One student's response is below, comments from Michaela Kerr, year 12 student at Waimea College

"I have been in contact with some of my French buddies, both on holidays, and after getting a very intensive conversations about schooling systems in each of the countries, I realised that they are going to start our equivalent of year 13.  But they all seemed happy with their exam results, and one even began sending me photos of Paris before he (casually mentioned) he was going to Italy for a couple days!

I think that having a partner school is very exciting and opens a world of opportunity (literally!). Having people that we can talk to in both languages is a way of unlocking this new place and country to discover new connections between France and New Zealand, especially during WW1.  By having these connections, this helps us, as students to have more possibilities when we leave school, as it is the same as having friends around our own country, but in a different country with a different culture, and I think, as a future student at Tertiary education, this connection gives me the option to study overseas, and I think that is pretty awesome"