Important Dates

Term 4

• Monday 6 October – Start of Term 4
•  Monday 13 October – Board meeting 6.00pm
• Thursday 23 October – Whakanuia
• Monday 27 October – Labour Day (public holiday)
• Tuesday 28 October – Year 12 and 13 Celebrations (final day of school (for Years 12 and 13)
• Wednesday 29 – Friday 31 October – Learning Opportunities for years 12 and 13
• Wednesday 5 November – Teacher only day (school closed)
• Monday 24 November – Board meeting 6.00pm
• Friday 28 November – Year 11 Celebrations 9.30-11am
•  Monday 1 December – Year 13 Celebration evening
• Friday 5 December – Junior Ball
• Tuesday 9 December – Year 9 Celebration 9.15-10am and Year 10    Celebration 11am-12.15pm
• Tuesday 9 December – End of Term 4

Important Information

Introducing the newly elected WHS Board

Voting for the parent, staff and student elections has now closed with the following duly elected to the Wellington High School Board:

Parent representatives: Lucy Kebbell, David Cooling, Antonia Reid, Lars Stannard and Julie Reddish

Staff representative: Sue Kemp

Student representative: Isobel Butler (with support from Arana Inns Hall and Ella Pritchard-Yeo)

The new Board members join Principal Dominic Killalea, co-opted whānau Māori representatives Nicky Birch and Marama Steele, and ākonga Māori representative Yaya Alley to form the new WHS Board. To find out more about the new parent representatives click here. 

Thank you to all who stood for election. With 31 parent nominations and 9 student nominations and over 3500 votes cast across all three elections, they were very well supported.

The school acknowledges the service of outgoing WHS Board parent representatives Giovanni Tiso (presiding member), Wyatt Page, Jorah Ramlan-Pointon, Nicky Birch, Evžen Novak, Nick Tramoundanas; staff representative Fiona Nichols and student representative Geronimo LaHood (with support from Aidan Gillespie and Fern Ashby) thanking them for their service and support for the school during their tenure. 

What’s Happening?

Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori

This year TWoTRM was held during Week 10 available for all students to attend. We had amazing Māori speakers come in to talk to our tauira around a range of kaupapa Māori. Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, Tory Whanau, All Day Mau Rākau Workshop, Arihia Latham, Nova Waretini-Hewison, Tamati & Hariata Moriarty, Isobel Joy Te Aho-White. 

Busy end of term for Drama students

In week 8, Year 13 Drama presented their second production, There is a War by Tom Basden. A bleak and at times gruesome comedy, the play presents a series of increasingly absurd situations that highlight the cynical way in which nations engage in conflict with no regard for the human cost.

Dead on Time 

In week 9, Year 11 Drama presented their second show for the year, Dead on Time by Bernard Beckett. This is a murder mystery where the audience gets to eavesdrop on multiple conversations at a school reunion. They then follow the police investigation, interviews and flashbacks, as they try to work out who committed the crime.

Science experiments

Over the last two weeks, Level 1 Science classes have been tasked with developing parachutes to safely land eggs without cracking. This was a test of their understanding of air resistance, and ingenuity, as they only had newspaper, tape and a bin bag to complete the task. After frantic construction and some testing, the eggs were launched from various high points around our kura, some designs were triumphant and some were unfortunately sacrificed for scientific progress.

Achievements

Kohara 2 Shine Exhibition

Some of the year 13 Fashion and Textiles students got the chance to show their creative efforts at the “Kohara 2 Shine” exhibition at Massey University this week. Zazie Taylor, Natalie Sanson, Frida Morley-Hall, Amelie Horrill, and Noa Ellis all participated with Noa earning the 1st prize for Execution/technique of making! Kohara 2 Shine is an exhibition of Secondary School Technology students’ work set up as an opportunity to bridge the gap between secondary and tertiary study and as an opportunity to showcase the immense amount of work that goes into designing and creating these wearable works of art.

The exhibition will continue to showcase in Block 12 building at Massey until the last Thursday of the holidays (2 October).

Tournament of Minds

A huge congratulations to our Tournament of Minds team who have made it through to the international round of the competition. This is an outstanding result from an impressive group of students. The International Round is taking place in Sydney at the end of October. As you can appreciate it is a really quick turnaround and an unexpected cost for our families. To help ease some of the financial burden we are reaching out to our wider Wellington High whanau to ask if anyone is in a position to make a financial contribution. The students are also doing fundraisers  to assist with the cost. If you want to find out more about the competition have a look at their website https://tom.edu.au/branch/nz/  Any donations will be greatly appreciated. 

WHS bank account number is: 12-3141-0212924-000.

For account name, type in Wellington High School and Com Ed Board for a partial match.

Please include the reference TOM and your student’s name/student ID number so we are able to identify who the donation is from so we can send a receipt.

EPro8

Four teams participated in EPro8 that took place in Paraparumu College this year. They all had a great time.  Congratulations to our team The Fat Monkeys who have made it through to the next round!

NIWA Wellington Science and Technology Fair

Wellington High School was represented by three students this year, all in Category 5 (Year 11-13). There were a lot more entries this year than in previous years so it was wonderful to learn that they had all won prizes. Matthew Isbister (Year 11) and Jussa Aschenberger (Year 13) were placed 3rd equal, while Ollie Butcher (Year 13) was Highly Commended. 

Sport

Underwater Hockey Nationals

The WHS teams competing in the NZ Secondary Schools Tournament during tournament week enjoyed some success, and plenty of good times and new experiences. Our Senior Open team placed highest, finishing 5th in their grade after narrowly missing out on playing in the semi-finals. Captain and team MVP Aidan Relph was named in the tournament team. The other teams finished 6th in Junior Open, 7th in Junior Girls, and 7th in Senior Girls. 

Home pool advantage seemed to count for a lot, with all four grades being dominated by Wellington schools. Our Senior Girls’ coach Finlay Necklen, who was awarded the novice coach of the year award, is one of three WHS alumni who coached our teams at nationals. Thanks must go to the teams managers, parents and coaches for making this such a successful year for underwater hockey.

UWH U18 reps

Lily Scott, Eve Shaw and Stella Fitzpatrick have been named in the Central Zone U18 A team to play at the U18 interzone nationals next month. Congratulations also to Willow Dearnley, who is part of the B team. Aidan Relph, Marcel Milson, Liam Whitaker and Ollie Thurlow-Rae will play in the Central Zone U18 boys’ teams.

CAREERS

Please read this week’s Pathways Newsletter!

Contact Chuni Bhikha bac@whs.school.nz or drop into S502 if you require further information on any of the events

COMMUNITY

Free September Holiday Programmes@Whitecliffe

Sign up to a September FREE Holiday Programme, designed to spark creativity, build skills, and offer hands-on experience in two exciting fields — Digital Media + Design, Fashion Design and Information Technology.

These one-day immersive workshops are ideal for students who want to explore their interests and gain valuable insight into future career pathways.

Whether they’re passionate about fashion or eager to create the next big tech innovation, our programme provides a fun, engaging, and educational opportunity during the school holidays!

Fresh Produce – an improvised show

This show is being performed at BATS Theatre on the 26th and 27th of September.