Ichikawa High School Visit

The 20 boys who we hosted at John McGlashan and 18 girls hosted by St Hilda's loved their time in Dunedin. They talked very excitedly about Dunedin's lovely scenery, the hills, the parks, the birds, the native trees and the amazing open spaces.

Their aim in coming here, aside from experiencing another culture, was to improve their English.  Each morning the boys had ESOL classes in the ELC with two specialist English support teachers. After lunch in the dining room they had a variety of classes with our John McGlashan teachers. They made helicopter spinners in wood technology, cooked a lamb and venison BBQ lunch in the food tech room, were given lessons in Maori Language and Culture and joined in a Drama class.

They got to show us some of their culture too. Each boy gave a 5 minute presentation to a John McGlashan class, in English, about an area of interest in their own lives. We heard about Japanese temples, sweets, anime and manga, earthquakes and Japanese history.

They performed and acted out a song at the farewell ceremony about a traditional fishing village, showed us some of their customary games and crafts and performed an excellent haka on their last day. 

A huge, heartfelt, thank you to all the wonderful McGlashan  families who hosted our visitors. The kind welcome the students received and the generous hospitality shown to them made their time here special.