Important Dates
- Friday 8 July – end of Term 2
Term 3
- Monday 25 July – Term 3 begins – Year 12 to be rostered home period 5
- Monday 25 July – Deadline for out of zone enrolment applications for Year 9 in 2023
- Monday 25 July – Board meeting (6pm)
- Wednesday 27 July – Junior Parent Teacher meetings (online)
- Monday 1 August – Te Whānau a Taraika
Important Information
Principal’s Message – end of term 2, 2022
Click here to read Dominic’s message for the end of term 2.
Board update – End of Term 2, 2022
This has been a busy term for the Board as it is strategic planning time. The Board works together with the senior leadership team and plans the direction of our school for the next three years. Following the survey that was sent to students, staff and whānau, the Board and SLT had an excellent discussion of the feedback received in relation to the school’s WERO values. Te Whānau a Taraika, our whānau Māori are also developing their input to the plan. The draft plan won’t be finalised by the current Board, however, that will be a job for the new Board which will take over in Term 4.
Elections for new parent representatives will be held in September. This is your opportunity to have a say in how our school is governed for the next three years. All eligible candidates will receive information at the start of Term 3. It will be good for the school to have some fresh faces and new energy on the Board.
The Board was invited to join in the Mātāriki celebrations with Ngā Manaakitanga. Ngā Manaakitanga was established in 2021 by Whaea Char and Whaea Suz. The programme offers mentoring for our rangatahi Māori who are supported by an incredible rōpū of undergraduate and postgraduate students at Te Herenga Waka / VUW. Visiting speakers, shared kai and the opportunity for individual academic support are central to Ngā Manaakitanga. In celebrating Matariki, Board members and SLT joined whānau and ākonga for a fun evening with games and delicious hangi. It was great to hear, first hand, about the success of the programme which is going from strength to strength since its inception last year. Ka pai!
Junior Parents Evenings online – 27 July 2022
How to make a booking
- Check you know which subjects and teachers your student(s) has. You can ask your student, or use the Parent Portal (https://portal.whs.school.nz/student/index.php) > Timetable. Teachers’ codes are by surname (e.g. BLN is Bell, N).
- Please note that Emma Smith, Kyle Webb and Whakamarurangi Chadwick will not be available for meetings.
- Go to: https://www.schoolinterviews.co.nz/
- Enter this code: v362n
- Choose the SUBJECT then the TEACHER.
- Please leave a five minute gap between bookings to allow for moving between meetings.
Bookings for Year 9 Te Reo Māori and Year 10 Aotearoa Studies, Year 10 Howell Science
To enable as many families to make bookings as possible, in the the following subject areas please book as follows:
Year 9 Te Reo Māori
- 9Mckelvey – Anna Macrae
- 9Riley – Megan Southwell
- 9Royal – Jesse Duckworth
- 9Bradwell – Eric McLeod
- 9Kelly 1 – Jane Poata
- 9Kelly 2 – Eric McLeod
Year 10 Aotearoa Studies
- 10McKelvey – Tilly Skerrett-White
- 10 Kelly – Cheyenne Henderson
- 10Riley – Jenny Argyle
- 10Royal – Melanie McGrath
- 10Howell 1 – Anna Macrae
- 10Howell 2- Stephen Beckett
- Bradwell 1 – Tilly Skerrett-White
- Bradwell 2 – Kelly Jean-Louis
If a meeting is also required for Year 10 Social Studies, please book a separate meeting; 5 minutes may limit the opportunity to fit both subjects in to a single meeting.
Junior Science:
- 10Howell2 – Murray Chisholm
- 10Howell1 -Graeme Sawyer
SchooI Board Parent Election 2022
WHS will be undertaking a parent election for 5 School Board vacancies. This process will start with the issuing of nomination papers to our caregiver community by Friday 15th July 2022.
We have employed CES to undertake the election process on our behalf. This year with legislative change, our nomination form and full instruction on how to place your nomination into our own School’s Election website will be emailed to you if we have your email address in our database or you will receive it by post if we don’t have your email in our database.
Nomination papers will also be available at the school office. The school will send those on to CES for processing upon receipt from candidates.
Nominations close on Friday 5th August at 12 noon.
Mānawatia a Matariki — Happy Māori New Year!
We hope you’re having a wonderful start to your Mātahi o te Tau (new year). This is a great time to reflect, take notice and look forward. Perhaps during the holidays, you can take the opportunity to reflect on the past year, celebrate the present and plan for the year ahead.
Matariki is also a good time to focus on Te Whare Tapa Whā – the Māori model of health that describes health and wellbeing as a wharenui with four walls and the whenua as the foundation:
- Taha tinana (physical) e.g. prepare some yummy kai to celebrate the end of the term and start of the holidays.
- Taha wairua (spiritual) e,g, remember your tupuna and those who have died to help remind you where you came from and how you came to be. Explore the idea of making a wish for the next year..
- Taha hinegnaro (mental & emotional) e.g. head outside and feel the wind washing over you or see the rain pouring down windows. How the wind and rain move can help describe our feelings. Nature can guide our emotional understanding beautifully.
- Taha whānau (family & social) e.g.take time to connect with whānau.
- Whenua (land/roots) e.g. plan time when you can take care of some whenua in the year ahead.
We will all be having a well-deserved break. We hope you take time to relax and have some fun so you return to school feeling refreshed for Term 3.
If, during the holidays, you need to talk to someone you can free call or text 1737 any time or you can try these other Helplines & Support.
If you want some resources and tools to help get you through, check out Melon and for wellbeing tips go to MHFNZ.
Mauri ora,
Nikki, Maeve and Gavin (your WHS counsellors)
Lost Property
Please remember to check lost property at Student Services before the end of term if you have lost anything, as all lost clothing will be donated if not collected by the first week of Term 3.
What’s Happening?
He Kākano
To celebrate the last week of term 2, our students made soup for a shared Matariki lunch. The students also competed in the annual AWD Ten Pin Bowling competition this week. There are confident bowlers in our group who have received training through Special Olympics. Overall it has been a term full of successes for our students in class and co-curricular activities.
Music Evening
40 Hour Famine
Over the weekend we had an amazing group of 33 students who participated in the 40 Hour Famine led by our awesome student leaders Amelia Carey, Sophia Barclay, Anika Green, and Rātā Petherick. This year students were fundraising money to provide clean water to children in need. Our goal was to raise $2000 and not only did we meet that, but the current amount raised is sitting at $3,700.90!
Horticulture
All our autumn jobs are finally finished: garden is mulched, trees and vines are pruned and we prepped a new strawberry bed for next summer. Yum!
Now the garden is having a well-deserved rest until the soil warms up again later in Term 3…
Māori Performing Arts
Over the last two weeks our Māori performing arts students were privileged to have Janaye Henry (Māori comedian and actor) and Hakaia Daly (Māori actor) come in and teach lots of new skills, games and methods to help boost their confidence and theatricality through performance, while also giving some insight into how it is to be Māori in their specifics industries, reminding us all not to have imposter syndrome. Both Janaye and Hakaia were heavily appreciated by our students and we look forward to getting more amazing tangata Māori in for our rangatahi in the coming terms.
Ākonga embrace important kaupapa of relationships and sexuality education
Wellington High School Health curriculum is featured in this month’s Education Gazette. Read about the important learning our ākonga are doing around relationships and sexuality and the relevance to our current climate.
Berhampore Primary Science Class
A group of Year 13 students went to Berhampore Primary to do some fun science experiments with the Year 1s. Our students were Olive Farrant, Henry Murdoch, Dylan Jones. The kids absolutely loved it, and found it so exciting to do experiments with scientists in lab coats!
International
After 2 and half years of no international students arriving from overseas we are excited to be welcoming 9 new students in Term 3. These students come from China, Germany, Japan, Spain and Vietnam and we look forward to meeting them and giving them a wonderful WHS experience.
Achievements
Crisis Labs Challenge success
A year 12 team of computer science students “44 Development team” took out the “Best of the Best” prize in round one of the 2022 CrisisLabs competition run by Massey University. They progress on to the finals in September. Well done to Anthony Smith, Brendan Shaw and Lev Petersen.
Cyber security Researchers Of Waikato (CROW) challenge
Nine students (Year 9 through to 12) qualified for round two of the CROW competition to be held at Waikato University over the Term 2-3 break. This is limited to the top 150 students around the country, which also includes university students, so well done and a huge congratulations to the students involved!
Parkin Drawing Prize
Sixteen Wellington City artists have been selected as finalists in a record-breaking year of entries for the prestigious Parkin Drawing Prize competition, this year in its 10th anniversary. Among the finalists are WHS teacher Rowan Heap, and former WHS student Friday Meulengracht-Madsen! A huge congratulations to the both of them! Read more about the award here!
Rockquest
On Saturday students from Wellington High School competed in the regional Rockquest heats. Out of 30 bands in the region, 5 bands from WHS have been selected to move forward in the contest as part of the top 12 at regional finals. Congratulations to Fuzzdrive, The Nauticals, Riversnake, Mel Stevenson, and Bleeding Star. We’re looking forward to hearing your new original songs soon!
NZCT Chamber Music Contest
Also on Saturday, WHS students Francesca Rotolo, Alex Buyck and Issy Ross competed in groups in the regional finals of this contest against students from the entire lower North Island. They did us very proud.
A huge congratulations to Francesca whose piano trio Schnittke’s Snickers have made it through to the national finals! They will be competing against 7 other groups from around the motu on Saturday 6th August at the Auckland Town Hall.
IRMTNZ Youth Music Festival
Pianists Max Wallace and Issy Ross won their Class 9 Senior Ensemble on Friday night, with Max also coming third in the Class 6 Recital (over Grade 8). This is an awesome level of musicianship – well done.
Sport
2022 Central Zone Underwater Hockey Tournament Report
The senior open team competed in some very close games and came away with 2 wins and a draw on Friday. This included their first ever win against Nelson College by 2-1. Despite scoring 59 goals on Saturday and conceding none, they finished round robin in second place. Sadly a 2-1 loss in the semifinal against Nelson College meant they were playing off for bronze, which they achieved with a 4-0 win over Scots College. The junior open team lost their bronze medal match against HIBS 4-2 but still qualified for nationals in September. The senior open girls finished 6th and the junior open girls 7th in their grades.
At the prizegiving held at WHS on Sunday July 3rd the trialists for Central Zone U18s were announced. 9 boys and 3 girls were chosen from our teams: Henry Murdoch, Maddy Murdoch, Carlos Relph, Aidan Relph, Fin Necklen, Oli Necklen, Renee Acton, Claudia Hopkins, Hugh Hawley, Tom Curtain, Harvey Moffatt and Kauri Sekido.
Lots of people contributed to the success of the teams, including coaches Finn, Clark, Casper, Daena, Emma, teachers Stephen, Natalie, Jamie, Bill, all the parents and Flynn Gilroy.
