Bellevue School students are taking their learning outside of the classroom for the next two day.

Year five and six students from the school will take part in a number of activities aimed at providing an immersive learning experience.

The aim of the EOTC event is to help further the children's historical and cultural understanding and awareness through an authentic learning experience.

Kathryn Farthing is the lead teacher.

She explains how this is the school's first year of trying this learning experience and she believes re-enacting historical moments will help to bring the curriculum alive for her students.

'At the end of the day history is a fascinating subject.

'You can't sit in a classroom and tell a single version of history because of course there isn't a single story. By getting the kids out and paddling the routes and battling like historically would have been done they get that understanding.”

The children are paddling by waka down the Wairoa River from Waimarino Water & Adventure Park, under supervision from instructors, to the Otumoetai Pa site at Beach Road in Matua.

The students are also re-enacting battles waged at the Pa with a local historian, the wet weather not discouraging them using water balloons as artillery, as well as learning more about the significance of the location.

Pupils will also visit The Elms heritage site on Mission Street and be sleeping over at the school.

Scarlett Minshall is a year six student at Bellevue School. She is most excited about going on the waka and the sleepover but is enjoying learning about historical events at the locations they happened.

'I am learning about the Pakeha and the Maori at Otumoetai Pa. It is definitely better outside because it is easier to learn because we don't know much about it.”

'You look forward to it,” says Scarlett, before making it clear she also likes learning in the classroom.

Bruce Farthing is the former deputy principal at Otumoetai College. Now a teaching fellow at the University of Waikato he has over 45 years of teaching experience.

He is leading the interactive history lessons at Otumoetai Pa and is in no doubt about how important this method of learning is for the students.

'They will remember this. Any learning that is interactive is 20 times more important than any learning that is passive. It is just the way we are. After 45 years in education I know this.”