WHS Newsletter | Issue 4.05 | 10 November | 2023

Principal's Message

Kia ora and welcome to the end of Week 5.

Our seniors have begun their exams and apart from this morning's Level 1 English exam in which NZQA's digital platform was overrun, exams seem to have got off to a good start. It is really important that students are supported and encouraged to study for these external exams from which students can achieve between 4 and 12 credits per subject, depending on the number of standards they’re entered for. If students think about how much time they’d put into a 4 credit internal assessment, that will give them an indication of how much study they should be doing for each 4 credit external assessment. Be sure to have a look at the exam schedule below and note the date/time for upcoming exams. 

For our junior students, they did a good job with their exams last week, including the new NCEA corequisite exams in reading, writing and mathematics. Results from the school-based exams will start to appear on the Portal, and parents and students will also be notified of this through our weekly email, which is being sent out on Monday evenings with the subject heading: Weekly Summary for 'Student Name'. This weekly email is part of a trial of moving to a weekly learning engagement report focused on students living the Wakatipu Way. We will be seeking feedback in a few weeks time, but if you have any interim feedback, please be sure to send it through to reports@wakatipu.school.nz. 

On Tuesday, our annual Senior Arts Portfolio exhibition was held in Pouākai. While I had lamented not seeing this at our wonderful Cultural Blues evening, it was great to have the day to see the students' work from Photography, Painting and/or Design. I also enjoyed seeing students, classes, teachers and parents coming through the exhibition throughout the day. A huge congratulations to all of the talented students whose work was on display and to the Visual Arts teachers for their effort and support. 

Late last week, Cook Brothers held an evening to thank all of the Business Partners who support the WHS Foundation through the BPP. As noted in previous newsletters, the WHS Foundation and all of its supporters make a huge difference to the opportunities and success of WHS and its students. With the support of the WHS Foundation and Board funding we have the ability to employ 12 teachers and 8 teacher aides more than what is government funded. This allows us to maintain an average class size of under 22 students, provide additional literacy and numeracy support classes, and can offer wellbeing and peer mentoring programmes for our students. The WHS Foundation also supports the Āwhina fund, which ensures barrier-free access to curricular and extracurricular activities, and provides financial support for families and students needing uniforms, devices and/or access to participate in extracurricular activities. The WHS Foundation are running a raffle to support the Āwhina fund with prizes donated by Fiordland Discovery and Pak n Save, details can be found below. The Foundation are also hosting Ayrburn Wine & Dine, which is sure to be a fabulous night of wine, food and entertainment, generously donated by Ayrburn with all proceeds going to the WHS Foundation. See below for details. A huge thanks again to all those who support the WHS Foundation, you are making a huge difference to the educational opportunities and outcomes of our students and school. 

Please note a couple of key upcoming dates:

• Monday, 13 November, is the last of the national ‘Accord Days’ which support the roll-out of the NCEA changes for 2024. Though senior exams will continue to run, there is no school for junior students. Buses will still run on this day.
• Friday, 17 November, our Year 10’s have their annual Branches Work Day. The Branches Trust works very hard to support Branches Camp and to try and keep costs down for families and the work day is a really important fundraiser and also ensures that the students are contributing and supporting this extraordinary opportunity. Jane Bamford has been leading the organisation and communications with this day, but the expectation is that all Year 10 students are working or volunteering on Friday in support of the camp.
• We are also welcoming our new entrant students and their families to WHS on Friday, 17 November, so it will be an exciting day for these students and their families. 

Be sure to read through this week’s newsletter which has more information about the Ākonga Passport award for junior students and some great Arts and Sports news.

Hope the juniors enjoy the long weekend and best of luck to seniors with their exam revision and next week’s exams.

Ngā mihi nui,

Oded Nathan
Principal

Seniors - NCEA Exams

Senior end of year NCEA external exams are currently taking place through to Thursday November 30, the NZQA Exam Timetable can be found via the link below. Students should have received a copy of their exam admission slip. Unfortunately, NZQA printed them in non-chronological order, so make sure students carefully look at the dates and times of their external exams. 

For a number of our students, performance in these upcoming examinations will determine whether or not they achieve a significant qualification. To that end, we strongly encourage students to use the resources below to prepare a comprehensive revision programme that covers the relevant course content for each subject.

A Message from the Wakatipu High School Foundation

Āwhina Fundraising Raffle

The Āwhina Support Fund is designed to assist families financially with all aspects of school life, including uniform, fees, laptops, camps and all other school-based and extracurricular activities. This ensures no students are disadvantaged by financial hardship - making a very real difference to financially disadvantaged families. Currently, 1 in 10 students receive support from the Āwhina Fund and with the increase in the school roll and current economic climate the need is growing.

We'd be very grateful if you could purchase a ticket/s in our Āwhina Fundraising Raffle to help us support students at Wakatipu High School through the Āwhina Support Fund. Your ticket will also go into the draw to win one of two amazing prizes!

Ayrburn Wine & Dine

Join us for an unforgettable evening at The Woolshed, Ayrburn - Arrowtown's newest food and wine neighbourhood.

This event is a 'Sneak Peek for Locals' and an opportunity to experience the delights of Ayrburn before they open to the public on 9 December 2023.  Enjoy a 3 course meal featuring the region's best produce along with matching Ayrburn wines all while supporting Wakatipu High School in their pursuit to provide New Zealand's best all round education.

Time: 6.30pm - 11.00pm Friday 1 December
Location: The Woolshed, Ayrburn, Ayr Avenue, Arrowtown 9371
Attire: Dress to impress!

This event is kindly donated by Ayrburn with all proceeds going to the Wakatipu High School Foundation.

TICKETS

$275 per person: Includes canapes, three course meal, matching wines and entertainment.

Tickets are limited and can be purchased online or if you prefer to be invoiced please contact exec@whsf.nz.

Ākonga Passport

With the end of the year around the corner, this is the last opportunity for our junior students to gather Ākonga Passport points and be awarded the next level in the passport. Students who participate in school run activities will be automatically entered in groups to recognise their participation. If students are participating in activities outside of school, then please remember there is the External Activity form that can be completed.

With Branches around the corner, the cut off date for points for Year 10 students will be Wednesday 15 Nov. Year 9s have slightly longer and their cut off date will be Wednesday, 29 November.  We will be acknowledging students in Year level assemblies.

Students who receive an Ākonga Passport Gold will be further recognised in the end of year Prize Givings where parents will be invited to attend.

Gemma Boel
Assistant Principal

Otago Polytechnic Trades Academy Graduation Ceremony

The Careers Department at Wakatipu High School would like to congratulate the 34 students who graduated from their Otago Polytechnic Trades Academy last Friday. We acknowledge the willingness, passion and commitment it takes to travel to Cromwell every week and complete these courses - including Automotive, Beauty Therapy, Cookery and Hospitality.

A number of these students will now transition into apprenticeships in the workplace and we wish them all the best for the future! 

The Trades Academy courses aim to provide students with the chance to get a head start, continue their education, and learn new skills in various vocational pathways not offered within secondary schools. You can choose one area of interest and attend classes for 1-2 days per week while still attending school for the other 3-4 days. The chosen pathway will allow you to earn credits towards NCEA and across other national qualifications within vocational pathways. For 2024, new courses on offer include Construction, Apiculture, Horticulture, and Sports Turf. If you're interested in learning more about these courses and the application process, please speak with the Careers team.

QLDC Diversification Snapshots

On Monday afternoon this past week Tom Martin and Ole Wijntjes along with Mrs Jenny Staite and myself attended the annual QLDC Diversification Snapshots talk. We heard from an awesome line up of speakers supporting diversification, ranging from how local exporters are supported today, to a 20-year plan to create a vibrant tech industry in the district.  The key note speaker was Ifor Ffowcs-Williams who is an international expert in cluster development and spoke about the development of niche industries globally - like what we are currently seeing in the Queenstown Lakes District.

Gemma Boel
Acting Assistant Principal

Environmental Council

This week, the Environmental Council took on the task of planting gifted native trees as Paper4trees initiative. The program encourages schools to reduce landfill waste through tree planting by offering one native tree or plant for every two cubic meters of recycled paper and cardboard.

Branches Update

With just a little over two weeks left until the first group of campers head into Branches, preparations have been in full swing. Branches work day is scheduled for next Friday, which is an important fundraiser for the camp and a great way for our students to get involved in their community while also contributing towards the camp costs. Pre Branches Tramps are also coming up and will be held on Wednesday, November 22.

Homestay Families Required

Sport and Active Recreation

Sumin Kang's Success at NZ Women's Amateur Golf Tournament
A big congratulations to Year 13 Sumin Kang who last week won the qualifying stages of the New Zealand Women's Amateur Golf tournament in Hamilton, one of the most prestigious amateur tournaments in the country. Sumin was the leading player after the 2 strokeplay rounds finished and was top seed heading into the matchplay rounds. Sumin made it through to the quarterfinals before losing to the eventual winner. Well done Su on a mighty effort!

WHS Softball Earns a W!
There were some great games of softball this week in Alexandra in cool and windy conditions. WHS played the Dunstan Doves who we lost to in the first round. Our Wakatipu team got some great outs with catches, strike outs and run outs at first base throughout the 5 innings game. This limited the run the Doves could score. Our batting line up came out strong and batted in 14 runs to the Doves 11 runs so we got the win for the week! Ty Walker and Finn Almog pitched well for our team while Jack Pick and Jett Casey carried as catchers for the game. We are hosting our first home game next Tuesday, November 14th starting at 5.15pm. The game goes for an hour. Feel free to come, watch and support our Wakatipu Softball Team on our school field. Hope to see you there! Mrs Hollyer - TIC Softball

Central Otago Junior Volleyball

The Central Otago junior volleyball competition wrapped up last night, with WHS Gold taking out the Girls A grade final against WHS Navy 2-1. It has been awesome seeing CO junior volleyball grow from a 1-day tournament to a regular weekly competition, with nearly 50 WHS students involved in our 6 junior teams this year. Thank you to Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association Inc. for their mahi in providing Central Otago Schools based competitions for our students! Final results below.
Girls A Grade: Gold 1st, Navy 2nd, Silver 5th
Girls B Grade: White 3rd, Black 4th

Junior Apples Basketball Tournament
Congratulations to the Junior A Boys Basketball team that beat Eastern Southland in the final of the Junior Apples Basketball Tournament last weekend. The 9A boys finished 5th and the Junior Girls also won their division.

Head Injury Management and Mental Health First Aid Seminar
All coaches, managers, parents and teachers are warmly invited to a seminar on head injury management and mental health first aid. This will be held on Tuesday 14th November, 7.30am at Wakatipu High School. Come along to hear valuable insights from head injury researcher Kate Mossman, ex pro cricketer + coach Shawn Hicks, and mental health first aid instructor Barry Grehan. These issues affect rangatahi across all sports, but are not always well understood. Muffins, tea and coffee will be provided for the early morning start! Please email jknight@sportotago.co.nz to register.

WHS 1st XI Cricket Golf Tournament
Remember to get your team into the Ambrose Golf Tournament in Arrowtown on Monday 20th November. This great day out is a fundraiser for the WHS 1st XI Boys Cricket team's upcoming tour to Sri Lanka next April holidays so please get along and support if you can! Details below. 

Arrowtown Swim Club - Coaches Needed
The Arrowtown Swim Club are looking for more coaches to help with summer lessons. Coaching is super easy and very rewarding. This would involve Monday and/or Tuesday nights from 6-7pm. Sessions run in December, February, and start of March with 1 week in January also an option if available. Training will be given along with lesson plans, you do not need to have previous experience just a love of swimming and teaching kids! If you are interested in getting involved in this awesome community club, please contact arrowtownswimclub@gmail.com - we would love to hear from you.

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

Arts Department News

Senior Folio Art Exhibition

Thank you to all who came to the end of year Senior Folio Exhibition. It was a great chance to have classes of junior students, parents, teachers and the community come together and view the outstanding work of students. Each panel show a year’s worth of work and follows a theme that the artist has chosen. Hopefully, everyone was inspired to create their own masterpieces. 

WHS Musical 2024

Its been a very exciting two weeks with the Musical auditions in full swing, with the singing auditions concluding today at Break 2.  Callbacks will continue next week, along with movement auditions.  Keep practising. 

A reminder for everyone to "Save the Dates"   3rd - 6th April 2024!

Central Soundwaves

Last Sunday night we had the Central Soundwaves event at Yonder. This is an annual event organised by Rockformation and the Whakatipu Youth Trust and included students from WHS and Cromwell College. Altogether, there were 13 acts so it was an action packed night of solo/duo acts and bands. A huge thanks to the organisers and Yonder for once again supporting the Music students and enabling these opportunities. There were also some great prizes on offer which are listed next to the recipients.

Students involved from WHS included:

- Brian Yang                                                                                                 

- Peyton Dickson

- Mala Januszkiewicz - Yonder gig 

- Billie Carey - Rakau in Arthur’s Point gig

- Estrogen (Ruby Ross, Emily johnston, Mya Wilcox, Harper Souness) - Queenstown New  Years Eve gig

- Goose Pies (Lincoln Reddell, Ted Coutts, Harper Souness) - Wanaka New Years Eve gig

- Attack of the Cyber Hippies (Stefan Hall, Sam Riddle, Henry Brown, Lincoln Reddell)

- Gmooms (Sam Riddle, Luke Domett)

- Raging Rodents (Bea Soares, Shay Spary, Shakana Smedley, Bella Dempsey, Henry Badenhop, Riley Robinson)

- Best Served Chilled Combo (Billie Carey, Joel Winter, Sam Glover, Bethany Argyle, Louis Buchanan, Ted Coutts)  - Rakau in Arthur’s Point gig.

You can watch some of the acts from these links to YouTube.

Jazz Combo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKA4pqFeSyQ

Mala Januszkiewicz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyUs9xhXZmY

Goose Pies - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcE3qvU62SQ

Billie Carey - https://youtu.be/8eKQV4pboZI 

Let Us Know

The Arts department would like to know about any artistic achievements that students have attained outside of school be it in Drama, Dance, Music or Visual Arts. Please send through details and photos to mparker@wakatipu.school.nz

Support the Arts

We are always looking for local professional performing and visual artists to visit our school and run workshops for our students. If you or someone you know is interested, please contact Monica Parker the Arts Coordinator at  mparker@wakatipu.school.nz 

Instagram Page

Follow our school’s Instagram page for recent successes or news within the school’s Arts Department at whsartdepartment.

Position Vacant: Stars Youth Programme Coordinator

Wakatipu High School, in conjunction with Graeme Dingle Foundation Southern, are looking for high energy, positive candidates with a passion for helping rangatahi to realise their full potential to run the Stars programme.

• Part time - 20 hours/week (8:30 - 12:30, 5 days per week, with lots of flexibility)
• Start Date - 24 January 2024, Finish Date - 12 December 2024
  

For more details on the position and information regarding the application process, please see the advertisement below.

Applications close at midday on Monday 13 November. 

WHS Foundation

Community Notices

How you get around the Queenstown Lakes?

QLDC want to know how you choose to travel around the district, why you travel that way, and what might make it easier for you to try a different form of transport. Share your insights using the form here.

Feedback closes on Wednesday 22 November 2023.

Your feedback will help QLDC identify low-cost actions that will help the community, businesses, and residents to consider transport choices, optimise the efficiency of our transport network and achieve more sustainable outcomes in the Queenstown Lakes.

Support our fundraising and enjoy 100s of everyday savings!
Entertainment is the easy-to-use App packed with incredible savings of up to 50% off and 2-for-1 offers, so you can save on takeaway, dining, shopping, groceries, gift cards, activities and more!

And what’s even better, 20% of every membership purchased goes to support Wakatipu High School!

https://subscribe.entertainmentnz.com/fundraiser/260506v

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