Special Features - britain4pacifickids.org

The British High Commission, with the support of the New Zealand Minister of Education, and the Wellington Super 14 Hurricanes launched a new educational website aimed at Pacific Island children earlier this year.

The launch event involved children from Cannons Creek School in Wellington, players from the Wellington Hurricanes rugby team, and a videoconference link-up with Samoa Primary School in Apia. Hon. Chris Carter, New Zealand’s Minister of Education was also there to welcome the initiative.

www.britain4pacifickids.org has been developed to assist Pacific Island school students who are learning about the UK for school projects or just for fun. It also offers links to websites designed for children by institutions such as the Science Museum in London, the Natural History Museum, and CBBC.

The site is aimed at school children aged 7-16 years, featuring a wealth of factual information on British history and geography, the Royal Family, the arts, and British culture. The children's unit of the BBC in the UK have supplied the News section which has constantly updated news and sport from Britain. Other sections of the site include British Sports, Our Planet, Science and a Picture Gallery.

The site has been launched with a naming poll of the site's mascots, a British Owl, and a Pacific Turtle. A voting poll is currently running online with a selection of names to choose from.

The ‘About You and Me’ section focuses on the relationship between Britain and the Pacific Islands. An interactive segment also allows children to compare life in their cities to that of London. We have also created a special section "All About You" where Pacific Island children can send us their own work, artwork, writing, photos etc which we will publish on the site for the world to see!

Speaking about the launch of the site, British High Commissioner George Fergusson, commented:

"Educational resources are difficult to come by for schools in the South Pacific region so we decided to produce a website designed specifically for Pacific Island children to enable them to conduct their research on-line.

“We’re also aware of the limitations of Internet access in some parts of the Pacific Islands and have downloaded the website content onto a CD ROM for schools without access to the Internet.”

The Hurricanes’ Pacific Island rugby players, captain, Rodney So’oialo (Samoan), Tane Tu’ipulotu (Tongan) and Api Naikatini (Fijian) were on hand showing strong support for the website.

The launch event was very enjoyable, and the video conferencing link up with Samoa went very well, it was great to see the interaction between the children through the internet linkup. The lovely dancing and singing of the multi-cultural group from Cannons Creek School also touched everyone. It was a very heart-warming event.

Both the High Commissioner, George Fergusson and New Zealand’s Minister of Education, Hon. Chris Carter, thoroughly enjoyed the event, George commented “it was genuinely good fun.” Jebi Philips from Samoa emailed to say “Kudos to the British High Commission. Great initiative!! The faces of the kids here said it all, it was certainly a big hit. Very natural, spontaneous and thoroughly enjoyable.”

The Principal, Ruth O’Neill, of Cannons Creek School in Wellington, whose students were involved with the development of the website said “It’s certainly going to be a good resource.”