Weekly Wrap Up (Term 4, Week 6)

DVC teacher Rowan Heap has received Best Design Award for his non-verbal illustrated narrative Tokitoki and James Caddell. This week we celebrate his success and share images from his book. We follow Year 10 Art students as they work with Xoë Hall on her mural and join He Kākano at Capital E. We also follow our junior girls volleyball team as they learn how to referee their sport.

Important Dates

30 November: 6pm Board of Trustees meeting
7-9 December: Year 9 & 10 Short Courses
9 December: NCEA exams finish
10 December: Year 9 Beach Day
10 December: Year 10 Rōpū Day
11 December: 10am Junior Prizegiving
11 December: 12.00 Term ends

For 2021 Term Dates please see: https://www.whs.school.nz/term-dates/

Important Information

Kāinga Ora have shared their recent newsletter featuring the Arlington and Rolleston redevelopments. You can read their newsletter here.

You can read about Kāinga Ora’s Mount Cook projects here.

Achievements

WHS teacher wins Best Design Award

Rowan Heap (teacher of DVC) was awarded a Gold Award in the Best Design Awards (Designers Institute New Zealand) for the creative output from his Master of Design. His award submission, Tokitoki and James Caddell, is a non-verbal illustrated narrative that reframes an early Māori / Pākehā encounter by using a decolonised approach. The book showcases the extraordinary story of Tokitoki, a high-born Māori girl, and James Caddell, a sealer and English teen, during the early 1800s in the Foveaux Strait region. Congratulations, Rowan!

What’s happening?

Girls in Physics – Mission to Mars

As part of today’s Girls to Mars event at VUW today, students have had the opportunity to carry out a range of hands-on activities exploring the science behind travel to Mars. The event aims to get girls in Years 9 and 10 interested in Physics and included robotics challenges and taking photos with a thermal camera.

Year 10 Art

Students in Ms Peters art class were treated to working on this mural with artist Xoë Hall this week. The mural is now complete and you can now view this awesome substation at the Wallace/Bidwill St intersection every time you pass by.

This celebratory opening event on Friday 20 November will mark exactly a month since Xoë arrived with her cherry picker and paints: not a bad result considering at least a half of that time it either rained or howled with wind!

He Kākano

We visited Capital E this week to explore interactive technologies. Trikes were also a highlight, either recumbent or upright! Heart dissection in science class was also a fascinating learning experience.

Year 10 Science Enrichment

Students visited Space Place, learning about how refracting telescopes work and viewing the planetarium show “Einstein’s gravity”. Over the next few weeks the students will be learning about general relativity.

Polyhigh creche’s garden visit

Horticulture teacher Claire Neiman is used to Polyhigh creche children shouting over the fence and asking her what she’s working on in the garden. Today they came to see it for themselves and helped out, pulling carrots as part of the summer harvest.

Sports

Volleyball referee training

Our Junior girls Volleyball players have been learning to referee their sport. Thanks to Drew from Wellington Regional Volleyball who led last night’s session and to Bea Gladding for organising the opportunity. Bea reports that it was fantastic to see the students eager to learn and improve.