WHS Newsletter | Issue 1.06 | 10 March 2023

Principal's Message

Kia ora and welcome to the end of another really good week at WHS in which our great all-round education was on full display. Spring sport is heading towards the business end of their season and we wish the fifty  rowers heading to Twizel today to compete in the South Island Championships, all the best. Meanwhile, winter sports teams are gearing up for their seasons with trials and training occurring in a range of sports over the past week. In the Arts, our annual Musical - Rock Apocalypse is now in full swing with opening night on Wednesday 29 March. Tickets are on sale now, so be sure to get yours fast as the WHS Musical is always a rockin’ good time. 

This past week, I had the privilege of walking around the school to observe teaching and learning in action. I was really pleased to see high quality teaching and learning across all learning areas within the school with very high levels of student engagement. With only four weeks left in the term, and just 16 school-days remaining, students need to maintain a high level of focus and rigour with their studies, both in class and at home. Students who are away for Tournament Week or are involved with the Musical will need to look ahead and plan accordingly, especially as there will be many internal assessments due at the end of the term for seniors. 

As you may have seen in the strategic priorities that were published in last week’s newsletter (and can be found here), WHS has a model for high quality teaching and learning. See below for the model including more details on each of the descriptors. Underpinning our model for high quality teaching and learning are strong teacher-student relationships and high expectations. We expect all students to be engaged with their learning, even when they are finding this challenging. As a reminder, our Learning Engagement Reports give parents and students an indication as to whether students are applying the effort that is expected of them, and if there are any 2’s or 1’s on their report, we strongly encourage students and parents to be in touch with their subject teacher. Our second Learning Engagement Report will be issued next week, and more information on our Junior Next Steps (Parent-Student-Kaiārahi Conferencing), which are being held on Tuesday 28 March, will also be available next week. 

The last of our Year 9 Greenstone Camps concluded today, with Mackenzie students back this afternoon. It was great to see students engaging with the outdoors and developing new skills and friendships. A huge thank you to the owners of Greenstone Station who allowed us to stay on their land for nearly two weeks. Also, the camp couldn’t occur without the support of our staff and contractors, who ensure students are safe both physically and emotionally. See below for photos and more details.

As mentioned above, there are only 16 school days left in the Term. Please support your student to be organised and planned as this can really support their hauora and wellbeing over what will be a busy and dynamic end of Term. 

A few final things:

• PPTA Nation-wide Teacher Strike is on Thursday 16 March. School is closed, however, we will be able to supervise any student under the age of 14 who requires it. If your student needs to attend school on this day, please complete this form so that we can plan accordingly. Please note buses are unlikely to be running for WHS.
• Friday 17 March is a Teacher-Only Day. No school for students.
• Monday 20 March is Otago Anniversary Day - No school. 

Lastly, as a school, we have been fundraising these past few weeks to support those affected by Cyclone Gabrielle.  We were very happy to learn that The Rees Hotel decided to join in with our fundraising efforts and I am pleased to announce that we will be gifting $5105 to Hastings Boys' High School. Their school and community have been significantly affected by Cyclone Gabrielle with numerous students having lost all of their possessions and we hope that this contribution will go a little way to supporting the recovery. Thanks to the WHS students and the community for their support and our thoughts go out to our friends in the Hawke's Bay.

A great and full newsletter follows, so be sure to have a read through to hear more about WHS’ great all-round education. 

Ngā mihi nui, 

Oded Nathan
Principal

Key Dates

High Quality Teaching and Learning

At Wakatipu High School one of our key strategic priorities is to deliver high quality teaching and learning to every student - so that they engage, progress and achieve in all their classes. The teaching and learning model outlines the guiding principles for high quality teaching and learning at Wakatipu High School. It is underpinned by current research on what matters most for learners and their learning.

At the centre of the model is our Ākonga Profile. The three areas work interdependently to support learners to develop their capabilities for lifelong learning, their holistic development, and to leave with their best possible qualification.

While today’s article is an overview of the model, subsequent articles will provide more detailed information about each of the areas in the model.

Classroom teachers have been focused on developing Whakawhanaungatanga at the start of the year to establish a class climate that is conducive to learning. This involves developing:

Care and Connectedness: inclusion, belonging, relationships of mutual respect.
Challenge: rigour and high expectations.
Consistency: predictable interactions and predictable expectations.

As per Mr. Nathan's comments above, we are very pleased with the class climate that has been established to start the year.

James Rasmussen
Deputy Principal

Volunteer Day

Kia Ora Koutou,

As some of you may know from Mr. Rasmussen’s last two weekly emails, there is an upcoming Teacher-Only Day next week on Friday 17 March. Wakatipu High School has collaborated with Volunteer South to organise student volunteer opportunities for Teacher-Only Days before, and the upcoming Friday is no exception. This time around we have taken care to provide a greater volume and variety of organisations with which to volunteer, as well as more choice in times to spread our effort throughout the day. Whether your volunteering interests lie with childcare, education, technology, gardening, or conservation, there is an opportunity for you!

In partnership with Volunteer South, we have arranged the following volunteer opportunities:

• Wakatipu Plunket: Help with set up, running, and pack up for their Friday Playgroup from 10 AM to 1 PM in the Queenstown CBD
• Wakatipu Reforestation Trust: Potting seedlings, caring for native gardens, and weed control at the Jean Malpas Community Nursery from 9:30 AM to 12 PM in Kelvin Heights
• (AM) Queenstown Primary School: Help the caretaker with various gardening tasks around the school grounds from 9 AM to 12 PM in the Queenstown CBD
• (PM) Queenstown Primary School: Help the caretaker with various gardening tasks around the school grounds from 12 PM to 3 PM in the Queenstown CBD
• (AM) Friends of Tucker Beach: Enhance recently planted native plants, assisting with weeding, mulching, and other tasks from 9 AM to 12 PM at Tucker Beach and in Quail Rise
• (PM) Friends of Tucker Beach: Enhance recently planted native plants, assisting with weeding, mulching, and other tasks from 12 AM to 3 PM at Tucker Beach and in Quail Rise
• Frankton Library: Assist members of the community with the use of their digital devices, including basic tasks such as texting/emailing pictures, using apps, and anything else they need at the Frankton Library from 10:30 AM to 12 PM
• Queenstown Library: Assist members of the community with the use of their digital devices, including basic tasks such as texting/emailing pictures, using apps, and anything else they need at the Queenstown Library from 12:30 AM to 2 PM

Community service is widely regarded as one of the cornerstones of wellbeing, and the physical and mental benefits are well-documented. Volunteering, if you are able, is a wonderful way to give back to your community, as well as make new connections and friends. Even though it is just a few hours out of the day, every volunteer has the potential to make a real difference, whether it’s to the beautiful environment surrounding us, a hardworking caretaker with a lighter workload before the weekend, or a senior citizen trying to make an instagram account to connect with their grandchildren. Remember, you can make a difference! If any of these wonderful volunteering opportunities interest you, follow the link below and fill out the form.

Eoin McGlynn
Environmental Prefect

Online Safety Hub

We are pleased to announce that our Online Safety Hub is now live and includes access to the Qustodio Parent app.  We invite you to join us in further building healthy digital habits and a safe online environment for your child by creating your own Qustodio account to use at home across two devices free of charge. 

Key features include:

• Filter and block apps and content that you don’t want your child to see
• Customise what your child can access during homework hours
• Balance screen time by setting time limits on devices as well as for specific apps
• Protect screen-free moments such as mealtimes and bedtimes.

Please use the  link below to create your Qustodio account through our Online Safety Hub:

Wakatipu High School Online Safety Hub

Important note - one parent/ guardian needs to create the account in the first instance, and then additional parents/guardians can be invited and given access to the same features once the account has been created.

As a reminder, you can protect two additional personal devices (phones, shared iPads, etc.)  per family free of charge.

*Important point to note - when creating your Qustodio account a validation email will be sent to you. Please check your spam or clutter folder for the validation email.

School Policies and Procedures

Did you know that all the WHS policy and process documents are accessible from the school website and a link to these can be found here: Policies and Processes (The username and password to access the site are on the same page.)

WHS leverages a platform called SchoolDocs and the link will take you to this site.  There is a great search function on the left hand side that allows you to enter key words and it will bring up all the related policy documents. There is also a review function. In the "Current Review" section you will see all the policies that are currently under review and who is able to input into them (see screen shot below). 

Please bear in mind that policy and procedure documents are usually fairly high level, additionally the content is often dictated by regulatory or legislative requirements, so, whilst all feedback will be reviewed, not all feedback will necessarily be included.

Buying lunch at school

We have seen an increase in the number of students waiting in line to buy their lunch at the school cafe. Sometimes students are not getting much time to eat their lunch and/or are spending the bulk of their time queuing. This is not how we want the students to spend their break times.

Students and parents can pre-order their school lunches with lunchorders.co.nz and skip the queues. This saves your student having to wait in line and miss out on their break time. 

We strongly encourage parents and students to use the online ordering system. Students will still need to line up to collect their lunch but there is a dedicated line and it moves much faster as the lunches are pre-packed and there is no money being exchanged. Please see details below.

Greenstone Camp

During the three days that the Fox House Year 9s were on camp, Fox peer mentors were given the opportunity to come for one night to support the Year 9s by making dinner, running an hour of games, and accompanying them on the Lake Rere walk on Sunday. During our hour of games, we talked about social skills and recognised which skills we thought were our strengths and identified which skills we could improve on. We then connected this to our walk where we saw students engage with those who they hadn’t spoken to before. After we had finished doing our quizzes, we played a variety of games such as duck, duck, goose that tried to engage everyone in the group.

The next day we did the Lake Rere walk which is a 14-kilometre loop walk. For us Year 12s it was our second time doing this track. We took a shortcut through a river and then an almost vertical climb for about 15 minutes up to the basin of Lake Rere. It was a really awesome challenge and helped build a sense of teamwork within the group. Overall, it was a fun experience to come back to Greenstone and it was a great opportunity to start getting to know the Year 9’s. :)

Tara Rooney & Eva Hemingway
Year 12 Peer Mentors

STEM Workshop

Last Friday, Wakatipu High School was lucky enough to be visited by a team who had flown all the way from the UK from the aerospace engineering company, Leonardo Helicopters. 

They delivered a STEM workshop to Physics students interested in (and career pathways involving)  STEM. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and maths. Through this STEM workshop, we developed skills around problem-solving, communication, creativity and teamwork and gained insight into what using STEM would look like in a career. 

In the workshop, we have first given a challenge, an “urgent rescue mission” where we had to design a system that could successfully drop a rescue hoist to an individual. We were briefed on the importance of budgeting, using sustainable materials and working under time pressure before creating our crate drops. As well as this, we also learnt how to use binary code to decipher a message that proved to be “Send Help”. We then reflected on how well we problem-solved, worked under pressure and collaborated in a team. 

This was a great opportunity for all of us and it highlighted how STEM subjects can provide key life skills that can be transferred into engineering careers. As well as STEM, we all learnt some very useful skills that can be used in our everyday life while engaging in a fun, safe and educational environment. Once again, a huge thank you to the team from Leonardo and the Southland and Otago Regional Engineering Collective who organised this event. We all can’t wait to see what the future will hold!

Jess Hudson
Year 12 

RYDA

RYDA is a Road Safety Education (RSE) programme which Yr 12 students participated in yesterday.  It aims to equip young people with the knowledge to stay safe on our roads.  There were six interactive sessions addressing crucial aspects of travelling safely, such as speeding, alcohol and drugs, fatigue, distraction and wearing seatbelts.  It focussed on lowering personal risks by making better decisions.

It was a valuable day with a lot of useful information, stories and learning for students to remember and use to help them become lower risk drivers and passengers. If you haven't already done so, please make sure you ask your student about the day.

We would love some feedback on the programme, the survey links are here:

• Students' online survey (takes about 5 minutes to complete) click here. Student feedback is especially useful, and as an incentive, all completed surveys received, will be entered into a competition to receive a $100 VISA card.  
• Parents' survey - Please use this survey link to enable us to get a 360 degree view of the programme.

Please see https://www.rse.org.nz/ for further student and parent resources.

Year 11 Geography Field Trip

To crack into a year full of Geography, our Level 1 geographers have been out and about delving into the exciting realm of fluvial processes. What are fluvial processes you may ask. They are associated with rivers and the landforms created by them.

Students packed their wet weather gear and headed to the ‘Twelve Mile Delta’ for a two day field trip to inquire if this would be an appropriate location for a new canyoning business. Day one involved gathering data in three different locations (the upper, middle and lower course of the river) to gauge river velocity (speed of the river) and river profiles (depth of the river).

Day two found them actually participating in canyoning with the local business ‘Canyon Explorers’ to experience the activity as well as being able to ask questions to the company of the requirements of a canyoning business. To add an extra level of data they also surveyed members of the public for their perspective of canyoning.

Students relished the opportunity of both experiences and this allowed them to draw their own conclusions on whether the ‘Twelve Mile Delta’ is an appropriate location for a new canyoning business. We look forward to seeing the recommendations formed by the Level 1 geographers.

Charlie Turner
Geography Teacher

GwG and Future Farmers Workshop

GwG Workshop 1: Tuesday 21st March, 9am- 11:45am

Interested in food systems, nature and climate? Why they are important to New Zealand and what the future will hold. Come and join us on Tuesday 21st March between 9am- 11:45am in Matuitui at WHS, to dive deep into these topics and understand your role in being part of the solution.

We are delighted to share, that a collaboration between “Girls who Grow” & “Future Farmers NZ” will be joining us at Wakatipu to host an interactive imagination centred workshop to inspire and spark your creativity to re-imagine the future prosperity of New Zealand, our landscapes, communities and holistic wellbeing.

Co-founders of “Girls who Grow”, Catherine van der Meulen and Aimee Blake (co-chair of Future Farmers NZ) are working to change the narrative of agriculture and farming in New Zealand, and have chosen our school as the first in the country to launch the workshops. 

They’re on a mission to reconnect youth to landscapes and reimagine agricultural systems to heal, feed and clothe ourselves without it costing the earth. These sessions will inspire and nourish, forging a path toward a prosperous and flourishing future where we live in reciprocity with nature.

If you are a keen to participate, please complete the WHS Application Form- Girls who Grow” located on your Science/ Social Science Google classroom or send an email to Rose Kidd (rkidd@wakatipu.school.nz)

Te Iti o Tāhuna - QRC Graduation

I tērā Paraire, last Friday, our mīharo kapa haka, Te Iti o Tāhuna, supported the Queenstown Resort College graduation ceremony with a mihi whakatau to welcome the graduates.  It was a great opportunity to engage with and support our local community and the kapa recieved a lot of positive feedback from staff and graduates, who greatly appreciated the performance.  Me poho kererū!

Checkmate! Exceptional results at Otago Rapid Chess Tournament

On Sunday, six aspiring Magnus Carlsens ventured to Dunedin to compete in the Otago Autumn Rapid Chess Tournament at the Maitland Street Chess Club. Oscar Childs, Leo Devlin, Haru Kuroe, Carlo Schiele, and Yurri Viray competed in the Under 1200 grade, while Tobias Gottswinter competed in the Under 1600 grade. These grades represent competitors' Elo ratings.

Over the course of five hours, the students competed in a 6 Round Swiss tournament, with a rapid time limit of 20 minutes per player and 5 seconds per move delay. The Wakatipu students played intense, highly strategic games against their fellow competitors. Impressively, three of our students, Leo Devlin, Haru Kuroe, and Yurri Viray, finished first equal in the Under 1200 grade! This was a phenomenal outcome, especially considering many of their fellow competitors were adults with many decades of chess-playing experience. A huge thank you to all of the Wakatipu parents who came along to show their support and help out with transport. 

- Mr Logan Rae, TiC Chess Club

Sport and Active Recreation News

NZ Athletic Club Champs
Middle distance runners Siena Mackley, Jude Deaker and Sammy Fookes all competed at the National Club Athletic Champs in Wellington last weekend. These three athletes all performed well in competitive fields. Siena had a stellar performance winning the gold in the U18 women's 3000m race in which she also broke the Southland provincial clubs age group Women’s U15, U16 and U18 records. Sammy Fookes won a bronze in the U20 Women’s 800m race with a season's best time of 2:13m, an awesome effort in the straight final. Jude Deaker ran in a highly competitive field in the U18 Men’s 800m and was unable to move through to the finals in this event. Well done to all three students, it is great to see them competing at a national level and achieving some wonderful results. A huge thank you to coach Neville Britton for his excellent mahi with these athletes.

Mainland Volleyball Champs
WHS sent three teams to the South Island Secondary School (Mainlands) Champs in Christchurch last weekend. The Senior A Girls and Boys and Senior B Girls teams all experienced plenty of great volleyball and enjoyed some wins along the way. Our boys really stepped up over the weekend finishing 2nd in division 3, while the Senior A Girls had a tough pool but proved themselves as good as any finishing a creditable 5th in division 3. The Senior B Girls were fantastic finishing just two spots back in division 3 in 7th place, playing some great volleyball. A huge thank you to Steve Henderson, Sonia Panapa, Jeremías Romero and Ruth Needham for this massive weekend of volleyball, the days are incredibly long! All three teams along with the Senior C Girls are off to the Southland Champs this Sunday. All the very best!

Otago Intercollegiate Golf Champs
42 students across Otago competed at the Intercollegiate Golf Champs in Cromwell on Monday. We are very proud that our WHS golfers took out the top 5 spots
1. Nico Cheifetz - score of 70 (-2)
2. Noah Novacek - 71 (-1)
3. Yoonae Jeong - 72 (E)
4. Ricky Kang - 74 (+2)
5. Su Kang - 75 (+3)
The team of Nico, Noah and Ricky won in the teams event, with Yoonae and Su finishing runners up. Yoonae was also named Eagles Golf Otago Junior Golfer of the Year to seal a very dominant day for WHS on the golf course. A huge congratulations to these students. The players now turn their focus to the Southland Champs which we have to win to qualify for the national schools tournament in late August.  

NZ Rodeo Circuit Win
Congratulations to Year 11 student Zoe Johnston who has recently won the all round national title for roping and barrel racing. Well done on this awesome effort Zoe!

 NZ U18 Men’s Ice Hockey
This year has seen our international New Zealand ice hockey programme resume post covid. Players have been very patient training and playing within the country over the last three years. Lachy Boniface and Joel Gerard have been selected as a defensive player and goalie respectively. They are playing in the New Zealand Under 18 Men’s Ice Hockey team competing in the U18 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Division III, Group B World Championship.  This tournament takes place in Cape Town South Africa from the 14-17 of March in South Africa. The team will be competing against hosts South Africa, Thailand and Hong Kong. The boys departed earlier this week for what will surely be an incredible experience. We wish Lachy and Joel all the best with this tournament. 

South Island Triathlon Champs
A number of Year 9 girls competed at the South Island Triathlon Champs in Oamaru on Sunday. The team of Sydney Alva, Bailey Mackay and Mollie Burgess enjoyed a good win in the U14 Girls Team category each winning their leg to take the gold. Keira Redden competed in the Girls U14 individual event finishing in 5th place. Well done to all of these triathletes.

Southland Touch Champs Winners
It was a fun day out at the Southland Touch Champs on Tuesday in Winton. WHS entered two teams and focused very much on the development of younger players at this tournament. It was awesome to have a large number of Year 9 students representing the school for the first time. Both teams were outsized playing mostly against senior students but very much held their own with some good structure. Well done to WHS Gold who won the tournament with a 4-3 win over Central Southland College. The junior A team followed up with a good win over Cromwell College on Wednesday afternoon while the Senior A team had one draw and one good win against the Cromwell Senior team in preparation for Otago Champs next week. 

WHS Athletic Development Programme
12 keen students are well underway with the Term 1 WHS Athletic Development Programme taking place in the school fitness studio on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. These students are a mix of year levels, genders and play a variety of different sports. They are developing their skills and knowledge in strength and conditioning to support their sport under the guidance of trainer Veronica Manning. 

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu NZ Grappler Southern Challenge
Well done to students Jamie Baker and Tyler Simpson who competed over the weekend at the New Zealand Grappler Southern Challenge Brazlian Jiu Jitsu Tournament in Christchurch. Tyler is a yellow belt who finished with a gold in the Gi and No-Gi category while Jamie is a grey belt and finished with a silver in both categories. 

Social Sixes Hockey is Underway
30 students are enjoying social sixes hockey at the turf on a Tuesday afternoon. This is a great opportunity to give hockey a go if you have never had the chance before. Fun games and skill sessions run by the sports department and senior high school hockey players. If you are interested in joining, please email sportscoordinator@wakatipu.school.nz 

Competitive Climbing
Congratulations to Oscar McCartney who placed 3rd in the Youth B Male category at the Climbing NZ Lead Climbing Championships in the weekend.  Alisa Schenk also made the finals in a very strong Youth B Female field. Oscar and Alisa were joined by Cybella Briscoe, Youth A Female and Caelan Briscoe, Youth B Male  from WHS who also climbed as part of the nine member Cliffhangers team. The climbers each climbed two Qualifying climbs with the top eight proceeding through to finals where they were challenged with one climb each.

WHS Sports Hoody Order
The first order of 2023 for the Wakatipu High School sports hoody is now open. This hoody is a generic design that runs across all sports. There has been a steep rise in prices over the past 12 months and the cost of a hoody this year is $95.00. Students do wear these to weekly competitions, tournaments and trips away and hoodies last for two-three seasons. Please complete the order and payment form below by Monday 13 March. Hoodies should arrive before the end of Term 1. Order form: https://www.sporty.co.nz/viewform/231729

Opportunities to Get Involved

Queenstown Junior Basketball - Friday Night Basketball Registrations
If you are wanting to play social basketball this year or wish to be involved in the participation pathway for basketball then please see the flyer below for QJBC Friday night basketball. Registrations open from next Wednesday, please check out more details here: https://qjbc.wordpress.com/ and scroll down, enter your email address and click follow to receive notifications.

Queenstown Junior Squash
The Queenstown Squash Club is starting a junior programme with the renowned Tracy Flux. This will take place  every Friday 4pm - 5:30pm at the Queenstown Squash Club on Memorial Ave. This is a free programme so go along and check it out. There are opportunities to compete in regional secondary school events later in the year.

 Southland Surf Champs Details
The annual Southland Surf Champs are taking place on Saturday 18 March at Colac Bay. If you are interested in entering you can find out more details here: https://www.sporty.co.nz/viewform/228929

Keep Us Informed
The sports department would love to hear from you if you know of any awesome achievements from our students so that we can celebrate these as a school. Please send through details and photos to lnathan@wakatipu.school.nz.

Support Sport at WHS
Jump on board and support the team by liking or following the Wakatipu High School Sports Facebook page. This is the best way to stay informed and up to date with the successes of our athletes and teams and help celebrate their great achievements. https://www.facebook.com/WakatipuHighSchoolSports/ 

Laura Nathan
Director of Sport

Art Department News

Wakatipu High School presents "Rock Apocalypse". Tickets on sale now.
Wakatipu High School students are set to return to the mainstage with their annual musical production, Rock Apocalypse which opens at the end of March.

This year’s show is a hilarious rock ‘n’ roll parody of classic horror and sci-fi B-Movies. Join us for this annual evening of talent as our students dive into the life and times of rockstar Ricky Valiant and his big band of misfit doctors and “deadhead” zombies. 

About the Musical: The story follows megalomaniac rockstar Ricky Valiant who sets up an evil laboratory turning unsuspecting victims into zombie-like creatures called deadheads. Married couple Dawn and Ash are lured to the institute for counselling but find themselves embroiled in Ricky’s evil plans to take over the world by broadcasting his concert and turning anyone watching into deadheads. Will Ash and Dawn help the FBI take down Ricky? Will the planet be saved? Watch the show to find out!

Director: Jake Hansen
Musical Director: Alison Price
Choreographer: Genevieve Foster
Student Directors: Rochelle Tickle and Jack Speedy
Student Choreographer: Ruby Rose
Lead Roles: Stefan Hall in the role of Ricky Valiant, Bethany Graf as Dawn Raimi and Jack Speedy as Ash Raimi. 
Dates: Wednesday 29 March to Saturday 01 April
Run Time: Approximately 2 hours plus a 30 minute intermission
Opening Night: Wednesday 29 March, doors open at 7:15pm, with show commencing at 7:30pm
Venue: Wakatipu High School Theatre, 47 Red Oaks Drive, Frankton

Tickets: Tickets are General Admission only and are on sale now via iTicket. Here is the link.

Door sales will be available unless sold out. Refreshments will be available before the show and during intermission. 
Contact:
Monica Parker, Arts Co-ordinator
mparker@wakatipu.school.nz

Artist of the week
This week's artist of the week is Emily Johnston, a very talented Year 13 student whose art this term has been exploring the concept of the Seven Deadly Sins and how they would look as people. Her artist inspirations are Cristina Vergano and Michele Mikesell. Incredible work Emily! 

Music Clubs/Groups reminder
We have several groups starting up and students need to keep an eye on the Performing Arts classroom to know where and when these are happening. The latest is some DJ workshops running at break times. Anyone interested needs to see Ms Price asap in the music area. There will also be a meeting next week for anyone interested in being part of a singing group.

Itinerant Music lessons
We have a new guitar teacher starting next week. Students need to check the timetable on the white board in the music area and ensure they arrive at the correct time.

Alison Price
TIC Music/Hola Arts

Photograhy Scholarship
This week we celebrate the success of Olivia Flight who gained two NCEA scholarships in the Arts. Olivia was awarded a scholarship in Photography and also Design.

Her work in Photography explores a young adult who has struggled with ADHD and comes through the other side to be a strong and confident individual. This folio provided many memorable moments in our class as we learned and admired the journey of this individual.

In Design, Olivia explored the idea of balance and mental health as a teenager. She designed a platform where students can speak to professionals about their own self-worth and explored the idea that their happiness should not come from the validation of their grades.

Olivia was an outstanding student who strived to always do her best. We are extremely proud of her efforts and the perseverance she displayed to complete these folios to such a high standard.

Abbey Brown
TIC Photography 

WHS Foundation

Community Notices

Andrew Gilhooly was one of 1600 Armed Constabulary and volunteers who invaded and occupied the pacifist settlement of Parihaka on November 5, 1881. Soon after, the landless Irish immigrant returned to Taranaki to run three family farms, all on land confiscated from Māori who were forced to leave their land, homes and possessions to seek refuge elsewhere.

Politics Professor Richard Shaw was 55 before he discovered his great-grandfather’s story, part of the “historic amnesia” which he says has allowed families like his to ignore the advantages given them by colonisation. His Catalyst Conversation will connect the erased ‘small stories’ of colonial settler families to the ‘big story’ of colonisation and discuss the necessity for Pākehā New Zealanders to “end the forgetting”.

Thursday, March 30, 6 -7.30pm at The Rees Hotel Queenstown’s conference room.
Registration required HERE as seats are limited. Please bring cash for your koha, which will be given to Te Tapu o Tane for Whakatipu community environmental projects.

LEARNER & INTERMEDIATE DRIVING LESSONS

Dan Gerard Driving Instruction has professional male and female driving instructors, and members of the New Zealand Institute of Driver Educators. We offer high quality friendly driver training covering a range of driving lessons.

• Learner lessons for beginners
• Assessment for Learner drivers who have been taught by family and need their skills polished before sitting their Restricted Test
• Refresher lessons to brush up before sitting the Full Test
• Street Talk defensive driving courses

http://www.drivinginstruction.co.nz/ , E: info@drivinginstruction.co.nz

Rach Gerard: 027 273 9610,  Dan Gerard: 027 349 2447