Russell School, Bay of Islands

This bear went fly fishing!

The Queen Elizabeth outside Russell

Russell School sign 

Scoler meets the class

Russell school

Russell was called Kororareka by the Maoris before the British settlers renamed it and made it the first capital of New Zealand before Auckland.  It now has a population of about 1,000 people and is well known as a tourist destination because of it's history and many old buildings. The town is located in The Bay of Islands which is a very beautiful area of Northland. It is on a deep estuary opposite the town of Pahia and near Waitangi where the treaty was signed.

 Many large cruise ships visit, some, like the Queen Elizabeth, on a cruise round the world.  Russell Primary School also has bears which it sends round the world! There are lots of bears which are given messages about themselves and where they would like to go. These bears are left around the town for tourists to find and, if they are taken, the tourists send messages about where the bear is and what he is doing. Some of the bears have been round the world and are now back in Russell. When the pupils get a message from a bear they look up where in the world it is and find out about the country and place it is in. 

The headmaster, Mr Fuller, invited Scoler to meet his class. The class showed us how they found out where their bears were and looked up Scole in Norfolk. We told them about Norwich and some of the history of Norfolk, they might like some postcards of Norwich Castle and other famous sights near Scole. They sang songs for us and the boys showed us how to do a haka, a maori dance and song used to frighten rivals. The New Zealand rugby team always do a haka in front of the team they are playing to try and frighten them! This year the rugby world cup is being played in New Zealand, The All Blacks, The New Zealand team will be doing lots of hakas.