Will someone in a high school in New Zealand talk to me about it?

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-S-

You go to high school in New Zealand for five years generally. You start from about age 12/13 and you will be a Year 9, then in your final year (Year 13 you will be around 17/18). Years 9 and 10 are known as Juniors, and Seniors are years 11 - 13. Most schools in New Zealand wear uniforms, and it is not uncommon to go to single sex schools - there are a lot of them! I know in Christchurch it's about 50/50 single sex/ co-ed schools. My school started at 8.40, and most start around that time- 8,45, or 9.00 etc. And finish around 3.00 - either earlier or later depending on the day. In most places wednesday is the 'sport day' and so we finished at 2.30.

The general curriculum is English (at my school was compulsory to year 12 then optional in year 13, Maths (often split into statistics or calculus in Year 13), Science (later split in to chemistry, physics and biology), Social Studies (generally taken in year 9 & 10, then splits into geography and history, though some schools still offer it to senior years), usually schools offer languages (French, German, Maori, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and some schools even offer Latin!), Art (This was compulsory at my school in year 9, then an option through later years and in senior years it split into painting/ printmaking, photography/ design or graphics), Music (was compulsory for us in year 9, then could be taken as an option to year 13. And in years 12 and 13 you can take classical studies or art history. Most schools offer other subjects such as Economics (splitting into accounting or economics in years 12 and 13), I.T. (basically computer studies), home economics (sewing or hospitality/ cooking), P.E. (physical education - this was compulsory in year 9 and 10, then became and option), and Drama.

Pretty much everyone has a computer, and most schools have computers rooms for everyone to use.
I'm not to sure on the AP or honours classes, but some schools have streamed subjects - where more capable students do a slightly harder/ modified course.

After school, some go home, some go to the dairy or get food somewhere and a lot go to their local mall.

At my school we had sports groups, and one was for surfing, so they went out on a wednesday to the beach for a competition or just a fun surf. i surf and i just used to go out whenever. summer is really good hear, and you can still go in winter if your keen :D - it also does depend on where you are going to be living. - Same goes for skimboarding. My school also had a snow boarding group and in the winter they went to mount hut or somewhere else in the Alps occasionally. Majority of tourists who snowboard here go to Queenstown for snowboarding, but there are of course other places for that. (in the North Island mainly Ruapehu).

Most people here will be really interested in where you are from in the U.S. and you will probably be asked a ton of questions! So it won't be hard to make friends or anything either. Other than that you should have a good time, most people are nice :D

cheeky_fi

At my High School there's so many foreign exchange students there are buildings dedicated to just getting them introduced to New Zealand alone. Japan, Germany, UK, and the US, I have these people in just my classes alone, so you would fit in just fine. Computers? Hundreds of them (at school) and almost everyone has at least one computer at home.

Depending on where you live here, most students head of to town after school and hang out there, or the mall if there's one around. If you're lucky to be at a school by the beach and it's warm enough, then then yeah you might go for a dip. Kids here usually buy ice creams after school from the 'dairy' (that's Kiwiana for a typical small store if you don't know. We're all about Ice cream here so they usually have a wide range to chose from- oh and i don't know what you call them but we call 'ice lollies' 'ice blocks'.) Surfing is usually for the holidays, the christmas/summer holidays in particular (you should know that NZ christmas is in the summer!) and stuff like skiing and snowboarding is done on Mt. Rurapehu (it's an active Volcano but it's pretty safe!) or the mountains in the South Island (Queenstown is well known for that stuff.) You'd have to ask around about the parkour stuff, sorry i don't know what that's all about.

I've been in NZ for four years and in every class i've had there's always been less guys than girls, so you'll be welcomed by the girls and the guys. That, and being from a foreign country, i'm sure you'll become a bit of a babe magnet! People will be curious about where you come from, therefore find you interesting and cool because of your accent.

Just be yourself, relax, and the rest should fall into place.
Do you know whereabouts in NZ you're planning to stay? Contact me if you want to know anything else.
All the foreign students i've spoken to say they are enjoying life in NZ, and i'm sure you will too! :)

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lol we just got an american exchange student in my maths class the other day and she seems interesting. with international students at my school were really friendly towards them(i am, at least. i find it really easy to talk to and get along with exchange students), yeah and we find out lots about where theyre from etc.if youre meaning at home, pretty much everyone has a computer. after school we usually go home or go to the mall or something. and ive never heard of skimboarding lol, i guess you could go surfing but its not talked about much, and if you wanna snowboard, you have to go to mt ruapehu in the north island or some of the other mountains down in the south island during the winter months. and ive never heard of free-runs or parkour sorry.

youll have a great time here! :D lol.

mochaseptember

New Zealand high schools are much the same as other high schools. What do you want to know specifically? Mostly, they start at 8:30 am, finish at about 3:00pm. We have 2-3 breaks during the day and do subjects like: languages, art, music, drama, Social Studies, Science, English, Maths, PE (Sport), Health and options.

Mikayla

Most people have computers at home yes, but there is usually lots at school to. School day goes from 8:30 till 3pm usually, after school people do all sorts of things. Its your spare time so you can do whatever(if your exchange family approves of course). The weekends are a great time to go snowboarding and surfing etc.

Supra Kid

I never gone to High School (they call it college here...lol, but some are called High school) here, but my classmates told me some about their college (high school) life...

. They don't know about AP and honors (honors maybe???) here. Instead they do it by level (1, 2 ,3 and 4...e.g English 3, Chem 2..etc) on the topic they (student) plan on taking, NCEA is like a prerequisite for College, they call it University here. So if your like me, I have AP and honors and good grades (As and Bs) and they didn't recognize it for some weird reason or I just have one messed up consultant when I was enrolling for College here. So I took all their NCEA crap, basically I redid Physics, Chemistry, English!!! and Maths...be warned!!!!

. Loads of computer over here, they hardly use myspace here, they mostly use bebo and facebook.

. Students go home, study, hangout, sports...etc. Basically the same as US HS student.

. Some of my classmates do surfing alot. But they live near the beach.

. Since I am from L.A (90039), they mostly ask - is it a rough place, gangs, drugs, shootings, murder...etc basically what the media feed to New Zealand and notting positive about the States so they think am some bad ***...but am not. Well lets say, most people here will just judge whatever they think about you. So just be yourself.

. Extra info...NZ high school kids are not very trendy. So if you drive a nice car they all go praising about it for some weird reason compared back at the states they just give a hate or :) and if you have mad skills in an instrument, again they praise.

Princesspea

regarding AP or honours courses - not exactly. As someone said, some schools do have more able students in another class so that you can learn further. However, what IS common, at least amongst schools near a university is to offer their students university courses or some polytechnics (no idea what they are called in the US - trade schools?) classes. Even when I was in high school we had people going to the university (Victoria) and taking mathematics and english courses there. A lot do this.

However, it seems that the focus for more exchange students is the 'cultural' rather than academic side of life. So, get involved with the groups, teams and activities the school may offer here. Join the environment clubs, the social committees (ie the ones organising the school dances and parties), play on a rugby team, join the tennis team, join the ski club (my high school had a ski club and we were in Wellington so it's not restricted to those on the mountain). If you are from a city, join a rural or agricultural club.

Skimboarding? The only skim boarding I know of are beach skimboards - are these the ones you mean? I suspect schools near the beach have people who go surfing more. I lived near a surf beach (5 - 10 min drive) and being in the surf lifesaving club was a popular activity. Do most people have computers? Hmmm, I would say that most people who are not particularly low income would. I think someone who is hosting you almost certainly would. I don't know anyone who doesn't have a computer at home unless they have particular 'philosophical' reasons against having one.

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