School visit thrill for Indian teens

CULTURAL EXCHANGE: Students from Indraprastha International School with their homestay "siblings" from Whanganui High School.
PHOTO: Stuart Munro

Seven Indian students who spent two weeks experiencing life in Whanganui were farewelled at an afternoon tea on Friday.

The students, from Indraprastha International School in the Indian capital, New Delhi, have been taking classes at Whanganui High School, visiting Mt Ruapehu and taking part in a number of creative and cultural activities.

The students - who were here with their deputy principal, Shalini Jain - were the first exchange students from India that Whanganui High School has hosted. They stayed with homestay families while they were in Whanganui.

Mrs Jain said everyone had had a wonderful time.

"The students have become well-connected to their homestay families, and the culture exchange has been beautiful.

Mrs Jain said some of the students are thinking seriously about coming back to New Zealand.

"They may come back in a year or two, or they may look at coming to university in New Zealand," she said.

The trip has been such as success that she hopes the relationship with Whanganui High School will be permanent, and that a group of students from Indraprastha International School would visit Whanganui every year.

Whanganui High School's international director, Alexandra Ferreti, said it had been "great fun" hosting the Year 10 students at the school.

"We look forward to seeing them again - hopefully some for a more long-term basis."

By Anne-Marie McDonald
Wanganui Chronicle 5/6/17