Fernway Global creates immersive New Zealand experiences for international students, athletes and future leaders — built on a decade of relationships between international classrooms and Kiwi ones.
For years, we watched students board planes to New Zealand and arrive into something the brochures had not prepared them for — an empty seat in a strange classroom, a homestay family they'd never spoken to, a country whose accent surprised them on day one.
Most of them coped. Some thrived. A few struggled in ways their parents only heard about weeks later, when something had already gone wrong.
Fernway exists to change the shape of that experience. We believe the first day of a journey overseas should feel like a continuation — not a beginning. That a child should arrive into a classroom where they already have a buddy, a teacher who knows their name, and a family at the door who has been quietly preparing for them for weeks.
Everything we build — the workbooks, the buddy briefings, the companion app, the homestay training — exists to make distance feel smaller, and belonging feel closer.
From video calls between two classrooms on opposite sides of the Pacific — to a structured pathway that helps young people walk into New Zealand life with confidence.
A live video classroom exchange connecting primary schools in New Zealand with schools across Asia and beyond. The first pairings are awkward, hilarious, and quietly transformative. Many of the original students are still in touch.
"Could our child come and visit their buddy?" The answer was yes, but informally — messages between teachers, hand-shaken arrangements, hopeful hearts. It worked. But it didn't scale.
Fernway Global is launched as a sister brand — built specifically around the in-country experience. Buddies are paired before students arrive. Homestays are accredited. The Fernway Explorer workbooks are written.
Students from partner countries begin arriving into New Zealand classrooms as part of the full Fernway programme — school immersion, buddy support, homestay living, Fernway Explorer workbooks, and Fernway Connect keeping families connected.
Innovation Camps and Sports Pathways grow. New partner countries and organisations join the conversation. The vision remains the same — belonging first, then country.
Fernway Global is the in-country sister of Learn English Live — a live online classroom exchange company that has connected New Zealand schools with classrooms around the world for over a decade.
Many of the relationships that become Fernway journeys begin online, months earlier, between two classrooms separated by thousands of kilometres. By the time an international student arrives in Auckland, the Kiwi child at the school gate isn't a stranger. They're the buddy whose pet they've already been introduced to over video call.
This is the quiet superpower of how we work: connection first, then country.
Whether you're a parent considering a first visit, a school exploring partnership, or an organisation planning a programme — we'd love to hear from you.