Whangārei Primary School displays ESOL pupils' huge solar system model

ESOL teacher Julie Hepi with one of the solar system display panels at Whangārei Primary School. Photo / Imran Ali

If you want to know how the solar system works, head along to Whangārei Primary School.

Key information is laid bare on a series of display panels ESOL students put together with the assistance of their teacher Julie Hepi and the technical help came from Bob Adam of the Northland Astronomical Society.

The WPS solar system model consists of a series of display panels - one for the Sun and one for each of the planets and the asteroid belt.

The panels are spaced at a scale distance from the Sun of 1 to 1.6 thousand million.
It means that the Earth's panel is 24.5 metres from the Sun's panel.

The panels for the naked-eye planets like Saturn fit within the school grounds, while Uranus is on the shared pathway and Neptune is on the boundary of Whangārei Intermediate School, 740 metres away.

A pōwhiri was performed for members of the society by ESOL students and Hepi on Wednesday, before they walked to all the panels.

The panels contain information at different levels of detail for varying age groups.

Each panel includes an image of the planet plus a scale diagram of the planet, which for the Earth has a diameter of only 2.4 millimetres.

Whangārei Primary School ESOL students with Bob Adam in front of a board with information on all solar planets. Photo / Supplied

Hepi said after her students made a sundial to learn about the Sun, they decided to venture into the latest project to know more about the solar system.

She said 38 ESOL students from different nationalities were involved in the project.

"They wanted to know what else was out there and so we started learning and researching about the planet using the library and the internet. Bob would come in and students would ask questions- which is the hottest planet, which is the smallest.

"We've adopted Bob as our granddad. He did the technical side of things whereas we did lots of activities- artwork, made booklets about the planets."

Hepi said the students were enthusiastic about the scale model of the solar system and for next year, she was planning on a similar project featuring stars.

Her team raised $1500 to buy materials for the system.