Red Peak and the flag: What children think

Students from Avondale Primary School who took part in the New Zealand Herald flag project. Photo / Dean Purcell

Those given the job of running the flag project had a critical yet simple guide for any flag.

"A great flag should be distinctive and so simple it can be drawn by a child from memory," they wrote in a letter to the public.

So the Herald asked a class of children at Avondale Primary School in Auckland to search their memories and draw the New Zealand flag - either the current version or one of the proposed new alternatives.

There was no direct preparation other than teacher Bill McCutcheon telling his class of children aged 8-9 that a reporter from the Herald was coming to talk to them about the flag change referendum.

The results of an entirely unscientific poll were enlightening - but not that surprising after interviews with a children's art teacher and a developmental psychologist.

The children were offered the choice of drawing the current flag or trying a new one. The choice divided the class evenly; the enthusiasm for ol' faithful was strong.

There was no confusion over the number of stars - one girl raised an eyebrow in disbelief one could confuse New Zealand and Australia's. "We've got four stars. Australia has six." Duh, she didn't add.

It was about this time some eyes could be seen darting to the back of the room, where a notebook-sized Australian flag high on the wall provided a Commonwealth template to work off.

Those bold adventurers who chose to draw a new flag had no such prompts. And yet, their minds were clear on the flags they were sketching.

The favourite was Red Peak. It was the most common of any of the new flag options. The next most commonly drawn was the koru, curled in black appearing on the page in one easy pencil motion.

And at the tail end, the fern. There were not even a handful of offerings - and they were bold children who tried to create the wavy, leafy frond.

Art Academy's Elina Esina said children were "very visual". "They remember the lines and the shapes." She said the fern was a complicated shape for children to draw.

She said the Red Peak option was "very simple".

University of Auckland developmental psychologist Dr Annette Henderson said children remembered by looking at something and forming a mental snapshot.

She said the simple shape and colour structure of Red Peak would also make it appealing to children to draw. "It's basically made of four triangles."