Dunedin pupils will be making global connections in coming months as they use the All Blacks to link with other rugby-playing nations.
Several schools are taking part in the Dunedin City Council initiative, in which pupils colour in cardboard cutouts of a rugby player to send it to their counterparts in the six countries that will have rugby teams playing in Dunedin during the Rugby World Cup.
The pupils have coloured in one side of the cutouts in an All Black strip and will send them off with a class letter.
Their counterparts can then complete the reverse side in the colours of their national team and send it back.
Council communications officer Fiona Clarkson said the project aimed to combine literacy with learning about other cultures and give pupils a personal interest in the teams playing in their city.
St Clair associate principal Claire Buist said it enabled pupils to learn about the world and connect with another culture. She hoped the connections made with foreign schools would continue past the World Cup.
In their class letter, pupils at St Clair School were keen to tell overseas pupils about their library and computers, as well as about Dunedin having the steepest street and the Forsyth Barr Stadium.
Also participating are Mornington School and Macandrew Bay School.
The council was also developing a booklet detailing the region's involvement in the cup which would be given to every primary and intermediate pupil alongside a national Rugby World Cup activity book.
