet Found out what the Silkie Poem meant Killed all the people at the end of 'Ill Fated Love' Found out about the people at Milnes Got out of Science!!!!!!!!!!!! Got to use the Internet on Open Night It was bad when............ The teachers didn't let us use the computers We had our pictures taken for the rouges gallery Other interesting facts Monique fell over Erin laughed We killed Emma's pen We sent messages to our computers at home on open night We hope this helps you with your research, or just entertains you, because we had heaps of fun working on the whole project. From Erin Caswell, Amber Mann, Monique Le Pine, Emma Schofield and Nedra Fu from 3 Watson Bye Bye

Kia ora Milnes High! This project gave most of us the opportunity to surf the net for the first time and to find it wasn't as confusing as it seemed. It's a shame you were having trouble with your computer because the stuff you did manage to send was really interesting. Some parts were really funny, like your answers to 'Chewing the Fat' and what you thought N.Z. was like. Some projects gave us a good excuse to get out of some boring subjects eg.Science and Maths. We also got in the newspaper and on T.V! Cool huh! We learnt heaps about Scotland from this and it'll be good if it can still happen in the future. Catch ya later! From Olivia, Amanda and Erin

Kia Ora Milnes How are you these days? This is our 'MAGIC MOMENTS' project. For the past four months our class (3 Watson) have enjoyed participating in the British Council Interlink project with Great Britain. We were paired with 2 classes at Milnes High in Fochabers, Scotland. We have completed and sent a number of tasks to do with Dunedin and New Zealand. One of the funniest tasks we have done was called 'Chewing the Fat.' What we had to do was send Milnes some common New Zealand expressions and they had to guess what they meant. In return they sent us some common Scottish expressions that we had to guess what they meant. They thought that pikelets are baby pike fish and that the "wop wops" are some sort of disease a " bairn" (child) is a farm building gone wrong, " doss" (cool/magic) something on a computer, and "fleg" (fright) a mutant flea. We also compared prices of popular items to spend our pocket money on, favourite music, films, and books, and what each others countries are like some of them thought we have animals such as kangaroos, deadly snakes and koala bears, that we live in chalets along the beach where the sun shines and palm trees sway gently in the soft breeze.......and that we paint our faces, do dances dress up as kiwis and own sheep. We also recieved a package in the " snail mail " from Milnes containing a few Fochabers souvenirs - a little bottle of whisky, photographs and a video of a musical drama produced to celebrate their schools 150th anniversary. We are going to send one to them including some little kiwis, badges etc... We hope to keep in touch with Milnes High as the project has come to an end. We have really enjoyed participating in this project. From Kelly Mustoe, Helen Chin, Lisa Martin and Anna Smith

Hi Here are what we thought were the Highs & Lows of the project. THE HIGHS! Being one of the 12 New Zealand schools selected for the project was definitelt a high. We were slightly apprehensive but delighted to have the opportunity to take part. Being paired with the only Scottish school- particularly with Dunedin's own Scottish Heritage. Opening Day with the Southern TV News and the ODT (local paper). Media coverage included an article in the Sunday News with our web page address. Lots of chuckles over the initial responses from Milnes and others of their perceptions of New Zealand. Noting how the project continued to challenge the students after the initial impetus had passed. Motivation wasn't a problem. Receiving surprise by snail mail from Milnes. A parcel of goodies which included a bottle of whisky (minature!) and lots of information about Fochabers. This was much appreciated as it made us feel as though we had made a physical contact. A visit from a woman in the community who had read in the paper about our link with Fochabers. Her husband was stationed there in World War 2 and they had both recently visited for a reunion. She talked to the students, brought photos and we showed her our project. The most exciting and rewarding project we felt was the "Ill fated Love" the melodrama with the scottish - New Zealand theme. The girls game up with a multimedia project that was interactive. They were motivated and challenged by this. THE LOWS! Teething problems at the beginning meant that it took a wee while to get into the swing of things. After the first month or so we felt that the longer, more in depth projects that didn't rely on an instant response from Milnes worked better. The rigidity of the school day and the timetabling of classes not to mention the time difference was always going to be a problem. We were able to spread the projects across the curriculum- this helped enormously. Our girls said that they would like to have been teamed up with a specific student. They didn't really feel as if they got to know anyone well. Many of them have expressd an interest in a continuing key-pal/pen pal relationship. We will try and set this up next term. Overall we thought the project was brilliant! It offered challenges and opportunities for our students. The project bundles were wide and varied and so gave lots of teaching and learning options. It was an excellent way to introduce many of the girls to Internet - positive and exciting yet educational! It was great to be able to communicate with teachers and students on the other side of the world with such relative ease. We felt we got a real inside view of teachers and day to day life of school in Scotland. So similar to our own system in many ways. We would like to thank everyone involved at CWA and The British Council for giving us the opportunity to partake in this project we feel that it has been really worthwhile for staff and students alike. Thanks and goodbye for now Judy & Jenny (Queen's High teachers!!)