Discovering what makes Wellington thrive has been the focus of a series of documentaries made by Queen Margaret College pupils.

The school is one of four International Baccalaureate schools in the capital that use the programme to  teach  pupils how to develop  personal, intellectual and social skills.

As part of the Primary Years Programme, year 6 pupils have been discovering the different elements that make Wellington special, deputy principal Kathleen McDonnell says.

The pupils interviewed well-known Wellingtonians, including Mayor Celia Wade-Brown, Deputy Mayor Ian McKinnon, hotel owner and arts patron Chris Parkin, and New Zealand Film Festival director Bill Gosden, asking them what they loved most about the city.

The budding documentary makers also spoke to Wellington residents, and people who have moved to the city from overseas, to see what attracted them to the city.

Their resulting five-minute documentaries were premiered at a French-themed event at the school last night.

Eleven-year-old Lydia Maclean said interviewing the subjects and producing the documentaries was  ''challenging''.

''Our main idea is that innovative cities attract innovative people and we have been all around Wellington going to people asking them what their favourite things are. It was interesting because pretty much all the people had completely different views on why they came here or why they're here.''

Tessa Frazer, 10, said: ''There are many different people with different talents and cultures in Wellington."

Take a look at one of the school's documetaries below:

- © Fairfax NZ News