Student Stories


Why do our students choose Papanui High School? Take a look...
Lillith and her family talk about their Papanui High School and homestay experiences.

Lillith is from Bavaria in Germany.

Lillith stayed with us for 18 months and she decided to complete her NCEA - New Zealand's National Certificate of Educational Achievement. 

Lillith's parents wanted to make sure that the German authorities would accept her New Zealand qualifications and allow her to enter university in Germany. 

Fortunately, NZQA is a recognised qualification and Lillith achieved her university entrance requirements and was accepted.

Jannis Bierschenk

Jannis Bierschenk, from Germany created this amazing video when he was in Yr 12, aged 16. He has combined all of the skills he learnt in his Media Studies, Outdoor Education, Photography and Music classes.

Jannis has gone on to have a very successful career working in Media.

Seline Denzler and Yulia Tachikawa

Seline and Yulia produced this video to record their New Zealand experiences.

This is a video about Seline's thoughts and feelings about being an international exchange student, and her daily life during her study time at Papanui High School. It shows aspects of her life in and out of school and also her homestay experience. The video features her now lifelong friends Yulia and Nora, also Papanui High School International Students, who she met while she was here.

Chutikan (Lita)

Chutikan (Lita) from Thailand talks about her experiences of studying here from 2015 to 2017 and how this has helped her in her career since.

Mao

Mao talks about her experiences at Papanui High School in 2019 & 2020

Mao is from Japan. She joined Papanui High School in January 2019 and will stay until the end of 2020, when she will graduate from year 13, which is the last year of school in New Zealand. 

Mao was able to choose her subjects when she arrived and also to take some different subjects along the way. In her time here, Mao has studied ESOL, dance, music, maths, hospitality, painting, conversational ESOL and Japanese.

Yuri and Yuria share their New Zealand experience

Our  New Zealand experience  is  wonderful.  We are impressed by the wonderful national character of New  Zealanders and the kindness of Papanui High School staff. They are great teachers for international students! They are always smiling and friendly and take care of us. They never laugh at our English and in ESOL class we can improve our English skills. - Yuri and Yuria

My host family took me on a trip to Dunedin which was great! I looked at some very old buildings like I have never seen before. It is very different from Christchurch. Dunedin was more like Europe. Christchurch is very flat and more modern. My host family is always nice and really looked after me well during the lockdown for Covid-19. They also spoke to me when I wasn't very good at speaking English when I first arrived. I chose Papanui High School because of the International Office teachers. - Yuria

I visited Queenstown with my host family and saw a lot of amazing scenery on the way.  My host family are really kind and take me out for special dinners. I have tried lots of different foods that I can't find in Japan. Some have been nicer than others. Steak is really good! I still don't really like too much potato. - Yuri 

We are looking forward to going home but we are also feeling sad because we are going to miss all of the wonderful friends we have made here. Hopefully they can come to Japan soon, or maybe we can come back to New Zealand and see them again. - Yuri and Yuria

My New Zealand Experience  - Javier Olguin, Yr 12 from Chile

Para empezar mi nombre es Javier y quiero dejar bien claro que mi experiencia vivida en Nueva Zelanda ha sido por lejos lo mejor que me ha pasado en mi vida.

Cuando quise tomar la oportunidad de viajar a este país mis principales motivos en ese momento era el de conocer, vivir, experimentar y por supuesto mejorar mi inglés. Al principio creyendo que venía a conocer únicamente Nueva Zelanda pero resulta que termine conociendo al mundo entero y es que en Nueva Zelanda uno es capaz de encontrar gente que proviene de todo el globo terráqueo maximizando aun más tu propia experiencia     

Mi experiencia con mi homestay fue de maravilla, vivía con una señora ya mayor y un niño de Tailandia mi relación con ellos fue muy buena y la verdad era muy agradable pasar el rato conversando de diferentes cosas a la hora de la cena, también me di cuenta que la gente acá suele ser bastante relajada, alegre y muy simpática, obviamente cada homestay tiene sus reglas propias y lo mejor de la mía era que me daban total libertad ( ya sea con la hora de llegada,salida,etc) eso si siempre tenía que avisar donde estaba para no generar malentendidos y nada por el estilo.

Mi colegio:  A decir verdad a mi no se me dio la posibilidad de elegir colegio pero deben creerme que me considero un hombre afortunado al haber sido  colocado en Papanui Highschool (ubicado en Christchurch en la isla sur) ya que simplemente mi experiencia allí fue de lo mejor, hice muchas buenas amistades, conocí a gente maravillosa, los profesores que me tocaron resultaron ser bastante relajados, agradables y a la vez preocupados por el aprendizaje de los alumnos, a su vez el colegio me dio la oportunidad de conocer diversos lugares de la isla sur, lugares que uno suele ver en fotos a través de la internet, los ramos los podías elegir tu mismo osea era una educación personalizada  para ti mismo y una de las mejores cosas es que terminábamos las clases todos los días a las 2:30 PM dejándote la tarde libre para juntarte con tus amigos o simplemente relajarte.

Mi vida en NZ: Siendo sincero no se me hizo difícil acostumbrarme a mi nueva vida en Nueva Zelanda, los recorridos del bus en mi ciudad (Christchurch) eran muy simples y fáciles de aprender, la cena era la comida fuerte acá lo cual considero que era mejor ya que luego de comer un plato fuerte a uno le suele entrar un poco de sueño, también la comida era bastante sabrosa en mi opinión  , las calles son muy seguras y es un hecho completamente insólito presenciar un robo o algo por el estilo, la gente es súper amable y siempre estará dispuesta a darte una mano si tienes problemas sobretodo si saben que tu no eres nativo del país, para comunicarme con mi familia lo hacía a través de Skype cada fin de semana para no perder el contacto, aunque siendo bien sincero son tantas las cosas nuevas, las experiencias, las vistas,etc que no te dejan tiempo para extrañar a la gente que uno deja, la gente suele irse a acostar entre las 22:00-23:00 pm.

Nueva Zelanda es un país hermoso, multicultural, con vistas preciosas y lugares maravillosos los cuales día a día hacían que me encariñara más con este país, si alguien llegase a leer esto quiero que sepa que en Nueva Zelanda no solo conocerás a los “kiwis” como se hacen llamar los nativos, sino que también conocerás a gente de todo el mundo enriqueciendo el intercambio cultural y las amistades que mantendrás con gente de diversas partes de nuestro planeta. 

Kornwara Jindayanit Yr 12 from Thailand

The best part about being at Papanui High School is the teachers and friends. The teachers are funny and not strict and I can study well. The classes are really good. I will come back to New Zealand soon because I will miss my new friends. My English has improved. I can listen and speak English every day. I have enjoyed my homestay. They take care of me and they are friendly. I have an international Chinese brother and I take the bus to school. There are many international students so I can make friends with people from all over the world.

At Papanui High School, you can experience success, and have fun at the same time. You will make friends from all over the world and find a home away from home.

Andrea Gawronski - Yr 12 from Germany

Hi, my name is Andrea, I am from Germany and I have been an internationals student here since July last year.

Before I came to New Zealand I just had this huge mixture of feelings. I was really excited to be coming here, especially because I had started planning this trip in August 2014.  But there was also the fact that I had travelled to a country on the other side of the world, leaving my family and friends behind which is quite a scary thought. And most of all, I was nervous. I didn’t know if I would get along with my host family, how I would fit into the New Zealand school life and if my language skills are good enough.

But luckily all my worries were proved wrong. I am really happy that I have an awesome host family. We have done so many great things together and we always had a lot of fun. It also wasn’t too hard to get used to the New Zealand school system. At the beginning, I was obviously quite confused when you guys started talking about internals, externals and assessments. But thanks to the teachers, students and of course Mrs. Craw and the International Office I quickly learnt how school works here.

I really enjoy going to school here. It is great that everyone can choose their own subjects. In Germany, we have to take between 14 and 16 subjects, so it was really hard for me to choose just 6. I also like the school uniform. In Germany, we don’t have one and to be honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to wearing it. But after a while I realized how much better and easier the uniform is. It makes every morning less stressful and it really makes you feel that you are part of something big and important. And I believe that made it easier to feel like a student here.

But my experience here has not been only at school. I heard a lot about New Zealand’s relaxed and friendly life style and I figured out: That is totally true! And I really love it. Everyone, from the bus driver to the people at school are incredibly friendly and welcoming. “Please” and “Thanks” are part of every conversation and it is really easy to talk to everyone. I think the fact that no one judged me on my English skills and that everyone was open to speak slowly for me at the beginning is only one of the reasons my English improved so much.

Now I am already packing my stuff because I am flying home next week. I am really looking forward to seeing my family and friends again but to be honest, I am struggling to accept that my high school year is going to be over soon. I have met so many friendly people and I would call New Zealand my home.

I really want to thank you all for being so nice and welcoming to all of us internationals, for supporting us and for making this amazing experience possible!






Jasmine Kubota from Japan talks about what studying at Papanui High School meant to her. Jasmine came to New Zealand with the intention of becoming a more confident, independent person and she certainly achieved that, and so much more! 
We are so proud of you Jasmine!

Coming to Papanui high school was the beginning of my new story. As I was born and raised in Tokyo, many things were new for me. Although I did have some difficulties, people in Papanui High School are supportive, so I was able to get involved in the school community quickly. There are also so many events such as international week, sports day, dance showcase, and production. These wide-ranging opportunities enabled me to connect with other students from different backgrounds.

My life in Papanui is a crucial part of my life. It was challenging, but I made many precious memories. There was not enough time to see the entire masterpiece of New Zealand, but coming to Papanui was definitely the best choice. A lot of staff and teachers are reliable to get helpful information about school as well as other activities. For myself, school helped to organize my after-school activities as well as volunteering opportunities. I think Papanui High School not only manages our school achievements, they also try to entertain our life in NZ. I had so many great times in NZ because of their sincere support. I look forward to coming back to New Zealand again.

One of the great things about Papanui High School is diversity. Students respect each other no matter their backgrounds, so I was impressed with having International week as well as other specific language and cultural celebrations. This year’s international week, I gave a speech about my country Japan to the year 9s assembly. I talked about how different the cultures and schools are between New Zealand and Japan. I was so nervous to speak in front of all the year 9 students and the staff, but everyone listened to my speech curiously.  After that speech a lot of year 9s recognized me and gave me positive messages. That experience motivated me to keep challenging myself.  Furthermore, one of my big challenges was with the outdoors. I started taking outdoor education from the beginning of year 13. I never had a real wildlife experience, so it was tough at first. Although I hardly knew anyone in outdoor class, they warmly welcomed me to get involved in lots of activities. Interacting with real kiwi nature was an invaluable experience, and I think going out to seek nature is the best way to know NZ life quickly. I will never forget the splendid scenery that I encountered on top of the mountain after two and a half days of tramping. Also, I went on a kayaking trip for five days as a part of PE class. Even though it was my first time to paddle a kayak, a lot of people helped me, and that brought so many opportunities to get to know other people better. I gained tons of lifelong skills from all these experiences. I truly recommend taking outdoor classes or just going for a little tramp nearby.