Our Senior ESOL Group's Trip to Riccarton Bush

In Term Three it is hoped that this same group of students will be able to share their work on Riccarton Bush (as a forest study) at an ESOL parent gathering. The students will briefly share some of the highlights and photos of the trip in the blog. Trudy: On Tuesday the senior ESOL group went to Riccarton Bush to look at a forest that was in existence long before the Deans family arrived in New Zealand. The Deans family came to Christchurch in 1843 and built a cottage as a short-term home. Mahnaz: The Dean's house was very different to the houses I would see in my country. It was large and colourful. It was damaged in the earthquake so we were not able to go inside.

Lilly: When we walked through the forest we saw interesting little trees and plants growing at ground level. We even saw fungus growing on trees.

Suma's Report: Her Inquiry Question: How can a country like India with such a large population be economically strong? This is what Suma found out: There are seven billion people living in India. This is 17.3% of the World’s population. While there are many people that are rich in India, like China because of their large populations, these countries also have many poor people.

In this photo, the city skyline sits behind people living and working in the streets of Delhi. There is no minimum wage in India so the poorest people can live on only 65 cents a day. Could you do that in New Zealand? I don’t think so. It is believed that 36% of India’s population live on less than $1 a day. It seems strange that India is now one of the wealthiest countries in the world. So how do they do it? The main reason is that middle class families often send their children overseas to be educated. It is very difficult to get places in top universities. Families move to give their children chances to became better qualified. These people take skills back to India to set up businesses. These businesses can make lots of money.

But How Do They Do This? If a person starts a new business it is because they have a vision for their own company. They start their business on their own. They make their business rich by working hard and controlling what happens. They don’t have partners when they start their company but they bring others in to make their company strong and competitive. Did you know that 4 out of 8 of the wealthiest people in the world are Indian? People and companies outside of India arrange to have Indian companies make their products. The reason is because the worker get less in wages.